HISTORY OF THE LOCUST GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH
In 1907, by general community effort, the residents of the Buffalo region constructed a church building to be used for worship services by Christians of the community. This church was called the Union Church.
Revivals, Sunday school, and intermittent preaching by several denominations were held during the next few years. However, by the early 1920’s no use was being made of the building.
A Baptist missionary Rev. J. C. Simkins, aided by Rev. B. R. Lakin, held a revival in the building in March and April of 1921. During this revival twenty-two people accepted Christ, and many were baptized. These people, along with some ten other Baptists from Buffalo Valley Baptist Church, organized the Locust Grove Missionary Baptist Church on May 21, 1921. This church then became affiliated with the Twelve Pole Association of the West Virginia Baptist Convention of the American Baptist Convention, now known as the American Baptist Churches, USA.
Shortly after the church was organized, Mr. Uriah Rowe donated the building and grounds to the Locust Grove Missionary Baptist congregation. Church membership grew in the 1920’s and early 1930’s to some one hundred members. The Locust Grove Missionary Baptist Church, at that time, served the immediate community around it.
A larger, more modern church building was erected in the 1961-62 period. During the 1970’s, an educational wing was added directly behind the church. A new fellowship hall was dedicated on April 25, 1999. The congregation decided to withdraw its affiliation with the American Baptist Churches USA in January 2004, and for a time remained unaffiliated. In April 2005 the congregation voted to affiliate with the Greater Huntington Baptist Association (GHBA), the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists (WVCSB), and Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). It is the prayer of this congregation that Locust Grove Missionary Baptist Church will continue to grow and serve this developing suburban community.