On Sunday, December 1, 2019, Shiloh Baptist Church celebrated their 150th church anniversary.

  Following their church services on December 1, members celebrated with an anniversary luncheon.

  Displays were placed throughout the church for patrons to read the history of the church and some of its members. These will be on display through the month of December.

  The church has only had nine pastors over its 150 year history. The current pastor is Rev. Dr. E. W. Lee, who has been the pastor for 45 years.

  Shiloh Baptist Church was originally named the Colored Baptist Church of McDonough and was founded by Rev. Clark Gilmore. It was one of the first churches in McDonough that was established by former slaves.

  The first members of Shiloh Baptist worshiped in a brush arbor for six years, before purchasing land for $12.50 in 1875 and building a small, wood-frame building. The building was destroyed in 1879 by a cyclone but rebuilt shortly after. 

  Shiloh Baptist Church has remained in its original location since its was established.

  “All of our 150 years have been on this site. We’ve been right here on this corner for all of those years in some form or fashion,” said Lee.

  In its early years, Shiloh was instrumental in creating the first public school for blacks in McDonough. 

  Over the years, Shiloh Baptist has seen many notable transformations, to include a major upgrade in square footage. In 2006, Shiloh transitioned to a 30,000 sq. ft. building with a seating capacity of 1100.

  The previous building in which they held church had been in place for over 100 years and had a seating capacity of 350. They call it the Legends Sanctuary.

  “It was an exciting time. It was a time of growth. A lot of people moved in and they were ready to go to work and make sure things happened for the church,” he said.

  In 2010, Rev. Lee led the congregation in a three-year journey called ‘BLESS,’ which raised funding to construct a 33,000 sq. ft. Family Life Center.

  On August 21, 2016, the Family Life Center opened with plans to become an Early Childhood Development Center. The Family Life Center now operates Shiloh’s Early Learning Center and After School Program.

  “The reason we wanted the Family Life Center is because we now have a childcare center, afterschool, and we run a summer day camp, have fitness classes, and weightlifting,” said Lee. “We are now able to look at the whole person, beyond the spiritual. We wanted to make a bigger difference in the community.”

  During Shiloh’s 147th Church Anniversary, the Early Learning Center was renamed the “Rev. Dr. E. W. & Betty A. Lee’ Family Life Center in honor of Rev. Lee and his wife.

  “That was quite an honor for us. What the church said is that they wanted to make sure that the Family Life Center would be a part of our legacy forever,” he said.

  Rev. Dr. E. W. Lee attributes the continued success of Shiloh Baptist Church to the patrons of their church.

  “We’ve had tremendous leadership from the congregation in these 150 years and I think it is evident in the fact that they were wise enough to know the importance of continuous leadership versus moving in different directions every few years,” said Lee. “We’ve been a pretty strong church.”

  The goal of Shiloh Baptist Church is to GROW: Grow the people, Reach their destiny, Operate in their gifts, and Win their community.

  “We cast a vision some years ago, and we have worked to make that vision slowly become a reality,” he said. “[Church members] are proud to be a part of something that is progressive, growing, moving, and [church members] can see their investment happening right before their eyes. I think it is our history that makes us special and the fact that we pretty much do what we say.”

  Shiloh Baptist Church offers a number of programs that work to benefit its members and the community. Some of those programs include Boyz-to-Men mentoring, a clothing boutique, couples counseling, a culinary and food bank, drumline, a family plan program, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, a ministry for men, a ministry for women, foreign and domestic missions programs, a music ministry, a singles’ ministry, children’s church, Sunday School, teen church, a youth ministry and a veterans ministry, among others.

  “With these programs, we get to create different paths away from poverty and early childhood pregnancy, so we wanted that kind of help for the community as well as the spiritual,” said Lee. “It is visionary, but it is something we can always work toward.”