Muhlenberg County Kentucky
Churches
Hazel Creek Baptist Church
Old church moves to provide room for new structure
Caption: Thomas Sparkman of Hopkinsville jacks up Hazel Creek Baptist church before it is moved.
Belton - History permeates Hazel Creek Baptist Church.
In front of the southern Muhlenberg County church stands a stone stile, once used to help ladies mount side-saddled horses or climb into buggies.
The communion table inside, built specifically for Hazel Creek, is 184 years old.
The church minutes sitting on the pastor's desk date back to 1854.
Yet one piece of Hazel Creek's past may soon be missing.
The oldest organized church in this area, and the one credited with being the oldest west of Elizabethtown, has decided to replace its 83-year-old sanctuary.
Workmen were scheduled to lift the small church building on hydraulic jacks this weekend and slide it, all in one piece, over steel rollers to a spot 50 or 60 feet away. That is where the congregation will continue to hold services until a new sanctuary is built on the current site, the church's pastor said Friday.
The decision to construct a new building was a difficult one, the Rev. Carl Nelson said.
The congregation voted down the idea a year ago, partly because of financial reasons and partly because the option of restoring and expanding the old building had not been fully explored, he said.
There was a lot of sentiment for keeping the current building, said member Myrtle Heltsley of Beech Creek. At least seven generations of her family, including a great-grandchild, have worshipped there, she said.
Hazal Creek, which was originally known as the United Baptist Church of Christ, was organized iin 1797, three months before Beaver Dam Baptist Church was formed and a year before Muhlenberg became a county.
The church is credited in “A History of Muhlenberg County Baptist Association,” by W. L. Winebarger, with being the second-oldest church west of Louisville. The oldest is in Elizabethtown.
Discipline was strict in the early church, Nelson said. The church's minutes, written with a quill pen, include accounts of members being drummed out for drinking, gambling and even failing to attend services.
There is even one report of a man being excluded from the church for wearing ruffles on his sleeves, Nelson said.
Since those early years, Hazel Creek has helped start 22 different churches in Muhlenberg, Logan and Butler counties, he said.
“We've been left behind by a few of the larger churches,” but Hazel Creek is outgrowing its old auditorium, Nelson said.
Average Sunday morning attendance is 135 now. Although the auditorium will seat 150 comfortably, there is a rule of thumb that when attendance hits 80 percent of a church's seating capacity, growth comes to a standstill, Nelson said.
Expanding and remodeling the existing building would cost approximately $140,000, while building a new, 260-seat auditorium is expected to cost &dollar129,000, Nelson said.
What will happen to the old church after the new building is completed has not been decided yet, he said. “It will depend on the economic situation of the church at that time.”
In the meantime, members have started researching Hazel Creek's past in anticipation of the church's bicentennial and the writing of a new church history.
Mrs. Heltsley, who is 76, said that at first she was among those who opposed building a new auditorium. “Everybody liked their little white church,” and it was the only church building she could remember, she said.
She later decided her attitude was a selfish one, Mrs. Heltsley said. “I felt at our age we should not stand in the way of progress.”
Most of the church members seem happy with the decision, although a few have left the church because of the building program, she said. “They say we'll lost a few and gain a few.”
When the new building opens, Nelson said, “there will be tears shed, no doubt about it.”
But Mrs. Heltsley said she was been thinking about what the new church will mean to future generations, not just what the old one meant to past generations. “I was hoping this would be something that would be better for them.”
Source: Owen, Karen. “Old church moves to provide room for new structure.” Messenger-Inquirer [Owensboro, KY], 1 June 1986, p. 1C.
Updated July 24, 2022