(This article first appeared in the August print edition of the Hendersonian.)
World War II had finally, mercifully come to an end and things were starting to return to “normal” in Henderson as soldiers came home from around the globe.
In Henderson’s “East End,” many new homes were being built to support the factories situated around the fringes of the Audubon community that manufactured furniture, textiles, food products and other goods.
The population was growing in the Audubon Heights neighborhood, generally the area now served by South Heights Elementary.
With that opportunity in mind, the members of Audubon Baptist Church felt a need to launch a Sunday School mission within that blossoming neighborhood even though their home church was located just a few blocks down Letcher Street on the other side of Clay Street.
But Audubon Baptist leaders did just that on Oct. 21, 1948, when they planned a series of revival services that took place under a big tent pitched on a church-owned lot at the corner of Wright and Letcher streets.
Building on that, Sunday School continued for a year in a nearby house, followed by a Vacation Bible School and services on Wednesday and Sunday nights.
Eventually a foundation was laid with a 40- by 72-foot basement designed to hold 200 souls that was constructed on the vacant lot.
And on Aug. 19, 1951, the mission that started with Sunday School was organized into a full-fledged church with 112 charter members. They were largely gathered up from the neighborhood through door-to-door calling by the Rev. A.A. Thacker, who had arrived in late December 1949 to help grow the neighborhood church.
Hyland Baptist Church was launched.
That 75-year milestone will be celebrated on Saturday, and Sunday, Aug. 22-23. The Saturday evening event from 5-8 p.m. will be a chance for old and new members to get reacquainted over a meal in the Family Life Center. There will be worship music and remembrances from the church’s rich history.
At 8 p.m. with the assistance of church member/mason Ron Stone, they plan to pull the cornerstone on the original church building to learn what’s inside and return it with some new items from 75 years in.
On Sunday morning, the 11:30 a.m. worship service will feature Pastor Eric Allen (who served the church as a minister of music and youth for about 15 years in the 1980s and 1990s decade) followed by a celebration luncheon.
For years the spirit of Hyland Baptist seems to be contained in its singleness of ministry to the Audubon Heights neighborhood and its near surroundings right “in the shadow of its steeple.”
According to a history from the church archives, at least 14 members from Hyland were eventually called into ministry.
A Family Life Center was added as well a new sanctuary, which freed up the original structure for classrooms and space for expanded youth programs.
The church has been well-known for its bus ministry that brought scores of children to the church services and other events. Church leaders were early to recognize the needs of children and families, such as the years that they hosted a location for Head Start.
Their Family Life Center is still considered a community gathering place for not just church events but broader community activities such as summer camps for kids.
They’ve participated in the Kids Hope USA ministry, which offers mentoring to struggling children at South Heights Elementary, and have offered support services for World Changers, which in summer brings high school and college volunteers to neighborhoods in Henderson to work on exterior home improvement projects for needy homeowners.
They have certainly also tackled ministries of need within their own congregation, and offer a refuge for people seeking a community connection.
In a publication of memories titled “Telling The Story of Jesus at Hyland,” writer Imogene Burns Wiggs, an Oak Street resident of Henderson in the 1950s and 1960s who was baptized at Hyland, put it like this:
“… I was but a child when I attended your church and your works have been forever branded in my heart, body, soul and mind,” she wrote, noting that as an adult she became a health educator for the state of Missouri. “You took time to care and love and you put your love into action. I shudder to think where would I be had it not been for the influence you had in my life. You never gave up on us children.”
