Bethel Baptist Church sits at 7022 Bethel Road in Greenbrier, Tennessee, just outside Springfield in Robertson County. It is one of the oldest congregations in the area, organized in 1885 by a small group of charter members who walked away from Bethlehem Baptist Church with letters of dismissal. For nearly a century and a half, Bethel has stayed put on the same stretch of rural road, adding buildings, classrooms, a gymnasium, a daycare wing, and a state-of-the-art worship center while keeping the same gospel-centered focus. Today, under Pastor Brandon Pugh and Associate Pastor K.C. Rader, the church gathers each Sunday morning for worship and each Sunday and Wednesday evening for study, with ministries that reach from newborns through senior adults and out into the wider community through food ministries and global missions.
A Heritage Going Back to 1885
In May of 1885, eleven members received letters of dismissal from Bethlehem Baptist Church, then known as the United Baptist Church of Christ, for the purpose of organizing a new church. They named it Bethel Baptist Church. The first meeting place was on the farm of Bill Cole, about a mile and a quarter north of where the church stands today. Twenty-five charter members eventually gathered for the construction of the first purpose-built building.
Mrs. Armistead Webb, known to the community as Granny Betty, chose the present location for that first building. Her daughter, Elizabeth Jones, and Elizabeth's husband Stephen conveyed the land to the deacons of Bethel by deed, and the original structure went up: a modest 38-by-45-foot building with hand-dressed wood siding on the outside, a small pulpit at one end inside, and lighting from kerosene lamps. Baptisms in those early years took place in Sulphur Fork Creek and Distillery Lake. A Bethel school was built on the northeast side of the church.
In 1920 the congregation voted to tear down the original building and build a new one. While construction was underway, services moved to a large brush arbor on the grounds, then to the old Kelly Willis School when the weather turned bad. The present auditorium and Sunday School rooms were completed that same year at a cost of $2,000. A partial basement followed in 1956, along with a nearby parsonage, and in 1964 the church added educational space on the north side and a small steeple on the front. The auditorium was remodeled in 1983 in preparation for the centennial celebration two years later.
The largest expansion came in 1995 with a multi-phase building program. Phase I added a family life center with a gymnasium, an elevated walking track, a new kitchen, additional religious education space, and facilities to house a state-certified daycare center. Phase II, completed and dedicated in June 1999, installed an elevator and finished out the second floor of the new building. Phase III, the construction of a new state-of-the-art worship center, followed in the years after. The result is a campus that still feels rooted in the country setting where Granny Betty chose to build, but offers room for a much larger ministry than twenty-five charter members could have imagined.
Sunday at Bethel
The main gathering is Sunday morning worship at 10:30 A.M. Before that, Sunday School runs from 9:00 to 10:15 A.M. with classes for every age, from nursery through adult electives. Sunday evening at 6:30 P.M. the church offers small groups. Children, students, and adults all have a place in the schedule.
Members describe the worship service as a clear, Bible-saturated gathering with prayer, congregational singing, and expository preaching. Children's Church dismisses during the offering so younger kids can head to Bethel Kids for Worship Kid's Way (called WKW), with Bible stories, crafts, activities, games, drama, and video illustrations. The Lord's Supper is observed on a regular schedule, including Communion Sundays that follow major series.
Sunday services are livestreamed on Bethel Baptist's YouTube channel, so anyone unable to attend in person can follow along at home or on the go.
Wednesday Nights Around the Tables
Bethel keeps a full midweek calendar. At 6:30 P.M. on Wednesdays, the church offers Bible studies for adults in the auditorium. Bethel Kids gathers at the same hour for its own program, and youth meet for The Grove midweek worship service from 6:30 to 7:30 P.M. Adult classes have walked book-by-book through the Bible, including studies of Heaven, the Fruit of the Spirit, and 1 Samuel, with sermons referenced and journals available for those working through the same passages during the week.
These Wednesday gatherings are also where members learn about upcoming mission trips, sign up for service projects, and pray for one another. During the summer, Bethel runs Summer Bible Camp on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M., and Centrikid fills part of the week with a camp-style children's program alongside youth trips to Nashville and Scotland.
Bethel Kids
Bethel Kids exists to help children become true disciples of Jesus Christ by building relationships with them, being examples for them, and teaching them God's Word. From newborn through fifth grade, there is a Sunday School class and a worship care class designed for the child's age. During the 10:30 A.M. service, after the offering, children are dismissed to WKW for their own time of Bible stories, crafts, activities, games, drama, and worship.
Child safety is taken seriously. At check-in, both child and parent receive coordinating name tags; no child is released without the matching tag. Every kids leader has been safety certified, background checked, and trained to work with their age group. Parents can leave their children with confidence.
The Grove Student Ministries
The Grove is Bethel's student ministry for middle and high schoolers. The goal is to provide an open atmosphere where students know that they matter, where they can be honest, open, heard, accepted, and equipped to live as a light for Christ. Sunday mornings at 9:00 A.M., students meet in small groups on the third floor of the education wing. They then join their families in the sanctuary for the 10:30 worship service. Wednesday nights bring a dedicated midweek worship service from 6:30 to 7:30 P.M.
