Benevolence Baptist Church, located in rural Randolph County, traces its beginnings to November 16, 1831, when Peter Eldridge and James S. Lunsford constituted a new church with just nine members. It was originally called Mount Paran. Three years later, the congregation withdrew from the Columbus Association and, in 1833, became one of the fourteen founding churches of the Bethel Association. In 1839, the name was changed to Walnut Grove, but soon another shift was on the horizon. In 1840, controversy over the formation of a Home Mission Society led the congregation to withdraw from the Bethel Association. In a spirit of both principle and zeal, they renamed themselves Benevolence Baptist Church. The land for the church and cemetery was donated by Thomas Coram, the area’s first settler.

Under its first pastor, James Mathews, the church flourished. By his death in 1847, membership had grown from fourteen to 250. By 1887, more than 700 people had joined, with nearly 500 baptisms recorded. Former pastor William Norton noted in 1879 that the church had called fifteen different pastors in fifty years, usually on an annual basis, and maintained strict discipline—condemning drunkenness, dancing, billiards, and other practices considered improper. By that year, the church counted just over 100 members but remained firm in its convictions. Norton wrote that the very name Benevolence served as “the watchword to rouse their fagging zeal and stir to faithfulness in filling the Master’s last command.”

The current sanctuary was built around 1900 and is an architectural gem. While based on the traditional corner-steeple meetinghouse style, it incorporates fanciful Victorian and Carpenter Gothic influences. Its elaborate corner steeple is crowned with four smaller towers surrounding a central spire, topped with a globe—a design that still draws admiration today. For nearly two centuries, Benevolence Baptist has been a place of worship, community, and continuity. Though the congregation has weathered many changes, Sunday services continue, and visitors are warmly welcomed. The church remains both a monument to its past and a testament to the enduring faith of the community that built it.