History of St.
John's Church of Christ - Ponzer
1905 - present
From notes of
Marlene McCabe presented in 2013 on the
occasion of the 108th
anniversary of the church
December 15, 2013 the history of St. John as remembered by Mother Laura Taylor (deceased) and Elder Calvin Hooker. St. John was built in 1905 when the community saw a need to have a Disciple Church in the community, it was a small community but the need to have a local church was at hand. The people in the community was blessed with land from Mr. Solomon Blount whom acquired the land from Mr. Jordan King upon marrying Mr. King's daughter. Mr. Solomon Blount, Mr. John Hooker, Ms. Isabelle Blount and Mr. Henry Blount met and the church building was put into action.
In 1937 Rev. G. R. Lovick was seen working in the fields all day, but because of his love for the church he felt it needed a steeple, so each evening after work he came to build the steeple onto St. John. But the church could not be complete without pews so our very own Uncle Mack McKinley Morgan built the pews that made people think that the church was always full and people never went home. The pews were built with high backs that shaped like heads on the side.
Under the direction of Elder John Daniels the church was rebuilt with aluminum siding and central A/C and heat, a step up from the small gas heaters, and the wood heater in previous years. The water meter was put in under the direction of Elder Gaffney Harris. During this time there was a start to build a fellowship hall on the back, but it was never finished. During the year of remodeling there where many people seen helping with the remodeling, you could go by every day and see our Trustee Columbus Harris standing guard and helping tear down the old building. We honor him for a job well done. He departed Saturday, December 14, 2013. Once the building was up and money ran short then you could find all members near and far putting their time in to complete the church. We used extension cords and lamps from Aunt Alma Canady that was too sick to come out, but she wanted to do her part, no one was left out. Mother Laura Taylor, Mother Mag Harris, Sis Dorothy Long would say we can’t hammer but we can sweep, and that they did. The task was challenging, we learned how to put up vinyl siding. Secretary Frances was seen many days on the ladders putting up vinyl siding. During the day the members worked but when the evening came with the truck of Trustee Timothy Taylor and the driver, Asst. Sec. Marlene McCabe, we had plenty of material to work with. She would pick the materials up from Lowes and we all had work to do. Our steeple this time was built by Gene Thigpen, and Kevin Thigpen, our banister was replaced by Kevin Thigpen, and most of our plumbing and cabinets were done by William McCabe, Jr. and Randolph Taylor, Jr. I could spend all day explaining how we got here today in this building, we even had members to come home on vacation and hang sheet rock, and help paint the ceiling or whatever needed to be done
The church was small in membership so it was not possible during the first years to pay a pastor. During the years from 1905 to 1936 there were many preachers that frequented the church on Sunday mornings and bought the Word forth to the people. One in particular, mentioned more than once, was preacher Ayden Burrus. There was one other preacher mentioned that was physically thrown from the church by our very own Chief Deacon John Hooker because of unmentionable digressions, but as once said, no name no blame.
St. John started out having services on the 4th Sunday of each month. It was the last church to be built in the neighborhood within walking distance of the community. On the 1st Sunday church was at AME Methodist Church and the pastor was Rev. Kowls in Leechville across from St. Paul Road. On the 2nd Sunday church was at the Baptist Church in Pearidge and the pastor was Rev. Sandy Mask. On the 3rd Sunday church was at St. Paul in Leechville and the pastor at that time was Elder Watson. These churches were still thriving through 1936. Since then we have lost all but St. John [in] Wilbanks [Wilbanks community of Belhaven, NC] and St. Paul [in] Leechville [Beaufort Co., NC]. In later years St. John started having church on the 3rd Sunday of the month. It is not known which pastor, but we do know that we are now on the first Sunday because during the direction of Bishop B. T. Boomer he was offered St. Paul to pastor so he asked to move St. John to the 1st Sunday of each month. The St. John door was shut for a year during 2003-2004, yet through all of the attacks we are still here. Today we still celebrate pastoral Sunday on 1st Sunday of the month. We have had 4th Sunday evening services during the direction of interim Pastor Brimmage, now we have third Sunday evening services under the direction of Elder Jack Spencer.
St. John celebrated mortgage burning in 2016 and now have an interim pastor, Elder Marlon Mann.