The Grove's approach centers on three streams. Students Reaching Students extends the love of Christ to friends and shines as a light in darkness. Students Teaching Students focuses on growing in the knowledge of God's Word and the character of Christ. Students Influencing the World sends young people out to serve in the church, the community, and the world.
Adult Ministries
Bethel's adult ministry exists to draw people together as Kingdom builders in their lives, homes, jobs, community, and church. The aim is continual growth in Christ through prayer, the study of His Word, fellowship, and service.
Men's Ministry helps men dig in, grow up, and branch out through relationships built on fellowship and discipleship. Events include the annual Men's Wild Game Dinner and the Men's Sermon Group that meets at the church on Sunday afternoons to discuss the previous day's preaching.
Women's Ministry is intentional about getting together for fellowship and service. The women sew blankets for newborns, plan baby and wedding showers for members, and offer various learning and fellowship opportunities throughout the year. Women are also available to counsel and pray with other women in need.
Senior Adults at Bethel are some of the most active folks around. From potluck dinners and special events to trips and home fellowships, they stay busy and connected. Details for all adult ministry events appear in the Bethel Banner newsletter and the events calendar.
The Discipleship Path: Digging In, Growing Up, Branching Out
Bethel organizes the Christian life around three verbs. Digging In is the commitment step: come to Jesus, be baptized if you have not been, and join the church. The DIGGING IN @ Bethel membership class walks new members through what it means to belong.
Growing Up is the steady work of becoming more like Christ. Bethel encourages members to attend church weekly, join a small group of some kind (traditional Sunday School, Wednesday night Bible study, or a Grow Group of three to five people of the same gender), pray and study the Bible personally, and meet with another believer to share what they are learning. Recent sermon series have included books of the Bible verse-by-verse, and members are encouraged to memorize Scripture together as a church.
Branching Out is the outward step. Once rooted in Christ and growing in Him, members look around them - neighbors, coworkers, classmates, family, the people they see every day - and look for ways to share what they have received. Bethel lists several places to plug in: Children's Ministry, Youth Ministry, Daily Bread, Special Events, Prayer Team, Welcome Team, and others. Anyone with a heart to serve is invited to ask a pastor where they might fit.
Missions and Outreach
Bethel takes seriously both local mercy ministry and global gospel witness. The Daily Bread program provides meals to local shut-ins, and Bethel women also deliver flower pots to shut-ins each spring. The church partners with the YMCA food giveaway and recruits volunteers to hand out food on Thursday afternoons during the summer. Operation Christmas Child is an annual effort: Bethel collects shoeboxes during the national collection week each November to send to underprivileged children around the world.
Beyond Greenbrier, Bethel supports international Bible translation through the Blank Bible Project, and members have given toward translating the book of Philippians into the Katavi language. The church also responds to disasters, from local flooding to Hurricane Helene relief in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, by sending volunteer teams and supplies. Each year the church plans three mission trips, with past trips taking members to places like Scotland, Nashville, and Romania, and the church supports the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions through the North American Mission Board.
What Bethel Believes
Bethel Baptist holds to historic Baptist convictions. The church teaches that the Holy Bible is God's Word, written by men divinely inspired, true without mixture of error, and the standard for all human conduct and creeds.
The church believes in one true and living God who exists in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Humanity was created in holiness but fell into sin through voluntary transgression, leaving all people under the condemnation of eternal ruin. Salvation is wholly of grace through the atoning death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ; through justification, the perfect righteousness of God is imputed to believers.
Bethel practices two ordinances. Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and is reserved for those who have professed faith. The Lord's Supper is observed by those who have been scripturally baptized. Bethel also teaches that repentance and faith are inseparable graces wrought by the Holy Spirit, that the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the Gospel, and that a church of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers bound together in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel.
Pastoral Leadership
Brandon Pugh has served as pastor of Bethel since September 2015. A native of Harlan, Kentucky, he was raised in Cullman, Alabama, and was called into gospel ministry while in college. He holds a Master of Divinity from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctorate from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He and his wife Tracy have six children - Britt, Brooks, Breanna, Brayden, Braxton, and Bridgette - and he spends most of his free time with them.
K.C. Rader joined the team as associate pastor. Born and raised in Loudon, Tennessee, he completed his B.S. at Tennessee Technological University and his M.A. at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. For five years before coming to Bethel he and his family lived in Louisville, where K.C. taught faith and Bible at a private middle school. He and his wife Sara have two children, Myatt and Chapel.
Planning a Visit
First-time guests are welcomed in person and online. The church meets for worship every Sunday at 10:30 A.M. Sunday School begins at 9:00 A.M. and small groups meet Sunday evenings at 6:30. There is no dress code - some members wear suits and dresses, others wear jeans and T-shirts. Newcomers who arrive with children should look for a greeter at the entrance to the Education wing, where they will be walked to the Bethel Kids area, given a security tag, and escorted to the right classroom before being shown to worship.
The church office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., and on Sundays from 9:00 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. Giving is available online through the Amplify giving platform, with one-time and monthly options and the choice to cover a 2.75% processing fee. The Bethel Banner newsletter, posted on the church's site, keeps members informed of upcoming events and class schedules.