10 Feb 2025 Mount Vernon Baptist celebrates 175th Homecoming

By Rita Halter Thomas

Coming home. That’s what it feels like to many who have stepped across the threshold of Mount Vernon Baptist Church (MVBC). This small church has been a beacon of light for its community for over 175 years. From its beginning, blessed with faithful, hard-working members, the church has adapted to meet the needs of its community for generations.

More than a decade before the beginning of the Civil War, three small separate groups of Baptist believers gathered for prayer and worship in an area about 26 miles northeast of present-day Conway. In a few short years, those groups would join together to form the church. What began with a determined group of settlers, many of whose surnames are still present and active to this day through their descendants, stands strong with a promising future.

“The Sunday before Thanksgiving every year is our Homecoming, and it’s hard to believe we just celebrated 175 years,” said David McFerron, senior pastor. “In fact, this time every year I give a kind of ‘state of the church’ address, and it’s crazy to look back like that.”

McFerron began as the youth pastor in 2008, then accepted the lead pastorate eight years ago, in January 2017. He said MVBC is a true come-as-you are church, and very welcoming. “We are just a bunch of believers who don’t have it all right. We have broken lives, and sometimes live in a mess. We want others to know they don’t need to clean up first to come to church. We want them to come, meet Jesus, and let Jesus help sort it out,” he said.

While few official records exist, and details are unclear, historians agree there is enough to indicate the Baptist groups were meeting at least as early as 1848, before Faulkner County or Conway was established. The settlement, located along today’s AR-36, was a part of Conway County and initially named Stonewall Jackson. Three weeks later it was changed to Houseville. On November 6, 1877, the name was changed to Mount Vernon, in honor of George Washington’s home on the Potomac. The town grew into a hub of trade and commerce, religion and education.

When the scattered groups of believers unified, they first began meeting north of present-day Mount Vernon, the half-way point between them, but eventually decided to build in town. According to a book of the area’s history, compiled by high school students in the Mount Vernon gifted and talented program in 1989, which was lead by G/T Coordinator Betsy (Cox) Davies, their reason for making this decision was because “there was a store there and mail delivery once a week by horseback from Little Rock.” The first church building is said to have been a one-room log building on the bank of Bayou Creek, then also known as Ussery Spring.  

Records during the Civil War are pretty much nonexistent, and the sense is the church was probably inactive between 1860-65 due to fear of being attacked by roving Federal troops. Shortly after the war, the church received a blessing of property where the current church stands, on Garland Springs Road just east of Mount Vernon-Enola High School. There a little white church was built. 

In those early years, the congregation was served by a circuit-riding preacher who came once a month, on the fourth Sunday. The saddlebags he carried are now on display in the church library. Handwritten church minutes from that era, alongside a painting of the little white church, are displayed in the hallway of the educational wing. For MVBC’s annual homecoming, these items are displayed in the foyer as a reminder to honor those who laid the foundation for the church it is today. 

Over the years, God has continued to bless the church’s faithfulness. Like the generations before, MVBC recognizes the importance of children, families, and community.

“Our future is in our kids, so our biggest efforts focus on them,” said McFerron. Area youth and children are not only “discipled through education,” but also by creating a fun community for them to bond as they learn and grow. That’s evident through the evolution of “The Shed” (youth area), complete with game tables, a full kitchen with dining booths, and décor appealing to the country lifestyle of the area. “Wednesday nights are solely dedicated to our youth and children (VernKids),” said McFerron. 

MVBC focuses on the ever-changing needs in the community, growing and adapting their methods, but staying true to the message of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice and letting go are part of progress when memories are attached to certain things, like a building, a pew with someone’s name on it, or a stone wall where kids once played or sat. 

“It was hard to watch them take down the old rock wall where we used to sit as kids, but that wall never brought anyone to Jesus,” said Davies, whose roots run deep in the community and the church. While not easy, sacrifices, faithfulness, and hard work from its foundation to today, have kept the church moving forward, current and relevant.

According to the book created by Davies’ G/T class, “A Look Back: A History of the Town of Mount Vernon,” growth after a two-week revival in 1935 prompted the addition of four classrooms to the little white church. In 1952 and 1953, this building was torn down and replaced by a new brick building. 

After receiving another blessing of donated land in 1960, the church built the first parsonage. In 1970, educational space and a fellowship hall were built, a well was drilled, and a baptistry added. In 1999, and 150 years from its beginning, the church broke ground on a new sanctuary. Since then, the church stepped out again in faith and added a community center and more educational space. Just two years ago, the church built a new parsonage north of the church.

“You don’t just ask a church to build you a house, but the church recognized that it needed to be done and they did it,” said McFerron. He and his wife, Megan, have four children between the ages of 5 and 11 years old. Even with the recent addition of the parsonage, the church is debt-free and always looking ahead with long-range planning.

While average church attendance has ebbed and flowed over the years, the church understands its mission, its kingdom purpose, is to invite people in, introduce them to Jesus, grow them spiritually through discipleship, and send them out as workmen, spreading the good news of the Gospel in whatever path God places before them. The church’s motto reflects that: Come. Grow. Go.

Just like a child grows up and leaves home, disciples do as well. Many who have left have gone on to serve in other areas of ministry that have local, national and even international impact.

Looking for a church home? Learn more about MVBC on Facebook or at mountvernonbaptist.net.