Mack’s Grove Baptist Church
4580 Palmersville Highway 89
Dresden, TN 38225
(731) 822-7721 Email: macksgrovebaptistchurch@gmail.com
Website: https://www.mgbc-dresden.com/
Pastor: Kevin Crossno
Schedule of Services:
Sunday: Sunday School 10:00 am
Morning Worship 11:00 am
Evening Worship 5:00 pm
Wednesday: Bible Study and Prayer Meeting 7:00 pm
Other activities or meetings:
Sunday fellowship breakfast at 9:30 am
Wednesday meal at 6:00 pm
Business meeting 1st Wednesday each month
WMU – 2nd Wednesday each month
Youth Hunt breakfast & activities 4:30-noon last Saturday in October
Homecoming last Sunday in September annually
Cemetery: Mack’s Grove Cemetery Contact: Wade Mansfield @ (731) 571-7782
HISTORY
110 Years Ago, We Started with Four Families…
In order to help a “destitute area of 1894,” Elder C.C. McDearman, a slow speaking man who was instrumental in organizing more churches in the “1887 established Weakley County Baptist Association” than any other man, asked Jimmy C. Stewart if they could hold a “Brush Arbor Meeting” on his land located on a hill surrounded by trees on the right of what is today “Matheny Grove Road.” This “meeting” was held and, from it, the church was formed by the Charter Members: Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy C. Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Smith, and Willie Cantrell. The name of the church, Mack’s Grove Baptist Church, was taken from Bro. Mac, C.C. McDearman, and the trees of the area.
Services were held in the members’ homes until 1896 when a one-room wood building was built on the same location of the “Brush Arbor Meeting of 1894.” Elder McDearman was pastor and it is reported by those who remember that he led the song, “Learning on the Everlasting Arms” at the beginning of each service.
Church services were held one weekend of each month, as were most churches in that time period; therefore, we had many visitors from other denominations. If there were “all day services,” food was spread on “blankets” on the ground for a lunch break; later wagons were used. Someone’s hat was passed for a collection at each service to pay the pastor and special collections were taken for the Orphans’ Home in Nashville, an association project. Other collections were taken for the associations’ minutes, stove polish fund, paper fund, home missions, foreign missions, etc.
During each of these weekends, a time was set to “sit in conference” to conduct the business of the church. A roll call was part of the business meetings for years. When members did not attend, a “non-attendance committee” was formed. Members were dismissed for non-attendance, disorderly conduct, heresy, forging checks, public intoxication, pregnancy out of wedlock, etc. “Restoration,” the re-establishment of membership, was also conducted. Many times the church voted to help the sick and needy of the community with helping to get their crops in or with a special collection.
In 1908, the white-painted church building was moved by wagon from the first site to the “bottom;” this land was also owned by Jimmy Stewart. He needed the first site to “tend” and it was suggested by those who remember that the second site’s land was not good for “tending” because it was a “sand bar.” It was located on the left of today’s “Mack’s Grove Road” situated with the right side of the church, as one faces it, very near the road and the front two doors located facing between two ditches. The church was prized up on blocks about three feet off the ground. When it rained, one would have to step off the top step into the wagons. Oak trees were in the front of the church. The men sat on the north side of the church; the women sat on the south side, with the two not mixing often. (This practice lasted until the 1970s.) There was a “mourner’s bench” at the front of the church and a stove in the middle in front of the pulpit.
Because of the dampness of the area, many problems came up for the church. The piano would swell and not play for a month at a time. One would have to place one’s foot over the cracks in the floor to keep the draft from coming up. The church was flooded several times. The area was too wet for a cemetery. In August of 1952, two acres were bought from Gaither Olds for $250 for the present building’s location, and services were held twice a month.
In 1954, the present redbrick building was started on Highway 89 between Dresden and Palmersville. It was finished in one month, and on the 2nd Sunday of September, services were held for the first time in the basic one-room building with two Sunday School rooms that would be finished in May of 1956. Many of the men of the church helped to tear down the old church and build the present one. Wood from the old building was used in the new building. Also, some cut trees on their own land to help provide the lumber.
The cemetery was surveyed in September of 1954, and gravel for a parking lot was bought. The new church building was dedicated on the 4th Sunday of July. The clerk, Harold E. Pentecost, wrote “May it ever stand as a guiding light for this entire community and generations to come.”
In the summer of 1961, we added on to the back of the sanctuary seven Sunday School rooms. And in 1966, we added 6 more Sunday School rooms on the east side of the sanctuary and 2 offices. Indoor plumbing was added in 1970. Additional land was bought or given to the church in 1955, 1960, 1972, 1992, and 2004.
Full-time services began in 1966 and a full-time pastor position began in 1973 when a parsonage was added. A Music/Youth Director position was added in 1982 and a part-time secretary in 1984. An additional building and steeple were added in 1985.
Through the years, many remodeling projects have changed the face of the buildings as the membership grew. Faces have come and gone, but the basic church is the people, whether 4 families or 400, who love Christ and His teachings.