Hazelgreen Baptist
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Hazelgreen Baptist Church is located in Alsip, Illinois, USA. Since being reestablished as Hazelgreen Baptist in August 2004, the church has grown to an average attendance of 150. Hazelgreen actively supports several missionaries throughout the world, and has ministries at local nursing homes, the Pacific Garden Mission and the Ladies Gospel League Home. Hazelgreen also has children’s ministries including children's church on Sunday mornings and a Kids Klub on Wednesday evenings.
[edit] History
Hazelgreen Baptist Church began as a mission in Blue Island, sent out upon the authority of Calvary Baptist Church in Harvey, Illinois.
The mission began meeting in the Masonic Temple and was organized into a church on June 17, 1951 with eleven charter members. It was named the Blue Island Missionary Baptist Church and called Bro C.W. Dickerson as the first pastor.
The church grew and moved to another location in Blue Island where it remained until 1958 when the property at 5022 W. 115th Street in Hazelgreen, Illinois was purchased. The name of the church was changed during the time of buying property and moving to the new location to the Beulah Missionary Baptist Church. On June 22, 1959 they called Alfie Liverette as pastor.
Bro. John C. Reed was called to the pastorate and ordained on February 7, 1960 and under his leadership the church continued to grow and enlarge its ministry.
On June 19, 1960 the Articles of Incorporation were filed with the Secretary of State to rename the church Hazelgreen Missionary Baptist Church.
On May 19, 1965 the church voted to buy the adjoining property on the west side. This purchase gave the church a parsonage and a considerable amount of land for expansion.
The church had large growth in the early 1970’s and the little white church building became to small for the size of the congregation. Pastor Reed felt the need to enlarge the church to accommodate the larger crowd and to increase the Sunday School rooms. He successfully brought the church through a bond program to finance the building of a new church building. The bonds ranged from $250 to $1000, with and 8 ½ percent interest rate. The amount needed to finance the building of a new church was $122,000. Pastor Reed broke ground for the new building on September 17, 1975 and on October 11, 1975 all of the bonds were sold. Dedication of the new building was held on March 7, 1976.
Under Pastor Reed’s ministry the church continued to grow. The church’s ministry had expanded into various parts of the world through support of 36 missionaries, supported the Baptist Christian Children’s home in Louisiana, 2 nursing home ministries, 2 bus routes, 2 quartets, choir, softball and basketball teams for the young adults and various other activities and ministries. Through the life of Pastor Reed, many people came to know the Lord as their personal Savior and his ministry is still going on today.
Unknowingly, Pastor Reed preached his last sermon on Sunday night, August 31, 1980. He preached on ‘Some things that will not be in Heaven’ then after the sermon the church participated in the Lords Supper. Pastor Reed was called to Heaven approximately 3:00 A.M. on September 1, 1980.
After the unexpected death of Pastor John C. Reed, the church began looking for another pastor. On February 1, 1981, Ron Noffsinger was called to the pastorate. He resigned in March 1985.
In August 1985, Marvin Dowdy, a longtime friend of Pastor John Reed, was called to pastor the church. Due to poor health, he resigned on May 22, 1988.
Robert Parnell was called to pastor on June 1, 1989 and resigned in November 1994.
Michael Stallard was called to pastor in July 1995 and changed the name of the church to Solid Rock Baptist Church. He remained the pastor until his resignation on August 27, 2003.
The Landmark Baptist church began as a mission in Oak Forest, Illinois, on February 10, 2002. It was sent out upon the authority of Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Angleton, Texas. John Robert Reed was the pastor and Jonathan Reed was the assistant pastor. The church started with 19 members and grew to 43. They needed a building to begin their ministries and programs. The Lord directed Pastor John Robert Reed to enter into negotiations with Michael Stallard for the merging of the two churches and the resignation of Pastor Stallard. On August 27, 2003 the churches completed the merger, Michael Stallard resigned and John Robert Reed became the pastor of the church. On that date the church had a membership of 47 people. The members voted to rename the church Hazelgreen Baptist Church.
[edit] References
- Compton, Mary. "Faith Series - Hazelgreen Baptist", (Daily Southtown/Star Newspapers, October 1, 2006).
