Holly Grove Baptist Church in Braxton, Mississippi, was established on August 22, 1909.
According to church history, Holly Grove served two congregations – Baptist and Methodist, each denomination every other Sunday. Sunday school classes and prayer meetings were attended by both congregations. Eventually the Methodist crew moved to Braxton, but the two groups worked together to build the first sanctuary for Holly Grove.
Like nearly every other community church the building was also used for a school as well as a community house. Unfortunately, in 1946 Holly Grove was completely destroyed by fire. Through perseverance and donations the church was rebuilt.
Current pastor Brother Jonathan Burnham has been with Holly Grove since 2019. Due to some personal issues he did not begin his tenure there until 2020, two weeks before the nation went on lockdown for Covid 19.
Holly Grove began offering services virtually then and continue them now as they are able to reach a larger audience. Burnham commented, “That was hard; preaching to a camera. I got great deacons that would come and would sit in spots to help me there, and help record. We did that for a while.”
When the church initially reopened two services were offered to allow for social distancing. They have since returned to regular weekly services: Sunday school, 9 a.m., worship, 10 a.m., evening worship, 5 p.m., and Wednesday evening prayer meeting, 7 p.m. Training Union has been eliminated for the time being.
An addition the church made during the early days of Covid was a door greeter to welcome congregants. Young men in the youth group still fill this position.
Burnham speaks well of his church body, from the youth to the seniors and all in between. There are about 100 members and Sundays have seen an 80 to 90 percent return of congregants pre-Covid. Four deacons serve Holly Grove. “They are a great group of deacons that helped us all the way through Covid. I enjoy serving with them.”
While the congregation stretches from babies to senior adults, Burnham says there are not many children or young adults. There are many youth and college age members, however, who will assist with their upcoming Vacation Bible School July 11-17. Burnham says they are excited to offer an hour long adult class during this year’s event.
Stan Kelly, 77, is a long time member and current deacon at Holly Grove. In the 1980s he and his family were members of Gum Springs Baptist Church, but Holly Grove had need of a pianist so Stan’s wife, Juanice, filled in. According to Stan, “She loved it and the Lord just moved us over here.” His son Jason has served many years as music minister at Holly Grove.
He added, “Since we started back … a lot of people who have babies go to the nursery and couldn’t hear what was going on. So we installed a video feed in the nursery so those watching babies could still hear the morning service.” The church also added a video feed to the fellowship hall for similar reasons.
The two men agree that the mission of Holly Grove Baptist Church is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Kelly, who teaches the senior adult Sunday school class, stated, “We can be good as gold in here but when we walk out the doors, if we don’t take Christ with us our testimony is no good.”
Burnham uses Matthew 5:14 to describe the church’s mission. “Jesus says we’re a city set up on a hill and can’t be hid. So whether good or bad the world sees it. It is my hope for Holly Grove that we’ll be a light set up on a hill through hope in Christ.”
Burnham, 40, and his wife Angela have three children, ages 24, 16 and 13. Their first grandson just arrived in June.
