Briar Hill Baptist Church was organized on October 7, 1888 by nineteen men and twenty-eight women as a Missionary Baptist Church and as a member of the Strong River Baptist Association.  Services were held once per month on the morning of the first Sunday.  Surnames of founding members were Alford, Alliston, Barnes, Bolton, Boteler, Butler, Cooper, Cox, Dickson, Hasty, Hill, Mangum, Reed, Ross, Smith, Stubblefield, Sutton, Taylor, Webb, and Williams, and many of their descendants are still members of Briar Hill.  Rev. Wayne Sutton was the first pastor, continuing in that position until November of 1917; Briar Hill has had seventeen pastors in its 117-year history. A building was constructed shortly after the church was organized.  This building, though it underwent additions several times, continued to serve the church well until it was razed in 1996 to accomodate a much larger building.  Tearing down the old building was not an easy decision to make, but lack of sufficient land to keep it and also make room

for growth simply left no other alternative.  The memory of this building is

preserved in one of the etched windows above the entry doors to the new building.

Interesting items from the history of the church include:

1902 – Average attendance was 25.

1905 – Briar Hill withdrew from the Strong River Association and joined the Rankin Baptist Association.

1942 – Services were expanded from once per month to twice per month (1st and 3rd Sundays).

1945 – American military personnel baptized in the South Pacific theater of war by Navy Chaplain James Taylor, who had been ordained as a minister by Briar Hill in 1937,were listed as members of Briar Hill.

1945 – Gas heat (butane) was obtained, and the old wood stoves and remaining fire wood were sold.

1953 – Wings, to be used both for Sunday school and additional worship space, were dded in 1953.  Until this addition, the same, original, one room church had remained basically unchanged.  An indoor baptistry, planned for installation at the same time, was postponed due to cost.

1954 – Weekly morning worship services begun and an entrance foyer was added   to the building.

1955 – 5 acres of land on which to build a parsonage were donated to the church by Mrs. Willie Boteler.

1958 – Parsonage was built.  This is the house in which all pastors since 1958 had lived until the calling of Rev. Danny Powell in 2003; Tye Whitfield, youth minister, currently lives in this house.

1959 – Indoor baptistry was installed.  Until this addition, baptisms had occurred either in an outdoor baptistry installed at a spring across Gunter Road in 1944 or in some church member’s pond or lake.

1960 – Additional Sunday school rooms, a recreation room, kitchenette, and the first indoor restrooms were added to the church.

1962 – Central heating and air-conditioning was installed.

1966 – Air conditioning was added to parsonage, and both the church and parsonage were added to the community water system.

1968 – First telephone installed at the church.

1970 – More classrooms added and church was incorporated.

1971 – First church directory published.

1980 – One story, brick, multi-use building, including a kitchen, was completed at a total cost of approximately $185,000. Loan of $125,000 was retired in less than fiveyears.  This building is still a part of the current structure.

1981 – Church voted to begin locking the building when it was not in use.  General fund offerings for 1981 increased 34% over the prior year, surpassing $100,000 for thefirst time.

1983 – The six foot grand piano still in use was donated to the church.

1984 – Parsonage remodeled and added on to at a cost of approximately $35,000.

1986 – First copier was purchased, and the parking lot was paved for the first time (cost - $24,000).

1988 – Two story brick building was completed at a total cost of approximately  $328,000.  Fifteen-year church bonds of $240,000 issued to finance this building were paid off in eight years. This building is also still a part of the current  structure.

1988 – Centennial of the church was celebrated on October 9.

1996 – Plans made to raze the wood frame building and construct new sanctuary, office, and education space in its place.

1998 – New building was occupied.  Total cost of the project, including parking improvements and furnishings, was approximately $1,500,000.  This was financed by a loan of $730,000 and church funds of $770,000.

2003 – Final payment made on mortgage, 15 years ahead of schedule.

2004 – Church votes to underwrite the cost of constructing a mission church in the Dominican Republic with a donation of $12,000 for materials; many church  members travel to the Dominican Republic to help with the construction.

2005 – With a ministerial staff of three while searching for a fourth and located in a rapidly growing area, Briar Hill is poised to be used in an even greater way in  spreading the Gospel, both locally and internationally.