by johnfariss » Tue Jun 26, 2012 1:14 pm
There is a church a few miles from me named, I think, "River's Edge" or "River's View," something like that. They are probably 30 miles from the Potomac River and 10 or 15 from the Patuxent, but there is a little branch, maybe 2 or 3 feet wide, within view of them.
Of course, Baptist churches without "Baptist" in the name are not new. The previous name of the first church I served was "Tanner's Meeting House," and they founded "Brown's Meeting House" and another one whose name I cannot recall just now, similiarly named for the first pastor. Tanner's renamed itself Warren Plains Baptist Church only in the 1870s, and that was after they moved from out in the woods to the rail junction serving the town of Warrenton, NC. Brown's still goes by that name, or did the last time I was there, in the late 80s. All these date to the late 1700s and early 1800s. An earlier genration of Baptist churches in eastern North Carolina were usually named by the closest body of water, such as Reedy Creek or Yellowjacket Creek, but again, that was followed by "Meeting House" and not "Baptist Church." I believe it was only when the social status of Baptist churches started to grow, and they moved into actual towns and cities that they began to name themselves "Baptist Churches" and not just "meeting houses."
John Fariss