Kilbourne Park Baptist Church

Kilbourne Park Baptist Church

It’s a familiar story in church histories. Newcomer families in a city lack a Sunday School in their neighborhood and start gathering and teaching in their homes. Membership grows, and pretty soon, a new church is chartered. That’s how Kilbourne Park Baptist Church began in the early 20th century.

In 1927 Springdale Memorial Baptist Church was officially organized with 36 charter members. Early members recall the collection plate being passed a second time if collections did not reach $ 5, as that amount was necessary to pay the $6.50 monthly building rental fee plus other expenses, which also included the minister’s salary.

The rental building served for about 10 years. A devoted pastor named The Rev. Thomas Benjamin Lanham borrowed against his life insurance to guarantee $ 5,000 to buy property at the corner of Belt line, Kilbourne Road, and Pinemont Drive, and by October 1938 services were being held in a small frame building at that location. Lanham’s faith was justified when the loan was paid off two years early, and the church became Kilbourne Park Baptist.

Rev. Travis Biller

Fort Jackson is described in the church history as “a booming campground” during those pre– WWII years. Soldiers crossed Gills Creek by walking a large pine tree thrown across the stream, to attend services there. Often as many as one to 200 military personnel were in attendance, many of them standing outside because the little building could not accommodate them all.

Today, Kilbourne Park Baptist Church enjoys a campus of four acres with a spacious sanctuary building and seven other structures housing the many activities of the congregation, which now numbers some 400.

The Rev. Travis Biller has served as senior pastor at Kilbourne Park since January, 2007. He describes a variety of activities which keep this congregation engaged.

“ We go on mission trips every year,” he says. “Up in Bland, Virginia, in the Appalachian area, a group regularly goes to help out and spread the gospel. The mission there operates a clothing closet and a food pantry, and they depend entirely upon volunteers for their landscaping and grounds upkeep. We do home repairs such as fixing a leaking roof or building a ramp for a handicapped person. Most of us stay at a farmhouse nearby; sometimes we have as many as 20 in the group.

“ Next September, we are starting out with a new venture. Four of us will travel to India on a Vision Trip, and seek to serve the Untouchables caste there. In India they are called Dalit.

“ We have no idea how this will turn out; it’s a leap of faith. We’ll see whether a return trip should be planned.”

Kilbourne Park Baptist also has a full calendar of traditional church programs, including a senior Joy Group which enjoys meetings and trips, a weekly outreach program, and prayer groups. Vacation Bible School is coming up in June; the theme will be Answers in Genesis.

The Rev. Biller was previously in Durham, North Carolina, and earned his seminary degree at Southeastern Baptist. His wife Diana was formerly a public school teacher, and is now homeschooling their two children, Christina, 12, and Ryan, 10.