Our Eldest Member
This story starts many years back with the conversion of our oldest member. Back in the 1940's Bessie Foster who was then a member of the church of Nazarene met a member of the church of Christ on the public bus. It was through her conversations with him as well as a friend who was a member of the church that she began attending the Partridge church of Christ once a week. Thus began a two year battle of wits between Bessie and the word of God. After thus proving herself wrong and the word of the Lord (the bible) correct she then submitted to the teachings of God and was immersed in baptism for the remission of sins and was added to the Lord's church.
A New Congregation in Cumberland
Not so many years later a new congregation opened within the town of Cumberland through the efforts of many members of Partridge who lived in that area and looked to build a place closer to attend, for Partridge was in the next county. Bessie and many others attended this congregation within Harlan County for a number of years.
Division within Appalachia
However, false doctrine and division was soon to rear it's ugly head. While I was yet still a young child, some men came to that congregation and began teaching that 1 Cor 16:1-2 forbade any of the contribution money to be used to help any non-member as well as some other doctrines. A handful of us knowing that the word of God made it clear concerning the same money mentioned in 1 Corinthians 16 was also given to "all" men according to II Corinthians 9:13 left that congregation and looked toward a congregation in the middle of Harlan County to worship. However, it wasn't too long that those same men came and spread those same teachings and that congregation likewise became what we call "non-institutional.
Harlan, a New Hope - For a Time
Those of us that left that congregation also ended up attending another congregation on the other end of the county within the town of Harlan. Some of us attended this congregation for more than 20 years. As with all congregations it had it's problems but they seemed to only worsen with time. For quite a few years, though, it seemed to grow. The elders were more than glad to send any youth to a local church camp across the border in the state of Virginia. It was through the efforts of the staff and ministers who worked at High Rock Bible Camp that we have the majority of our attendance today.
Re-opening a Closed Congregation
Things however didn't last at Harlan and while I was Freed-Hardeman it seemed things only worsened. I won't go into the details concerning all of this, but it was liberalism that had crept in and some of us decided we needed to meet elsewhere. Also, during all these years the congregation in which this all began had likewise had rough times and had closed. When we were given the opportunity to re-open Partridge church of Christ we again found this group meeting there outside of our own county. Partridge however, has a past, and locals tend to hold on to those things even though it's worst problems were buried by the sands of time. Due to this it was nearly impossible to grow. Also communities had shrunken and this building was located at the edge of Letcher County at the base of the Whitesburg Mountain (some were driving an hour to attend). These obstacles made it difficult to grow, being that quite a few wouldn't drive into the next county or across Whitesburg Mountain to attend. Soon the highway will take that building and those who remain in attendance likewise plan to build within Letcher County, we do look forward to working with them also.
Mountain View - A Fresh Start
With these things in mind those of us from Harlan county decided we would work to build a new congregation, centralized within Harlan County. We didn't want to be limited to only evangelizing within one part of the county, we chose a location that enabled us to work with virtually any area within our county. We wanted a fresh start, no past luggage, a new beginning, a congregation sown from only the word of God. Our hope is to bring forth Christians and Christians only by sowing the pure seed of God, his word. We want to bring the truth to those within our part Appalachia who have hungered and desired for what has been lacking for so long. These are the reasons that we are building a new congregation here within Harlan County.
Stephen Foster, Minister
Mountain View church of Christ