Our History
From a Stable to a Steeple
The Sunday School that built a church very aptly describes what took place 126 years ago and resulted in what is now known as the Sharon Baptist Church.
It was on Sunday, September 10, 1882, that Brother T. A. Johnson, a member of the Macedonia Baptist Church, was taking his customary stroll after morning service. Coming upon some children at play in an empty lot on Parrish Street, he was deeply disturbed by their apparent lack of religious and moral training.
The following Sunday, September 17, he returned to Parrish Street accompanied by Reverend Charles Lawson, the pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, along with Brothers Dock R. Allen and Louis Major, and Sister Eva Thompkins.
With the encouragement of Reverend Lawson, these Christian people who were later joined by Brothers James Davis, James I. Lane, and Sisters Boon, Millie Davis, and Martha Page, organized the children into a Sunday School.
Out of this organization grew the Whatcoat Mission, so named because of its meeting place: an abandoned horse stable on Whatcoat Street.
While the Whatcoat Mission was still housed in the horse stable, Reverend William M. Alexander, a State Missionary, joined the Mission which he and the nine adults organized into a Church on February 5, 1885 (the church’s anniversary date) with Reverend Alexander as its first pastor.
Since the Sunday School's humble beginning 126 years ago and the church's organization 123 years ago, Sharon Baptist Church has been led by four God-fearing men: namely, Reverend William M. Alexander, Reverend Beal Elliott, Reverend James L. Moore, and our current senior pastor, Reverend Alfred C. D. Vaughn. Their love of God, their commitment to the congregation, and their far-sighted vision have been instrumental in moving the church from a Sunday School in an humble stable to a church with a glorious steeple.
