Pleasant Grove Church celebrates 150th year of service

Community News

Pleasant Grove Church celebrates 150th year of service

By Brett Dunlap October 19, 2024 6 min read

The Pleasant Grove Church in Waverly recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. The church is located at 2415 Bull Run Road. Over the years, additions have been made to the church including classrooms, a fellowship area, kitchen, and restrooms. All additions and restorations have been made with the help, effort, and support of church members and people from around the community. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The sanctuary at the Pleasant Grove Church in Waverly. The church recently commemorated its 150th anniversary with a community gathering. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The Pleasant Grove Church in Waverly has a regular congregation of around 25-30 people. The church recently commemorated its 150th anniversary where past members came back to tell stories about the old church. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

A picture hanging up in the sanctuary of the Pleasant Grove Church in Waverly showing a homecoming event in 1950. The church recently celebrated its 150th anniversary with at least one person in the photo attending and recounting stories of that time. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The pulpit at the Pleasant Grove Church in Waverly. The church recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

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WAVERLY -- The Pleasant Grove Church in Waverly recently celebrated its 150th anniversary as it continues to serve its community and its people in Christian faith.

The original Pleasant Grove Church was a United Brethren Church and was built near the Sinclair Cemetery. At a later date, the church was moved to its present location at 2415 Bull Run Road on land donated by the James Stephens family in 1874.

The church held a celebration on Sept. 28 with a cookout for the community and where people recounted the history of the church and their memories there, said Pastor Randy Dornon.

"We had a lot of people here, around 84 people that day," he said. "A lot of people came here for church when they were kids, many of whom are now in their 70s and 80s."

The church has always been part of the local community for many of the people it ministers to.

"The church has been centrally located for the community," Dornon said. "There aren't too many rural churches like this left anymore.

"Many have closed or have become community centers. This church remains because of the community. We all have roots here."

The church has people who are eighth-generation church members who can trace their families back to the original trustees who established the church.

Dornon said the church has a congregation of around 25-30 people which he expects to pick up as the summer season draws to a close. The COVID pandemic took a hit on a lot of churches where people left and never returned.

Dornon attended the church when he was a kid, left for a number of years - ministering in other places and came back last year when the church needed a pastor.

The main sanctuary of the church today is the original part of the church. Over the years, extra additions have been made, including classrooms, a fellowship area, kitchen, and restrooms. All additions and restorations have been made with the help, effort, and support of church members and people from around the community.

For the past couple of months people in the church have been thinking about the last 150 years. There were times the church had outhouses and things were heated with firewood.

"When I was a kid growing up, this was a dirt road," Dornon said of Bull Run Road. "I can imagine people coming to church by horse and buggy or walking to church."

There is a picture in the sanctuary of a homecoming celebration at the church in 1950. A young boy in the picture was at the recent 150th anniversary celebration now as an old man, telling stories about his time at the church.

The church still has some youth whose job it is to ring the bell in the steeple. Dornon said when he was a kid, the youth would gather in a nearby cellar for their youth group activities.

The church does outreach to the local community. There is a men's breakfast on the third Saturday of every month which usually brings in 20-30 people, many of whom are not regular attendees at the church. The church supports missionaries, the Gideon Bible Program, Senior Graduation Bibles, Vacation Bible School, Christmas Fruit Baskets, Children's Food Bags, Coats for Kids, Food Pantry Programs over the years, supporting Waverly School and "wherever the Lord leads us," Dornon said.

Even being such a small church, the outreach provided is a great benefit to many in the area.

"The scales don't even out," Dornon said. "It is unbelievable.

"We try to minister to the community. That is what it is all about."

There have been times over the years when someone local passes, people from the church have gotten together to dig the grave in one of the nearby cemeteries, which includes Pleasant Grove, Corbin, and Sinclair cemeteries which the church also helps with their upkeep.

It is important for the church to be a part of the community, Dornon said.

"It is important to reach out," he said. "I think that is what Jesus commands in the Bible. He told the apostles in the Book of Acts to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and other parts of the world.

"I look at this here as our Jerusalem, Wood County is our Judea and West Virginia is our Samaria."

The church has such a love of people in the community where they want to help their neighbors.

"That can only come from Christ," Dornon said. "I believe that with all my heart.

"As a pastor and a Christian, I want to see people be saved and not perish and go to hell. By showing them the love of Jesus Christ, maybe we can reach them and share that with them. For a small church we try to do as much as we can."

The United Brethren Churches merged with the Methodist Churches in the 1960s. In 2023, the church left the United Methodist Conference and became an independent Bible based church, Dornon said.

The church wanted to stay Bible based, rather than get involved in the "political doctrine" issues in the larger church.

"I'm thankful for that," Dornon said. "If it is not in the Book (Bible) we are not going to talk about it."

His personal motto, based on a bumper sticker his late wife gave him years ago after becoming a Christian, is "God said it. I believe it. That settles it."

"That is what we do here," he added. "We are fundamentally based and very conservatively based.

"I think that is what has kept this church going. Rural America as a whole is still very conservative. You can't get much more rural than this."

With the advent of social media, many people have been able to stay at home and receive a Sunday service over the internet. Dornon still likes it when people can come together and have fellowship in person, citing the Book of Hebrews in regards to the Fellowship of the Saints.

"I feel the Fellowship of the Saints is very important," he said. "As a pastor, it encourages me when people come to church and it encourages me as a Christian.

"I have folks here that are going through trials like I have. We have things in common. That is a great asset. We have that common bond."

As the church commemorates its anniversary, Dornon said they want to continue to serve the people in the community

"We have been here 150 years and we want to get the word out that we are still here," he said. "Anytime anyone wants to come, we would be glad to have them."

The church's Sunday School is at 10 a.m. on Sundays and worship is at 11 a.m. There is also Sunday evening Bible Study. The church will be holding its Fall Fest on Oct. 26 from 4-8 p.m. and plans are being made to do a Christmas dinner in December.

"We are just a little rural country church where we love the Lord," Dornon said.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

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