“All generations need to know where they came from, where they’re going and by celebrating our church history it keeps people updated where they came from and where we are today,” said the Rev. Freddie Brown, pastor of State Street Baptist Church.

State Street is celebrating its 178th church anniversary during June with special Wednesday night services starting at 6:30 p.m. featuring the Rev. Kenneth Whitaker of Richardsville Baptist Church on Wednesday and the Rev. Stacy Beason of Trinity Baptist Church on June 22. The celebration began this week with the church’s vacation Bible school and will conclude with First Baptist Church pastor Rev. Jeff Reynolds speaking at the 10 a.m. service June 26.

“Many of the members here are not aware that we grew out of First Baptist, which was then Bowling Green Baptist Church, but they will be our special guests on the fourth Sunday. We’ve had several fellowships with the First Baptist,” Brown said.

Brown noted that when the church had a fire May 4, 2000, and moved back into the building in August 2003, they went to First Baptist and had a breakfast and a short service. After that, they marched from First Baptist to State Street and had a joint fellowship service to celebrate the church back on the move again, he said.

The history between the churches goes back to to the early 1800s, when its membership was made up of several slaves. The slaves, however, had no voting rights within the church, and they soon decided to establish their own church.

What is now called State Street Baptist was formed in 1838 as the First African Church; the members met in a small building in an alley behind State Street. When they moved to the current location, church members renamed it the First Colored Church.

“It was a slavery church, and the slaves used to come underground. There’s a place downstairs where they had to sneak to come to church,” said longtime church member Sharon Blakey, who has been attending the church for more than 38 years. “It’s historical because the church is a community church. We do a lot of outreach.”

Church member Ralph Bailey, a member of State Street since 1958, said it’s important for the church to celebrate its anniversary every year because of the love of Jesus Christ.

“It’s very important to celebrate a church being around for this amount of time,” Bailey said. “I have seen during the time of the church that we would have this church packed, but we’ve had several black churches that have broke off from State Street.”

Bailey said many former congregations no longer exist because the members died out, and he said it’s important to have children to carry on the church.

Brown, the church’s pastor for 25 years, said the church has changed in a variety of different ways including the changing of the neighborhood from a once all-black community with many people moving out due to redevelopment, to church attendance dropping due to members breaking away and starting their own churches. Through all the obstacles, Brown said the greatest obstacle that the church faces is having three generations that were raised under different philosophies for discipline.

“We’ve got three generations with one that came up from the old school where they used to (say) ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’, another one in time out and now we have this new generation that’s come along that addresses adults by calling them by their first name and it presents a problem,” he said.

Brown said he tries to tell the congregation that everyone is brought up in a different way and they need to respect it because it’s been causing a major problem with people getting their feelings hurt. He hopes that in the future that the church can put on a seminar to help educate members in cultural diversity to better help understand where everyone comes from, the different roots in discipline and punishment.

Church member Anna Senter said the church needs to remember how far the church has come and the advances it has made. State Street is the oldest black church in Bowling Green and for that reason they need to celebrate its existence, she said.

“It’s a beacon, and some people know the history of State Street,” Senter said. “The community needs to be aware of the importance and the contributions that State Street has made to the city of Bowling Green.”

The church takes part in several outreach ministries and is well-known for its involvement in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.

Brad Tolbert has been a member of State Street for three years but has attended for longer. He said the church has a long history of being a spiritual beacon in the community.

“We want to continue to spread the word. It’s important that the church remains viable and it’s just a rich tradition here that is certainly worthy of celebration,” Tolbert said.

— Follow faith/general assignments reporter Simone C. Payne on Twitter @SimonePayne or visit bgdailynews.com.