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Mt. Bethel has a rich tradition of
historic Christian Worship.
Part of what makes Mt.
Bethel unique is its long and active
history. We are standing on the
shoulders of yesterday’s men and
women of faith, who founded Mt.
Bethel Baptist Church over two
hundred years ago.
 The gospel of
Jesus Christ has been proclaimed
from our church since 1767 – nine
years prior to the American
Revolution!
· 1767-1800
·
Mt. Bethel
Baptist Church began with eighteen
people who lived in Warren but
attended church in Scotch Plains.
Due to the difficulty of traveling
to Scotch Plains for services, they
began meeting in their hometown
under the leadership of Mt. Bethel’s
founding pastor, Rev. Henry Crosley.
The church was named after its first
site, which was a hill in Warren
called Mount Bethel, located on what
is now called, "Old Church Road." Bethel
literally means “House of God” in
Hebrew. The Mt. Bethel Meeting House
was a small structure (pictured to
the left) which housed a gallery. It
had separate entrances for men and
women and a large sycamore tree in
front of the building, a sacred
biblical symbol of seeking God with
humility.
The church’s second pastor, ordained
in 1775, was Rev. Abner Sutton. He
was also one of its founding
members; in fact, the Sutton family
helped establish the community of
Warren. The church grew rapidly
under Rev. Sutton, and eighty
members were added by baptism in
1785 and 1786, a time of great
spiritual revival in the area. Also
during this time the Meeting House
was disassembled and moved by ox-drawn wagons from
"Mt. Bethel" in Washington Valley to
Stony Mountain (see
picture on google map). Rev. Sutton served
until he died at age fifty in 1791,
and he is said to be the first
person buried in the church’s
adjacent cemetery.
Rev. Sutton was succeeded by Rev.
Jacob Fitz-Randolph, who served from
1791-1794, and then Rev. Lebbeus
Lathrop, who served from 1794-1805.
Records show that these pastors’
salaries were still being paid in
pounds and shillings.
·
1800-1900
·
The church continued to experience
growth under its next pastor, Rev.
John Ellis, who served from
1805-1813.
A church covenant
was
adopted in April of 1813 which bound
its members, among other things, “to
watch over each other… and not to
suffer sin upon anyone… to bear one
another’s burdens, to cleave to one
another and to bear one another’s
weaknesses and infirmities with much
tenderness…”
After Rev. Ellis, the church
experienced three years without a
pastor until Englishman Rev. Mr.
Elliot began serving in 1816. He
served until 1818 and was succeeded
by Rev. John Watson, another
Englishman who served from
1818-1826. During this time there
was a building renovation, and a
revival which occurred in 1822
bringing twenty more members by
baptism.
In 1827, Rev. Morgan R. Cox became
the eighth pastor and served until
1848. Church meeting minutes from
this time have survived, recording
 detailed accounts of church
discipline and revealing the church
body’s insistence on holding each
member accountable; the church was
clearly committed to holiness and
spiritual maturity. During this time
the church experienced two more
revivals, adding thirty members in
1832 and another forty in 1837.
The ninth pastor was Rev. Edward C.
Ambler, who served from 1848-1851.
The Fall of 1850 brought the
greatest revival experienced yet in
the area, and 107 people were added
to Mt. Bethel’s congregation by
baptism. One of these converts was
David Bird, a local hotel owner. He
had served whiskey at his hotel for
decades, but after he became a
Christian he and
some others decided to roll the
hotel’s barrels of whiskey outside,
smash them, and let the contents run
down the street! Mt. Bethel was now
up to 220 members, and Rev. Ambler
decided it was time to plant a
sister church with eighty of Mt.
Bethel’s wealthiest and most
influential members. The church was
planted across town on the North
side of the Dead and Passaic rivers;
this was the birth of
Millington
Baptist Church, which is still
thriving today.
The tenth pastor was Rev. Jacob Timberman, who began ministering in
1852. It was during this time that a
weekly prayer meeting was
established as well as a Sabbath
School. However, the following years
proved to be difficult for Mt.
Bethel. Some of these difficulties
included theological disputes,
strict church discipline issues, and
unnecessary divisions within the
church body. By 1854, there seems to
have been two groups meeting in the
same church, with Rev. Thomas W.
Haynes preaching to one faction in
the morning and John Crampton
preaching to another in the
afternoon. A biography of John
Crampton can be read
here. The exact nature and
reasons for the division is unclear,
but was described by the church
clerk in 1854: “The church is now
destitute of a pastor, and in a very
unsettled state. Its peace has been
disturbed for several months, and
there are serious divisions amongst
us; we who were weak at the
strongest have become more weak, and
now have to mourn over the
desolation of our beloved Mt. Zion.”
Despite these troubling
circumstances, Mt. Bethel pushed
forward. Several pastors served the
church over the next two decades,
although the exact dates of their
service are not clearly recorded.
