BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville Baptist Church turned its celebration into a collaboration.
Rather than throwing a party to honor the church’s 200th birthday, Brownsville Baptist hosted a four-night revival that shined the spotlight on teamwork, unity and cooperation. The revival featured several church planters from the area.
Ben Cowell, senior pastor at Brownsville, said it was the most fitting way to recognize the church’s historic milestone.
“We’ve been going through our history and researching some of the mile markers in the church’s life, and it’s been interesting to see that the goals of the church — from its foundation — has been to be a church that was big on church planting,” Cowell said. “That’s what we’ve always been about, and it is what we’re going to continue to be about in the future.”
“Church planting, evangelism, and discipleship have all been a part of the rich tradition here,” he added.
Established in 1825, Brownsville Baptist is considered by many historians to be the first church planted in Haywood County.
It opened the same year that Brownsville’s township was established and was a significant institution during that time period. James Bond, a prominent figure in Brownsville’s history, provided land for the establishment of both Brownsville Baptist Female College and Brownsville Baptist Church.
Today, the church is one of the cornerstones of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s BlueOval Initiative — a movement designed to reach the thousands of families and individuals who are moving to Haywood County in connection with Ford Motor Company’s massive new plant.
The evangelism efforts tied to BlueOval City represent a “returning to our roots” scenario for the Brownsville church body.
“It is rare to find a congregation that continues to have a long-term passion for advancing God’s Kingdom through church planting and strengthening other congregations,” said Danny Sinquefield, Harvest Field One Team Leader for the TBMB. “That is not only the legacy and history of Brownsville Baptist, but it is the current reality under the leadership of pastor Ben Cowell.”
Sinquefield said Brownsville’s commitment to cooperation is having a contagious effect on the community.
“What Brownsville Baptist is doing in the BlueOval City region is encouraging other churches toward unity and vitality,” said Sinquefield. “There is a fresh wind of joy and an inspiring spirit of sacrificial mission among the members of this wonderful congregation.”
Cowell said he and the other staff members at Brownsville determined that the best way to honor the church’s bicentennial anniversary was showcasing Brownsville’s core values in a revival setting.
The four-night revival included three pastors from church plants in the Brownsville area — Nick Glenn
from Browns Missionary Baptist Church, Mike Young from LifePoint Church, and Brennan Kress from Redemption Community Church .
Jay Hardwick, president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and senior pastor at Forrest Hills, and Roc Collins, strategic objectives director for the TBMB, also preached during the event.
Cowell said working in unity with other churches is often the key to effective evangelism. “We’re wanting to really set the stage of celebrating with other churches, and so having these churches come in and celebrate 200 years with us is a neat way to enhance collaboration as we seek to further the kingdom here in Haywood,” Cowell said.
Cowell said he believes the church’s history of church planting has ignited more excitement about the opportunities of the future.
“It is interesting that throughout her life, Brownsville Baptist has planted four churches in this city,” he said. “And now that the uptick of BlueOval City is on the rise, we’re back to structuring ourselves to plant more churches.
“It’s so interesting to see that we are still aiming toward the same objectives that we started with,” he said.
Cowell said the church will recognize the milestone birthday again this fall.
“Our big celebration is going to be in September,” he said. “We’re going to have a homecoming service. And we’re getting people who have historically had Brownsville Baptist as their home church to come and help us celebrate.”
This list includes Dan Spencer, pastor of First Baptist of Sevierville, and Wes Hampton, of the Gaither Vocal Band, who is scheduled to lead worship for the homecoming service.
Cowell said many churchgoers define the word “revival” as being a series of church services. But true revival, he said, can’t be planned on a calendar. It is a spiritual movement that only God can orchestrate. And that’s what Cowell longs to see.
“Our goal is foster prayer for a revival in Haywood County,” he said.
“We’re having these services as really just intercessory prayer so that on the other side of Holy Week revival will take place in Haywood in the form of churches collaborating together to win the souls for the lost, and to see genuine spiritual awakening happening through the conversions of souls, through the witness of the churches,” he said. B&R — Note: An account of the church’s history — titled “History of the Brownsville Baptist Church: 1825 to Present” — is available on Amazon. The book, by Arthur Ray Dixon, was published in 2018.