Bethlehem Church of Christ in Tuckers Crossroads, Tennessee, celebrates 200th anniversary

The Bethlehem Church of Christ in Tuckers Crossroads, Tennessee, marked its 200th anniversary with a two-day bicentennial celebration. The rural congregation, about 35 miles east of Nashville, has 80 members and traces its roots to studies led by Barton W. Stone, a key figure in the Restoration Movement.

At the celebration, Carolyn Ragland Poston, 74, said the congregation “probably has 20 babies under 6 years old.” “I mean, I’m telling you, we are busting loose with babies,” she said.

The church’s history has included hardship. Fires and floods forced the congregation to rebuild multiple times and, in a few cases, to relocate before it erected its long-standing meeting place in 1941.

A history exhibit in the fellowship hall displays old photos, letters and documents covering two centuries. Those mementos recount past and present ministers, elders, deacons, song leaders, mission efforts and children’s programs. Poston’s family ties to the congregation run through two sides of her family, including four generations of Raglands and five generations of Neals. Two other multigenerational families still active in the church, the Bobos and the Harlans, also trace their lineage to the congregation’s early days.

Poston helped gather recipes for a 150-page cookbook produced for the anniversary. It includes handwritten recipes such as Maggie Lou Whitefield Kirkpatrick’s angel biscuits, Virginia Powell Waters’ chicken dressing casserole and Leigh Nora Miller’s peanut butter Rice Krispie bars. Poston said she sees the cookbook as a way to preserve the memory of fellow Christians, and she wants younger members to know “how important they were in structuring us as children” (Psalm 78:4).

According to a national directory published by 21st Century Christian, the Bethlehem church is one of only 24 Churches of Christ nationwide, out of roughly 12,000, that have met continuously for at least 200 years. Some of the others have roots in religious bodies that predate the Restoration Movement.

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