They included Rev. Thomas H. Cole,
Brother Taylor, Andrew Hopper of
Millington Baptist, Mr. William Pike
(who served from 1862-1866), and
Englishman Rev. T. Simpkins. The
pulpit was sometimes filled by Rev. Zelotes Grenell, who also served at
Millington Baptist. Rev. Grenell
held several meetings in 1871
 and
1872 where many were converted and
baptized in the mill pond on Mountainview Road, in the middle of
winter. Of this time we know that
the ice was being broken for
baptisms, and one woman exclaimed,
“Christians, if your heart be warm,
ice and snow can do no harm!” In
later years, the use of the mill
pond for baptisms was replaced by a
baptismal at Millington Baptist
Church.
·
1900-2000
·
After these transitional years,
Rev. Peter Gibb from Scotland and also
of Millington Baptist Church became
the pastor of Mt. Bethel in 1871,
serving until 1911. In his nearly
forty years of ministry at Mt.
Bethel, he was called a “model
country pastor.” He had a deep
appreciation of hymnology and
provided singing lessons. He was
described as a popular,
sweet-spirited man who was faithful
to the church. He preached a total
of 6,260 sermons before he passed
away at age seventy-eight.
Following Brother Gibb was Rev.
William H. Mount. He was called as
pastor in 1913 and revitalized the
Sunday School program, serving
faithfully with his wife until he
died in 1931, bringing out nearly
all of Mt. Bethel for his funeral.
Next was Carl H. Voss, who served
from 1931-1933 and organized
Warren’s first Boy Scout troop. James A. Howell
served next from
1934-1940, during which time the
Meeting House was painted and
repaired, and youth services began
meeting in the evening. In 1940, F.
Dudley Bahrenburg was called and
served until 1946, instituting the
church’s first Good Friday services
and purchasing a new organ. He was
succeeded by Earl B. Mowen, who
served until 1948. After this, Rev.
Stanley Formanek was called, and he
served as pastor until he retired in
1965. During this time, Mt. Bethel
severed its connection with the
American Baptist Convention to
become an independent Baptist church
and united with the Independent
Fundamental Churches of America in
1956. Rev. Formanek encouraged
renovation by fixing up the balcony
and installing new lighting.
 Plans
for a new church building were also
being considered. Then Rev. Formanek
announced a gift of one and a half
acres of land, including a house,
from Hazel, Janice and Leon Zeglio.
Ground-breaking ceremonies for the
new building were held in 1957, and
services began in the basement of
the building in 1959. The new
building was dedicated and Mt.
Bethel’s first indoor baptismal
service was held on Easter Sunday,
April 17th, 1960. As for the Mt.
Bethel Meeting House on Old Church
Road, it is still standing today and
is quite possibly the oldest Baptist
church building in New Jersey. It is
listed on the
National Register of
Historic Places.
Rev. Formanek was succeeded by
interim pastor Rev. John Givens
of
Scotch Plains. In 1966, Rev. Floyd
C. Alley became the first full-time
pastor and served for ten years. In
1976, Rev. Charles Renken, who was a
missionary in Venezuela, pastored
for ten years before returning to
the mission field. In 1987, Rev.
Robert Damrau became the pastor and
served for about a decade, during which
the church celebrated its 225th
anniversary. In 1995, Dr. David R.
Babbitt began to serve as pastor.
 ·
2000 – Present
·
Dr.
Babbitt served faithfully from 1995
until he retired in 2008 to teach at
Liberty University. He was a
diligent expositor of the Word, and
concurrently served as dean and
professor at Philadelphia Biblical
University. He built into the hearts
of his students a genuine love for
the Word of God. One of his
students, Mike Perna, served as
Youth Director and Outreach Director
at Mt. Bethel. Another one of his
students, Rev. David Hentschel,
was called to serve in the Summer of
2009, and is our current pastor.
Since its original eighteen members
in 1767, Mt. Bethel Baptist Church
has remained faithful to the call to
preach the gospel and to make
disciples. It has served as a
training ground for new ministers
and is a strong supporter of world
missions. It has remained faithful
to conservative evangelical theology
and has been a constant presence in
the community; but the focus of
history is not about the successes
of any particular church or
individual. Rather, it is about the
triumph of the one true God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
building His church. On the great,
wide stage of the drama of human
redemption, Mt. Bethel has been
privileged to play a small role. It
is a story of grace and love, and we
pray that the Lord of all history
will continue to find us faithful to
His call and use us for His purposes
in the future. To Him be the glory
forever and ever!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Griffiths, Thomas Sharp, "A
History of Baptists in New Jersey."
Barr Press Publishing Co.:
Hightstown, New Jersey, 1904.
- Minutes of the East New
Jersey Baptist Association, pages
25-31, 1872. accessed online at
http://www.geocities.com/baptist_documents/1872hist_mbbc.html
- Newsletter of the Warren
Township Historical Society.
Vol. 1, No. 8, Fall 1992.
- Siegel, Alan A. The Mount
Bethel Baptist Meeting House,
Cemetery and Church, Warren
Towship Historic Sites Committee,
Warren Township, New Jersey, 1992.
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