The beginning

The roots of Ridge Spring Baptist Church extend back to 1805 when a church was established two miles south of our present town at Flat Rock. In 1820 this membership built a church on the Columbia-Augusta Road (Monetta) and named it Bethel. On January 28, 1856 nineteen members withdrew to form a new church on the Ridge. The organizational meeting was in one of three homes - (The old Sweeney House, the Colonel Watson House, or the Frank Boatwright House). There were nineteen charter members. In July of 1856, B.T. Boatwright and E. Watson, in consideration of their love and affection to and for the Baptist Denomination and the people of the Ridge vicinity, granted unto Tilman Watson and Abraham Rutland, a lot of land containing ten acres including a fountain of pure water known as Ridge Spring; "that Tilman Watson and Abraham Rutland permit the Baptist Community to be called and known by the name Ridge Spring Baptist Church and to construct upon said premises a suitable House of Worship of Almighty God." This first church building cost $3,000.00. It had no heat and no indoor baptistry. The water from the spring was blocked and backed up to make a baptismal pool.

The church was only four years old when the Civil War broke out. During this period, the Reconstruction Period, the finances of the church suffered. It was agreed that all who had wagons would haul a load of wood to the church.

Over the next fifty years the church structure and grounds underwent many changes. In 1873 it was decided that the church did not need all the land it owned, so a portion was divided into lots and sold. With this money a parsonage was built for $2,200.00. The original church building had no steeple. In 1881, at a cost of $778.09, a steeple was built and a bell purchased. In 1905 Sunday School classrooms were added to the sides of the sanctuary. Stained glass memorial windows were purchased and gas lights installed. In 1928 the old church was rolled back, bricked and made into Sunday School space. A new brick auditorium was added on to the front of the old church and the stained glass windows moved to the new addition.

Ridge Spring Baptist Church has had thirty-eight pastors. 

* In January 1858, Reverend Booker was elected as our first pastor.

* Our current pastor is Wesley Mayfield