By Steve Brawner

On Sunday mornings, pastor Dennis McClintic preaches from the pulpit at the Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church – just as pastors before him have done since 1822.

One of the oldest churches in Central Arkansas, the church is the heart of the Kentucky community six miles from Interstate 30 in Benton. It was organized by settlers originally from Kentucky and Missouri who moved into the area from what was then Lawrence County and today is Randolph County. Some of the early family names associated with the church and community include Fletcher, Lindsey and James.
The church has a rustic feel even though it’s only about 10 minutes from the nearest Wal-Mart Supercenter. Members come from the laid-back local community as well as bustling Benton and Bryant.
“They understand the fast-paced life, but it’s nice to come out here because it is very relaxing here,” McClintic said. “We say Highway 5’s not just a place but kind of a state of mind.”
The area is rich in history. Across the highway is a pioneer cemetery with headstones from the 1800s.
The church baptistry features a beautiful painting by member June Vinyard depicting a spot in the Saline River where many members have been baptized. Vinyard’s son, Eric, has been attending the church all of his 51 years and was baptized in a different spot in the river. “I’ve lived in this community all my life,” he said. “I moved away a few months, came back, and said I’d never do that again. So it’s home.”
Members have worshipped in four different church structures over the course of two centuries, all within a couple of acres of each other, according to McClintic. The first three structures were destroyed by fire or natural disaster – the last by arson set by the church’s former pastor in 1996. It was a devastating blow to the congregation, but members rallied around the church and forgave the pastor. Asked if they wanted restitution at his trial, McClintic said church members testified that the former pastor had already been forgiven by God.
Instead, church members went to work rebuilding the church while they held services in the fellowship hall, which had survived the blaze. When the insurance money didn’t cover the cost of replacement, other churches and community members donated generously.
By April 1997, the church had poured a slab where Gov. Mike Huckabee signed a church arson bill. The building was finished by the end of the year and was paid for in 1999, when members burned the note in a deacon’s fireplace.
A seminary student and business owner who was attending another church before being called to Kentucky, McClintic began serving as pastor three days before Huckabee signed the bill and has been a bivocational pastor since then. He sold his last business, Allied Wood Stove and Fireplace, about a year ago and has been fulfilling a one-year obligation to work for the buyer.
While McClintic is usually the one ministering to his flock, sometimes they minister to him. After his oldest son, Jacob, died in 2004 at the age of 18 in a car accident, 1,500 people attended the funeral.
Losing their son has given McClintic and his wife, Janet, an avenue to discuss eternal issues with young people. “I’d have chosen a million different ways, but we saw about 32 souls saved,” he said. “I miss him every day, but I know God used his death as well as He did his life.”
With 130-140 members, it may be a small church, but it has had a big impact. Some of its members formed a bluegrass group called The Kentucky Gospel Pickers a few years ago and play at nursing homes. Other members have left the church to become leaders in church ministry.
“One of our former members is a missionary in New Jersey now,” McClintic said. “Another one’s a pastor at Grace Missionary Baptist Church in Jonesboro. We’ve got another one that’s pastoring a little church in Jacksonville. We’ve got another fellow, he’s the music director over at Hurricane Lake Baptist Church. Got another one that’s an associate pastor in Paron, and so we’ve had several families come and go.”