By Sherrie Norris
History, heritage and bluegrass gospel music is expected to draw hundreds to the Watauga High School auditorium at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 25, as Three Forks Baptist Association hosts its semi-annual (Spring) meeting.
The free public event, billed as “Light On The Mountain —Celebrating God’s Blessings Since 1790,” will bring to the area as special guest speaker Phil Neighbors, founder and longtime pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Ca., who has strong ties to the area.
Neighbors will be joined by Chosen Road, a nationally renowned Appalachian worship and bluegrass group.
According to Wesley Smith, Director of Missions at Three Forks Baptist Association, “We are excited about this event. It is definitely something different for us, as far as our regular semi-annual meetings, and a special treat to have both Chosen Road and Pastor Neighbors with us.”
Calling the timing “perfect” for such an event, Smith said, “We have been transitioning our mission strategy this year, and are going to be emphasizing both church planting and church revitalization. My prayer is that this evening will be a great time of celebration of what God has done, but also a great encouragement to our churches of what God desires to do in churches, both large and small, here in the High Country.”
During the event, Neighbors will highlight the story of early settlers, including his ancestors, who migrated into the mountains of what is now Watauga County to establish Three Forks Baptist Church in 1790, and eventually the Three Forks Baptist Association in 1841.
From Watauga County, these pioneers would continue west, planting thousands of churches across the nation as they carried their faith and their high country heritage with them.
Neighborsis not only a Baptist historian, and the founding pastor of the Bakersfield church, having served for 36 years until his recent retirement, he is also a descendent of Ebenezer Fairchild, one of the first, if not the first, permanent settler(s) in the current Watauga County region who helped establish the area’s first Baptist church.
In a recent telephone interview with High Country Press, Neighbors expressed his pleasure about coming back to Boone. It will be a two-fold opportunity, he said. He will not only share his testimony publicly on Monday, and details about his rich Baptist heritage, but will also honor the life of Fairchild, his “fifth great-grandfather” by holding a private memorial service and placing a headstone at his grave in a remote family cemetery in the Howard’s Creek area near Boone.
Neighbors will “connect the dots,” he said, with what God did in Boone in the late 1700s to what God is doing (through his ministry) in Bakersfield today.
“The Three Forks Baptist Church was the first church established in Watauga County in 1790. My ancestors were charter members and early pastors from this church,” said Neighbors. “These families, who had come south from New Jersey, eventually landed in the Yadkin Valley area of North Carolina, right next door to Daniel Boone’s family, before migrating into the mountains — from churches that had been established by two of the earliest pioneer preachers, John Gano (an amazing preacher) and Shubal Stearns (the man who baptized the south.) These two early Baptist leaders and church planters set in motion the expansion of Baptist work in North Carolina that has spread to the entire world.”
Neighbors, who has done diligent research related to his family heritage, referred to author John Preston Arthur and his book, “A History of Watauga County, North Carolina:” “Three Forks Baptist was the first church established west of the Blue Ridge…This soon became the mother church, from which sent out ‘arms’ to the globe.”
Arthur references the life and death of Fairchild in that same chapter, including the 100 acres of land he owned on Howards Creek at the time of his death on February 5, 1806, at the age of 75.
Neighbors recalled how his family eventually migrated west from this area and started churches in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.
“In 1985, I relocated to Bakersfield, California and became a founding pastor of the Valley Baptist Church. The light of the Gospel from the mountains of Watauga County has traveled all the way across the country and to the entire world.”
He described Bakersfield as having distinct similarities to these mountains — including the Baptist influence, country music and good food.
Following the event at WHS, guests are invited to enjoy refreshments and a historical display at Three Forks Baptist Church.
“The church will display ancient church records that date back to 1790 — and in Ebenezer Fairchild’s handwriting,” said Neighbors. “The documents have been properly stored and preserved through the years.
Everywhere Ebenezer went, he was the church clerk; he was literate, probably well educated, and had a nice handwriting. It’s quite a thrill for me to see these items and to know that my fifth great-grandfather wrote those words.”
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Music With Chosen Road
Nationally renowned recording group, Chosen Road, takes the sounds of the Appalachian Mountains with them to churches, festivals and other venues across the nation.
The group’s album “Appalachian Worship” was a mainstay on Billboard Magazine’s Top Bluegrass Albums Chart for 36 weeks. They have had multiple Top 10 singles on bluegrass radio, numerous national television appearances, including a recent appearance at the National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn.
Chosen Road is also known throughout the Southern Baptist Convention for their work with The North American Mission Board’s Church Replanting Team.
Admission is free, and the community is encouraged to attend this celebration of history and heritage.
Watauga High School Auditorium located at 300 Go Pioneers Dr., Boone
For more information, contact the Three Forks Baptist Association, @3forksassoc.org, or call 828-264-4482.
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