Bridges Creek Baptist Church is little in size but large in history

Devoted Christians have been gathering to worship at Bridges Creek Church since a handful of early Ozark Countians organized a Missionary Baptist congregation there 152 years ago. All these years later, the little church on V Highway at Elijah, northwest of Bakersfield, continues each week to welcome a handful of devoted worshippers, now led by co-pastors Mike Evans and his wife, Retha. 

On most Sundays, fewer than 20 people sit in the church's cushioned pews, but those who attend do so deliberately, drawn by a special feeling of welcoming reverence. 

"I grew up in that church," said Bakersfield native Lyndell Strong, a longtime Gainesville resident now living in a senior facility in Mountain Home, Ark. "I was baptized in the little creek across from the church house," she said. 

Now 97, Lyndell has fond memories of riding to the church in a horsedrawn wagon with her parents, Earl and Roxie Roberts Farel, and her sister Hazel (Walden). By the time her sister Glenda (Donley) and brother Beach were added to the family, she said, "Daddy had bought him an old car, and we rode to church in that. We lived three or four miles away."

Lyndell added that her dad was Sunday school superintendent for many years and was very involved in keeping the church building maintained and improved. 

She remembers that "the church didn't have a piano, but we had an old pump organ that no one knew how to play." Lyndell and her sister Hazel sometimes sang special duets. 

One fond memory is attending a revival at Bridges Creek Church. "There was a boy at the revival, and he wanted to take me home after church," she said. "He didn't have a car. He had ridden his horse. So he walked me home, leading the horse."

She was glad to hear the church building is in good shape and regular services continue. "I was so afraid the church would run down," she said. "I would love to go back over there sometime."

She added that several generations of her family, going back to her great-great-great-grandparents, are buried in Baptist Hill Cemetery, which adjoins the church. Often the church is also referred to as Baptist Hill Church, although its official name is Bridges Creek Baptist.

From kerosene lamps to red shag carpeting 

No records of the church's earliest years survive, but the late Stella Butram was elected church clerk in 1924 and kept careful records for the next 36 years. In one of her first entries, Stella couldn't help but chide her predecessor a bit. "From 1915 to 1919, no record was kept of monthly [conference] meetings," she wrote. "Only a few on record from 1919-1924 due to the neglect of the church clerk at that time."

Stella served as clerk until 1960. In 1974 she helped Times editor-publisher Ruby Robins publish a centennial history of the church. The story noted that Agia Hensley was church clerk at that time. Stella Butram died in 1993 at age 100 and is buried in Baptist Hill Cemetery. Rhonda Watkins now holds the job of church clerk.

The Times' Feb. 7, 1974, story said the church was organized on Sept. 7, 1874, "in the Bridges Creek log schoolhouse by members of the pioneering Wiles family." 

Two of those Wiles family members were Robert Wiles, the church's first minister, and his brother, T. P. Wiles, the first church clerk. 

T. P. Wiles' obituary, published 54 years later in the Jan. 15, 1928, edition of the Times, provides insight into the family that founded the church. The obit says T. P., born in 1851 in Alabama, moved with his family from Arkansas to Saline County in central Missouri when the Civil War started. They moved to Ozark County in 1869, where, according to his obituary, "with his mother and brother and sister, . . . T.P. helped organize the Bridges Creek Baptist church." 

The 1926 obit continued, "This church has stood for fifty years and is still doing work for the Lord." It adds that T. P. had served as Sunday school superintendent for many years, and his children were "converted and baptized" there.  

T. P.'s obit also underscores his close connection with the church by noting that he died at his home "at the head of Bridges Creek" at 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 31, 1925, and his funeral was held at Bridges Creek Baptist Church less than 13 hours later, at 2:30 p.m. that same New Year's Eve day. 

The church's centennial story in the Times records the names of the 34 ministers who had served the church from 1874 to that point. Ruby Robins wrote that the list "read like a register of the pioneer families who settled in the Elijah-Bakersfield and nearby areas." Ira Johnston, the minister at that time, had served the congregation for the previous 20 years.

After 18 years of meeting in the log schoolhouse, the congregation constructed a frame building in 1892. That building was used destroyed by fire that happened during a Sunday morning service in 1914. 

The congregation met for services in the Plum Hollow school while a new church building – the one still in use today – was constructed in 1916 on 4 acres of land donated by Marvin and Lydia Pense. The building was constructed with donated labor and materials that were donated or bought using donated funds. 

The church is built of lumber planed from locally grown trees. The Times story said, "Wood for the new church was cut on the Allen Butram farm and hauled to a nearby sawmill by Butram and George Roberts. There it was sawed to dimension . . . by sawmill owners Perry Mullins and Pete and John Roberts."

Lighting was provided by kerosene lamps. "Some were hung from the ceiling by chain and others were fastened to the wall," the story said. These lamps were replaced with electric lights in 1949. In 1958, the church got a new roof and new siding that was painted white. 

In 1965, volunteers, including Lyndell Strong's dad, Earl Farel, added the church's concrete porch. Later, the porch was enclosed. In 1969, the church got a piano.

During the next few years, a variety of improvements were made, including electric heat, insulation, interior wall paneling, a new ceiling and fluorescent light fixtures, and new pews. In a sign of the time, in 1972 red shag carpeting was installed.

'Such a sweet spirit'

These days, the Bridges Creek Baptist Church congregation is small in number but strong in feelings of faith and family. 

"I've always felt such a sweet spirit among the congregants there," said Anna Winfrey Watlington, a longtime Bridges Creek members and lifelong Bakersfield-area resident. "We're a close-knit family."

