History of Clover Baptist Church

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 On May 11, 1941, Rev. Grady and Mae Hamby and Fred and Nora Cline met around the kitchen table at the Cline home to worship and pray together about starting a new church. For the next year they held cottage prayer meetings and met for Sunday School and worship in the Faith Tabernacle. On July 5, 1942, they officially became Clover Baptist Church, with 21 charter members. Rev. Grady Hanford Hamby was called as their first pastor and Fred Cline was elected secretary/treasurer. In 1958 a three year deacon rotation began and a Deacon Ministry Plan was initiated April 8, 1979. On October 4, 1942 land was purchased on North Main Street-Parallel for the first official building. December 7, 1952 land was purchased on which the present facilities now stand, and building was completed in May 1955. Approximately one acre of land was purchased for a parsonage. In July 1968, under the leadership of Reverend Cole, the church paid off all indebtedness on parsonage and educational buildings. The Sanctuary building was dedicated, along with open house, on Sunday, October 31, 1971. On Sunday, February 24, 1985, a "Celebration of Bond Retirement on Sanctuary" was held through a note burning with special speaker Dr. Roy Smith, General Secretary/Treasurer, BSC.  April 2, 1995 service was held in the re-modeled Sanctuary and June 25, 1995 the two-story educational building (built onto the Sanctuary) with twelve classrooms was opened. In 2000, this debt of $85,000 was paid off with a love gift from the sons of Richard and Ruth Carpenter, Larry, Alan and Rick. In October of 2006, the old fellowship and classroom building was demolished and a new educational building with classrooms and fellowship hall is under way due to be completed Spring of 2008.


Pastors of Clover Baptist Church

Dr. G. Hanford Hamby 1942-1949,  

Rev. T. A. Sheppard 1950-1956

Rev. Robert Marchbanks 1956-1958, 

  Rev. Ben Lee Ray 1958-1960

Rev. Z. W. Rotan 1960-1966, 

Rev. Edgar Lee Cole 1966-1980

Rev. Douglas C. Butts 1981-1985, 

Rev. W. H. (Bill)McNeill, Sr. 1987-1997

Associate Rev. Dean Harrold 1996-1997 & 2000-2001

Rev. James Robert Kilby 2000-2003, 

Rev. Keith D. Childers 2004-2022

Rev. John Barnhardt (Interim) 2022 -
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