lance.gaither@bluegrassnewsmedia.com

Parksville Baptist Church will celebrate 100 years since the church held its first service with a special service on Sept. 15.

“Our ministry continues to grow,” said pastor Phillip Coffman. “We continue to see what we can do to better serve the community.”

There will be a special service starting with the church bell that will ring 30 minutes before and again just before the service begins at 9 a.m. The special service will include speeches on the church’s history, a presentation on every pastor the church has had over the years, and a meal being served afterward.

Church clerk Phyllis Taylor wanted to make Parksville Baptist’s 100th anniversary special. To learn the church’s history, she gathered minutes of services from the entire church history. With countless pages to sort through, she enlisted several volunteers to do so.

They found the origins of Parksville Baptist. In 1924, a church called Clem’s Chapel had a congregation growing too big for its building. The church decided to move to a bigger building with a better location in the center of town.

“The church was too old to make improvements; it was cheaper to move to a new building,” Taylor said. “The railroad being built through town made the town grow. God saw there was a need for the spiritual health of this community.”

Coffman doesn’t think it was a coincidence that the church has remained open despite the changes Parksville has gone through over the years.

“The way God designed everything, the railroad moved out, the business shut down, but the location we are right now is a high-traffic area,” Coffman said. “Anybody who goes by, they see the church here. I think it is here 100 years later for that reason. No matter which way you are going through town, you see the church. That is a God-made situation.”

The church is located at 6610 Alum Springs Road.