Our History

New Union Baptist Church has a rich and wonderful history in which God has faithfully led and blessed this fellowship of believers. Our pastor has produced the following summary of the history of our church.

New Union was established as a church in 1890 when twenty-seven members of Salem Baptist Church asked for their letters of dismissal in order to start a new congregation. In the early months of 1890 the Salem Church appointed a committee to search out a place to build a new church building. This committee did its work and came back to the church with the recommendation that the new church building be located at the Prater's well which was about two miles away from where they were meeting at the Salem well.

When Salem met for their monthly meeting in April of 1890 the committee presented its recommendation. The committee was actually divided on the site for the new building. The majority wanted the new building to be built at the Prater's well while the minority wanted the building to be built at the location of the old building near the Salem well. When the vote was taken the church agreed with the minority and voted to remain at the Salem well.

Believing that a new church should be at the Prater's well, the twenty-seven members secured their letters from Salem and proceeded to establish a new congregation at Prater's well. In my research of this matter (I wrote a history of New Union which was printed and bound in 1994), I came to the conclusion that this departure from Salem was not over a conflict but over the belief that a new church should be at the Prater's well. The two churches continued to cooperate with each other and do to this present day.

The new congregation chose the name New Union Baptist Church. They met in homes until a new building could be built. By September, 1891, a new building was built and a pastor by the name of William Howard was secured. The total membership for the year was thirty-two. The pastor's salary was fifty dollars a year, and the church met once a month on the fourth Saturday and Sunday of the month. The Saturday meetings included business meetings as well as preaching services.

Those early years were difficult in many ways. At times services had to be canceled due to sickness and sometimes the weather caused problems. The roads were not paved and heavy rains would make travel difficult even when many walked to church or used horses and wagons to travel. But the new congregation was faithful and the church grew. Bro Howard was pastor on five different occasions and during his time over one hundred people joined the church. In those early days the church voted on the pastor every year.

New Union used the first building for about forty-seven years. When the first building was built the cost of the entire project was five hundred dollars. We have pictures of that building and the detail in the building was beautiful. It was a one-room building. I had the opportunity to interview several who worshiped in the first building. They told me wonderful stories of the great services they experienced in those early days. But the weather and time caused the church to replace the structure in 1937/38.

The second building was also a one-room structure. The total cost of that building was just over eighteen hundred dollars. But those were the Depression days and the detail of the second building did not compare with the first structure. The second building was used well and by this time the church had gone to a full-time schedule.

I have also been told of the great way God blessed in those days. When I came as pastor in 1978 I preached in that second building. That was actually my first full-time church. I was pastor of the South Fork Baptist Church in Owenton, Kentucky, during my seminary days at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but while we lived on the field, the church was part-time with only about forty members. From South Fork I went to serve as activities director at Inskip Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. When New Union called me as pastor I was ready to do the work and I found the people of New Union more than ready. And this relationship has lasted into our thirtieth year as church/pastor.

We began to grow and within the next seven years we were in the process of building our third sanctuary, which we dedicated in March of 1985. We remodeled the second sanctuary into Sunday school rooms. God has continued to bless New Union. We now have a family life center and plans are in the process to build yet another sanctuary. We now have seven staff members and are in the process of calling another staff member in the days ahead. As you will see when you look at our web site New Union has many opportunities to help in our spiritual growth. I invite you to look at our programs and to come and visit with us.

May God bless you!
Danny Ruehling, Pastor