A Journey of Faith: the Memorial Baptist Church, Greenville, North Carolina, 1827-2002.

A Journey of Faith: The Memorial Baptist Church, Greenville, North Carolina, 1827-2002. By Hugh Wease. Brentwood, TN: Baptist History and Heritage Society, 2002. 183 pp.

Hugh Wease has done North Carolina Baptists a great service by writing the history of The Memorial Baptist Church of Greenville. Histories of local churches have taken a back seat recently as historians have focused their attention on the broader, doctrinal and political conflict among Baptists. Thankfully, the Baptist History and Heritage Society provides a venue for the publishing of local church histories, such as A Journey of Faith.

Wease first provides a short synopsis of Baptist life in colonial North Carolina. The Greenville church, however, was not founded during the colonial period but was birthed during the early stages of the anti-missionary conflict in North Carolina. The Red Banks church, from which the Greenville church emerged, was one of the many Primitive Baptist congregations in North Carolina, and the Greenville church began when promissions members left and formed a new church. This new church later would serve as the location for the founding of the fledgling Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in 1830.

Wease narrates the history of the church through its building programs and its succession of pastors and difficulties. The church struggled through the difficult times of the Civil War and Reconstruction, as did many North Carolina churches; but in 1881, the church launched a program to construct a building as a memorial to the founding of the Baptist State Convention. This effort led to renaming the church The Memorial Baptist Church.

In 1915, the church suffered a wrenching split that led to the formation of a second Baptist congregation. Faced with a growing population, The Memorial Church updated its physical facilities to meet the needs of the Greenville community. Eventually, this church also faced the difficult task of a move from a downtown location to a suburban one.

Wease successfully charts the difficult waters of a local church history. He handles, with skill, the various transitions faced by The Memorial Baptist Church. He also keeps the broader picture in mind as he relates the history of this local congregation to the larger history of North Carolina Baptists.

A couple of topics, however, were not thoroughly explained. Details of the 1915 division in the church were not included, leaving the reader to ask: What were the issues at hand? What kind of church was Immanuel Baptist Church, the new congregation that was formed? The second topic that needs further clarification concerns the later desire of members of Memorial to reunify the two congregations some thirty years later. Why did the leadership of The Memorial Church desire to merge the two congregations? Did either side consider that the two churches could better serve the community apart rather than together?

Hugh Wease presents an interesting and thought-provoking treatment of an important local church. Other local church historians would do well to emulate his model.--Reviewed by Michael A. Dain, adjunct professor of history, Dallas Baptist University, Dallas, Texas.