Growing up, Anna and her family attended several area churches, including Bridges Creek. Her mother played the piano there. "Then life happened" and she moved away, Anna said. She came back to the church in 2014 when a friend invited her. "It felt like coming home again," she said. "I rededicated my life there, and I've been there ever since."  

Anna and her husband, Tim, raised all four of their children in Bridges Creek Baptist Church. "Our children have all been saved there," she said. "And they've all been active in the church – as songleader, taking up the offering, teaching Sunday school. I feel like God's had his hand on them," she said. 

Anna has served as clerk and financial secretary in the past, and these days she often leads the singing. She wasn't too concerned about finding a new pastor after Daryl Haney left. 

"When a pastor leaves, it's like God's got someone ready to come in," she said. "I know he's going to continue to look out for the church. 

The Watlington children are grown now – Nathan, 19; Jacob, 20; Kurt, 22; and Kasandra Tompkins, 25 (and husband Skylar and daughter Annalyia) – but when they're home, they join their parents at Bridges Creek. The church doesn't have its own baptistry, but all were "saved" at Bridges Creek and then were baptized when the congregation went to another area church to use its baptistry.

Most recently, Nathan rededicated his life and was baptized again by current pastor Mike Evans in a stock tank that was brought in and filled with water for that purpose. 

'I felt lost if I didn't go'

Edsel Johnston, 95, is the congregation's oldest member. He attends regularly with his daughter, Rhonda Watkins, who serves as church secretary. And he's credited with bringing current co-pastors Mike and Retha Evans to Bridges Creek Baptist. 

Edsel was born on what is now Cloud 9 Ranch "when it was a cattle ranch," he said. For the last 40 years or so, he has lived near Caulfield in a house built in 1946 "by my grandmother's sister and her husband. I helped a little," he said.

Edsel didn't grow up going to church. In fact, he barely went at all until he was about 40, he said. Then he gave it a try.

"You hear a lot. You hear a lot of good Christian people talking, and I got interested," he said. 

He attended another area church for quite a while but left it when he felt that his beliefs were no longer in sync with what was being taught there. "I kind of stayed out awhile," he said. "But I missed going to church. I felt lost if I didn't go." 

One day he happened to talk with "a lady I've known for years," he said, "and she said, 'Why don't you come down [to Bridges Creek Baptist]?'" Daryl Haney was pastor at the time. "You'll like him," the friend said. 

And he did. 

That was about five years ago," he said. Since then, Daryl Haney has moved on to a different congregation, but Edsel likes current pastor Mike Evans, and he and his daughter, Rhonda, attend regularly. "I look forward to the sermon," he said. "I like to hear the Word and the life of Jesus. It gives me peace."

'The Spirit is present'

Like Edsel, Mike Evans looks forward to the sermon – the message he feels led to share at Bridges Creek Baptist each Sunday. "I feel like the Lord directed Retha and me there, and he's helping us present the Word. That gives me some fulfillment in my Christian walk," he said. 

Being a pastor is Mike's second (or maybe third) career. He retired in 2016 after working for Century Bank of the Ozarks for 40 years. He started his banking career after owning and operating an automobile body shop in Caulfield. And before that, he was earning a bachelor’s degree, beginning at what is now Missouri State University-West Plains and then finishing at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar in 1975.

Mike has deep roots in Ozark County, and he comes from a family of ministers. He grew up in the Caulfield area, the son of Erma and the late Farris Evans. Farris was a farmer and milk-route driver before going to college and becoming a preacher. He eventually served as pastor at Clear Springs Church near Dawt. It was the same church where Mike’s great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Evans, had served as pastor in the late 1800s, and where his grandfather, Ruel Evans, had served as a deacon.

Mike is an ordained deacon, as are his three brothers, David, John and Sam Evans. David recently retired after serving several years as pastor of Walnut Grove Church in Ava. David, who is also a psychologist, still does some work as a counselor.

John, a part-time West Plains resident, has been involved in youth ministry there. 

Sam, a missionary physician who served for many years in the Philippines, now works part-time at an urgent care clinic in West Plains and also serves as pastor at Clear Springs Church.

After the 2003 death of his first wife, the former Susan Kirkland, Mike married Retha McAfee, whose spouse, Keith Evans, Mike's cousin, had also died. They were married in June 2004 at Clear Springs Church and have enjoyed ministering together whenever an opportunity arises.

When Mike retired from Century Bank, they were attending Lilly Ridge General Baptist Church, where Mike served as deacon. When Retha's parents, who lived in West Plains, became unable to attend their longtime church on their own, she started taking them while Mike stayed at Lilly Ridge. "But after a year or so I thought my place would be to go with her," Mike said.

A Jan. 28 story in the Times about Mike's recently released book “Chosen: 444 Reasons to Live by the Word of God,” described how they were led to Bridges Creek Baptist: 

Without letting each other know, both Mike and Retha had been quietly praying about becoming more involved in ministry. Then, in September 2025, a longtime family friend, Edsel Johnston, asked Mike to fill in temporarily at Bridges Creek while the congregation looked for a permanent pastor to replace Daryl Haney.

Mike agreed, and Retha accompanied him to Bridges Creek and taught Sunday school there. 

In November, after about six weeks of filling in, the congregation invited Mike and Retha to serve as permanent co-pastors at the church. Retha surprised Mike by saying the invitation was an answer to prayer. She felt they were meant to be there. It turned out that, without telling each other, they had both been praying for the same thing – God's direction into deeper ministry.  

Since then, Mike and Retha have happily carried out that God-given guidance, and they share the feeling of reverent closeness that others have described there. 

"I feel like the Spirit is present in our services," Mike said. "It's a family."

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Everyone is welcome to Bridges Creek Baptist Church services: Wednesdays at 7 p.m.; and Sunday school at 10 a.m. Sunday followed by the worship service at 11 a.m.