History of Renfrew Church

HISTORY OF RENFREW

In late 1928, several residents of the Renfrew Mill Community in Travelers Rest, felt the leading of God to start a Baptist church. A meeting was called on March 14, 1929 to organize a church. During this meeting, eleven people were received as charter members. On March 28, 1929, a second meeting was held to complete the organization. At this meeting, three letters were received bringing the church membership to fourteen. The church was named Renfrew Baptist Church and the first church covenant was adopted.

A pastor was called but with only one church building in the community, the new congregation shared its meeting space with a Methodist church. The two churches worshipped together with the two pastors sharing the pulpit. One pastor would open with scripture reading and prayer while the other pastor preached the sermon. They rotated duties each week.

On February 28, 1942, after receiving a parcel of land donated to them on Renfrew Avenue and constructing a new building, Renfrew Baptist dedicated their sanctuary to the glory of God. Realizing the need for Sunday school classrooms, a new educational building was constructed adjacent to the sanctuary and was completed in October 1963. This building housed the pastor’s study, church offices, fellowship room with kitchen, and adult / children’s Sunday school classrooms.

In 1982, Renfrew Baptist Church had a vision for an all day ministry outreach to children. This vision led to the creation of the Renfrew Baptist Child Development Center (a.k.a. CDC) which is still in operation today.

In the same year, as the membership continued to grow, the church purchased ten acres of land off Geer Highway(U.S. 276). In late 1982, a 25-foot lighted sign was placed at the front of the property. After two years of prayer and planning, Renfrew had a groundbreaking ceremony on June 24, 1984. It was noted by many in the community as one of the most unusual groundbreaking ceremonies ever. Because of extremely heavy rain at the time, the building committee responsible for the event brought soil from the new building site inside the old sanctuary. After the ceremony, Renfrew members were given a small amount of the soil to keep. The new sanctuary, with its 3-story educational building, was dedicated as part of the homecoming ceremonies on June 8, 1986.

In 2002, the church held a groundbreaking ceremony for a gymnasium. Construction was completed approximately a year and a half later. The new facility supplied a gym for sports and large meetings, a large fellowship hall, kitchen, bathrooms, and classrooms.

Renfrew Baptist Church continues to aspire to be a first century church in the 21st century to glorify God in all areas of church life and the community.