Sandy Valley Baptist Church began as a mission church in 1967, sponsored by Centerville First Baptist Church.
According to records, the group started with seven members and grew to 27 within its first two months. In that first year, it became self-supporting. By 1969, while under the sponsorship of Central Baptist Church of Warner Robins, Sandy Valley Mission Church purchased land just more than three miles south of Centerville on South Houston Lake Road, where it remains today.
It was 42 years ago this month, in 1970, that the mission officially became Sandy Valley Baptist Church. Current pastor, the Rev. Phil Bryant, came to the church in 1993 in a support role and took on the mantle as pastor in 1998.
“We’re Southern Baptists, which means we’re very mission-minded,” Bryant said. “Right off the top, 12 percent of our money goes to missions, with other money added to that throughout the year. We work through the Rehoboth Baptist Association locally and do state missions through the Georgia Baptist Convention. International mission is done through the Southern Baptist Convention. We’re very involved in missions both at home and overseas.”
Born in Cochran, Bryant said his family moved to Macon when he was 8. Bryant graduated from Willingham High School in Macon, went to Middle Georgia College in Cochran and graduated with a business degree from the University of Georgia. He worked at his father’s business, Cochran Motor Co., a well-known car dealership that started in Cochran and moved with the family to Macon, then expanded to Warner Robins.
“I didn’t do seminary until I was 37,” Bryant said. “There were a lot of changes in my life at 26, and it was then I began to feel the call of God on my life to be a pastor. I didn’t respond right away. I wanted to make sure it was God and not just my own ambition.”
Responding to that call led Bryant to work with churches in Kentucky and Georgia and to attend seminary at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Middle Georgia again became his home in 1984 and Sandy Valley has been his home church for almost 20 years.
“Our focus at Sandy Valley Baptist is twofold,” Bryant said. “It’s to take the message of Jesus Christ to all the people we come into contact with and then, after they have become Christians, to help them mature into the person God wants them to be. Those are our two main objectives and there are a lot of things under them and ways to go about it, but those are the goals of the church.”
As a pastor who prepares two sermons and a Bible class lesson each Sunday as well as a sermon for Wednesday nights, Bryant said he is guided by the needs of the congregation and the community around them.
“The Bible is the eternal word of God and is relevant at all times, but I try to be sensitive to the needs of people now,” he said. “I read and explore God’s word daily and take into consideration the things people are going through and how the Bible applies to all our needs. As pastors and teachers, we have to bring the message to them as it was in Jesus’ day and show how it applies to us today. We’re really no different than people in the Bible. God took ordinary people then and did extraordinary things with them only because they took his word and let him use it in them with his power. He does the same today.”
Bryant said Sandy Valley is a welcoming place.
“Our church accepts everyone the same,” he said. “The people at Sandy Valley are people of compassion and are concerned about all the people around them, from family and friends to neighbors and co-workers. The love the people here have shown me through the years has been a highlight to me. It’s the same love they show to everyone who comes here and everyone we come into contact with.”
Contact Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.
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