Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church

2025-2026 Bill 5657: Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church - South Carolina Legislature Online

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
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H. 5657
STATUS INFORMATION
House Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. Alexander, Anderson, Atkinson, Bailey, Ballentine, Bamberg, Bannister, Bauer, Beach, Bernstein, Bowers, Bradley, Brewer, Brittain, Burns, Bustos, Calhoon, Caskey, Chapman, Chumley, Clyburn, Cobb-Hunter, Collins, Cox, Crawford, Cromer, Davis, Dillard, Duncan, Edgerton, Erickson, Ford, Forrest, Frank, Gagnon, Garvin, Gatch, Gibson, Gilliam, Gilliard, Gilreath, Govan, Grant, Guest, Guffey, Haddon, Hager, Hardee, Harris, Hart, Hartnett, Hartz, Hayes, Henderson-Myers, Herbkersman, Hewitt, Hiott, Hixon, Holman, Hosey, Howard, Huff, J.E. Johnson, J.L. Johnson, Jones, Jordan, Kilmartin, King, Kirby, Landing, Lastinger, Lawson, Ligon, Long, Lowe, Luck, Magnuson, Martin, McCabe, McCravy, McDaniel, McGinnis, C. Mitchell, D. Mitchell, Montgomery, J. Moore, T. Moore, Morgan, Moss, Neese, B. Newton, W. Newton, Oremus, Pace, Pedalino, Pope, Rankin, Reese, Rivers, Robbins, Rose, Rutherford, Sanders, Schuessler, Scott, Sessions, G.M. Smith, M.M. Smith, Spann-Wilder, Stavrinakis, Taylor, Teeple, Terribile, Vaughan, Waters, Weeks, Wetmore, White, Whitmire, Wickensimer, Williams, Willis, Wooten and Yow
Document Path: LC-0505DG-GM26.docx
Introduced in the House on May 6, 2026
Adopted by the House on May 6, 2026
Summary: Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date

Body

Action Description with journal page number

5/6/2026

House

Introduced and adopted (
House Journal-page 19
)

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legislative information
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VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
05/06/2026

A
house
RESOLUTION

to recognize and honor the storied history and
significant contributions of Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church for two
centuries and to wish the congregation many more years of prosperous and
productive ministry.

W
hereas, Nazarene
Missionary Baptist Church began as a "church within a church," where enslaved
members worshipped God at Gapway Baptist Church, in 1826. Around 1840, Gapway
Church leaders gave their permission for Peter and Primus Gerald, sons of Alcey
Lewis Gerald and slaveowner Samuel Gerald, to exercise their faith because they
had an understanding of the Scriptures; and

W
hereas, these brothers
along with two sons of Poo Too Gooshular, Dan and Moses Reaves, a blacksmith,
conducted services under a brush shelter with the supervision of Gapway Church deacons.

Around 1841, the congregation's first permanent
structure was built; and

W
hereas, in 1866, the
Gethsemane Association ordained three ministers: Cornelius Reaves, Thornell
Reaves, and Simon Owens. Nazarene has been under the leadership of various
pastors beginning with the three founding fathers. Twenty-eight ministers have
served the congregation since then. As more churches were established in the
1880s, a need arose for a unified body to bring congregations together in
fellowship, so the Nazarene Union was formed in 1882; and

W
hereas, the Sunday
School Convention, an auxiliary of the Nazarene Union, is documented as the
sole surviving Nazarene Union record from that era. Faded by more than one
hundred twenty-two years, the document identifies four trustees who purchased
land in Mullins for sixty dollars and twenty-two cents. The location, transfer
history, and present ownership of the land are unknown; and

W
hereas, in May of
1867, a group of one hundred sixteen families of Nazarene Baptist Church heard
about the efforts of the American Colonization Society to emigrate former
slaves to the country of Liberia. Led by Minister Cornelius Reaves, a nephew of
Moses Reaves, they set out from Mullins Depot to board a ship set to land in Liberia
two months later. They were not heard from until a year later when a letter
from Allen Reeves, brother of Cornelius, arrived and assured their families and
the church of their safe arrival to Grand Bassa County, Liberia; and

W
hereas, in March of
1875, a series of tornadoes destroyed the congregation's first wooden
structure. According to the
Daily Phoenix
, a Columbia newspaper, "Not a
fragment of Nazarene, a Baptist Church of the Colored People, was left to mark
its original site. The benches were carried forty or fifty yards and torn into
splinters." Around 1877, a new church was built; and

W
hereas, Noah W.
Cooper, a teacher and local historian, wrote in the
Mullins Enterprise
,
"The Negro church in those days was Nazarene near Gapway. There hundreds of
Negroes went to preaching. They would stream in as far as Horry to go to
meeting at old Nazarene." Current Mt. Olive and St. Paul Baptist churches are
among churches that descended from Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church. The 1877
church building served the congregation until 1971 when the newest sanctuary
was built; and

W
hereas, built around
1900, Nazarene "Colored School," a one-room school, served the children in the
area. Similar to Rosenwald School, it was built across the road from the church
by the congregation with lumber provided by the Collins family. Later, in this
exact spot, a two-room school was built. Nazarene Baptist Church owns two
cemeteries, one located on the church grounds and the older one near the church.
These cemeteries are final resting places for slaves and their descendants; and

W
hereas, the South
Carolina House of Representatives is grateful for the courage and faith of the
members of Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church and for the legacy the church is
leaving for those who will follow, and the House members look forward their
continued contributions to the community as the congregation worships and
serves God. Now, therefore,

B
e it resolved by the
House of Representatives
:

T
hat the members of the
South Carolina
House of Representatives
,
by this resolution, recognize and honor the storied history and significant
contributions of Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church for two centuries and wish
the congregation many more years of prosperous and productive ministry.

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This web page was last updated on May 6, 2026 at 11:51 AM