Mount Zion marks 200 year journey, and 'freedom to worship God' 'Church on the Lake'
FRANKLIN TWP — This weekend, Mt. Zion Baptist Church turns 200.
The “church on the lake” has seen many changes in those two centuries.
It began as a group meeting in a barn, before its congregation gathered to construct a church building. From then, it transformed from a creek-side church to a lake-side church. The nearby village whose residents called the church theirs was swallowed up by waters of Lake Arthur, but the church itself remained.
“To think, 200 years our church has been established,” said Margaret White, the church's librarian. “And we're still here. We still have the freedom to worship God.”
Mt. Zion began on Oct. 19, 1819, as Muddy Creek Baptist Church, according to history documents assembled by members. Its name changed in 1895 to Mt. Zion to avoid confusion with another similarly named church.
Those early sermons were delivered by Henry Spear, a teacher from a nearby one-room school. Early services were in Cadwalder Baker's barn, until 1844, when Baker gave the congregation the land where the church sits.
Today, there are three different colored buildings seemingly jutting out from each other. Closest to Lake Arthur the walls are made of red brick — the brick, according to church documents, was made from clay in Muddy Creek. The other two buildings are expansions added as the congregation grew.
Back in its origins, the church sat near Muddy Creek and a nearby town called Isle. Isle vanished in the middle of the 20th century as the state took land to create the lake and Moraine State Park, but the state allowed the church to remain.
Barb Lindey, a lifelong church member, recalls how the change in scenery affected her worship.
“It used to take us two-and-a-half miles to get to church,” Lindey said. “It went to 10 miles.”
Today, Pastor Ben Oesterling said, the church is nearly synonymous with its lake-side location. People are frequently unfamiliar when he mentions his church by name, he said, but know exactly where he means when he says “the church by the lake.”
Whenever guest speakers come to the church, the congregation sits and waits for them to notice the windows in the back of the worship hall. They start talking, and then their eyes turn to the windows looking out over the lake.“Usually, they go wow,” Lindey said.Lindey's grandparents, John and Mary Murphy, were the first to be married in the church. At the time, marriages were usually in homes.Gary and Ruth Ann Horne were married in the church's basement in 1962, they recalled.The couple said they credit their congregation's faithfulness with the church's longevity.“He's protected us all these years,” Horne said. “A lot of things could have happened.”The church has a connection to nature that little can shake. Oesterling said it helps connect people to sermons. Sometimes they see boaters listening to their service from the water, as the church broadcasts it over loudspeakers in the belltower.“It's a beautiful place,” he said. “We just see God's design in everything. You look out and see beautiful leaves and lake.”The church-goers have several stories about wildlife. Before white-nose syndrome took down the local bat population, a 12-foot-by-12-foot bat house out back supported a healthy population. The winged animals would sometimes join in the Sunday services.Those leaves Oesterling mentioned were once raked up and stuffed into a couple of newlyweds' car during their wedding. The couple opened the doors to their car to find a leafy surprise waiting.
And once, Oesterling recalled, a couple of peacocks were dropped off near the church. They amused the congregation for some time before conservation officers caught them. White recalled running out from the church library to answer the door, only to find it was just one of the birds pecking.Weather has kept the congregation away from the church building itself a few times, but extreme cold has been conquered in its pews. The Hornes and Lindey recalled people putting bricks on their stoves, wrapping them in blankets and bringing them along for the Sunday service.The church has long used the waters of both Muddy Creek and Lake Arthur for baptisms. Though they don't today, Oesterling said church members once were in the practice of cutting into the lake's ice for baptisms.At 34, Oesterling said he's proud to be seeing the church into its 200th year. He's been there since 2007.“It's a big honor, especially when I think of all the pastors of the past,” he said. “I hope in another 200 years someone else will still be here to see it continue.About 100 people attend Sunday services today, he said.The church is holding a 200th anniversary celebration at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Lunch, games and outdoor music will follow the service.
