A Lighthouse on the Curve: More Than Two Centuries on Hopewell Road
Somewhere along a curve in Anderson, South Carolina, a small brick church has stood watch for more than 220 years. Founded in 1803 near the headwaters of Six and Twenty Creek, Hopewell Baptist Church has outlasted log buildings, plank walls, and the brick structure that replaced them in 1949. It has watched the Civil War come and go. It has sent sons and daughters into two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, and every American conflict since. Through it all, members describe the church the way its own historian did: a blessing to the nearby communities, a beacon sending out the love of God, and a place where the Good News that the Savior lives, forgives, and saves has never gone out.
The name Hopewell turns up in surprising places - an English town, a tiny ship that brought settlers to the New World, a Quaker meeting house in Virginia, the plantation of General Andrew Pickens near Clemson, and this small Baptist church along a bend in the road. The Reverend Moses Holland preached monthly in the original log structure, and that pioneering congregation was among the founding members of the Saluda Baptist Association that same year. In 1822, a 4.4-acre plot near Big Beaverdam Creek was donated to the church and a second log building went up. A third log building served during the Civil War years, drawing the legendary Manson Sherrill Jolly as an occasional attender. By 1891 the logs gave way to a ceiled wooden plank church, where the Reverend James Davis Chapman served as pastor in 1906 and 1907. The annual state missions offering of the South Carolina Baptist Convention still honors his wife, Janie.
The brick sanctuary that stands today replaced the plank building in 1949. Additions came in the 1960s and 1970s, and a family life center was added after the church parsonage burned in 2003. A historical marker now tells the story for travelers passing by. The church's own summary of its story reads: a Well full of Hope can be found at Hopewell.
What to Expect on Sunday Morning
The church gathers each Sunday for Sunday School at 10:00 a.m. and a morning worship service at 11:00 a.m. A Sunday evening hour at 6:00 p.m. brings the church family back together for prayer, children's ministry, and youth ministry, and a Wednesday night service meets at 6:30 p.m. The worship service follows a steady pattern: a time of reciting core Christian doctrines together, a prayer asking for God's blessing on the gathering, several hymns, a public reading of Scripture, a dismissal for Children's Church, expository preaching through a book of the Bible, a time to respond, and a closing prayer.
First-time guests are warmly welcomed but never put on the spot. The only request is that visitors willing to do so fill out a visitor's card. There is no set expectation about dress, and members and guests simply come ready to sing, pray, and hear the Word. The music is intentionally edifying rather than flashy, and the goal of the service is that every element would point to God's glory.
Hope Kids: From the Nursery through Fifth Grade
Children are not an afterthought at Hopewell. Hope Kids, the church's children's ministry, serves children from birth through fifth grade and meets in two places each week. On Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m., nursery care is provided for newborns through four-year-olds, and Sunday School classes gather for kindergarten through fifth grade. Children's Church is available during the morning worship service for children through second grade; families who prefer to keep their children in the sanctuary are warmly welcomed to worship together. On Sunday evenings at 6:00 p.m., Hope Kids gathers for Truth Trackers, a time of Bible memory, key-verse work, games, and snacks.
To serve families well, the church asks that visiting parents fill out a child registration form so volunteers can note any allergies or special needs. Childcare volunteers go through screening, background checks, and training before they serve.
The Well Students: A Ministry for Grades 6-12
Middle and high schoolers have their own ministry called The Well Students, and the team there is quick to push back on one common phrase: that young people are the future of the church. Students are the church right now, not just later, and the ministry's threefold purpose is to see them come to faith and be assured of it, to grow so their faith becomes their own and not just their parents', and to be on mission through evangelism.
The Well meets in two rhythms. On Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m., students gather for a Sunday School class that opens in prayer and works through Scripture together. On Sunday evenings at 6:00 p.m., the group comes back for a more interactive time that usually includes fellowship, snacks or a meal, a game, and Bible study. Lessons are designed to be more conversational and applied than the morning sermon, and students are encouraged to ask questions and speak up when they are comfortable.
Men's and Women's Ministries
Beyond the age-based programs for children and youth, Hopewell deliberately keeps its adult ministries multigenerational. The men do have a few rhythms of their own, however. The men's ministry meets regularly for a Saturday morning breakfast built around food, fellowship, and time in the Word. Outside the church, men sometimes gather at a driving range, a fishing pond, or other outings designed to bridge generations. Discipleship at Hopewell is meant to be organic: men sharpening one another in everyday life rather than only within a branded program.
Women's ministry takes several shapes. Once a month, the women of the church gather as Dot Ayers WMU, named for a long-time figure in the church's missions life, for a meal, Bible study, and a service project that meets a current missional need. Each January, the women sign up for Secret Sisters, leaving anonymous gifts and notes of encouragement for one another throughout the year, with a sister-reveal party in December. Once a year the women gather for Ladies' Night Out, an evening when the men of the church serve the women, food is shared, and the Word is taught.
What Hopewell Believes
All who join Hopewell affirm the church's Statement of Faith, which is the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. The confession registers the church's belief in historic Christianity, evangelical Christianity, believer's baptism, and congregational polity, and members agree to believe and live in accordance with it.
Hopewell teaches that the Bible is God-breathed, totally true and trustworthy, and the supreme standard for Christian belief and conduct. There is one living and true God, infinite in holiness and all perfections, who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons without division of nature or being. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, who honored God's law by His personal obedience and made provision for redemption through His substitutionary death on the cross. He rose from the dead with a glorified body, ascended to the right hand of God, and will return personally and visibly to judge the world. The Holy Spirit inspired Scripture, illuminates truth, exalts Christ, convicts of sin, regenerates believers, baptizes them into the body of Christ, cultivates Christian character, and empowers the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It involves regeneration, justification, sanctification, and final glorification. The church practices baptism by immersion of believers and observes the Lord's Supper as a memorial of the Redeemer's death. Marriage, the church teaches, is the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, a picture of the union between Christ and His church. Human life is sacred from conception to natural death.
Four Core Values
The church's identity is shaped by four core values that guide how it preaches, leads, gathers, and sends.
Expository Preaching. Hopewell takes preaching seriously because it takes the Bible seriously. Expositional preaching means the point of the text drives the point of the message. Most sermon series at Hopewell move through books of the Bible, equally Old and New Testament, and the church's recent preaching record bears that out: a years-long walk through Genesis, a careful study of James, expository messages through Daniel, a series on the family, and a series on the nine marks of a healthy church.
Elder-Led Congregationalism. Hopewell is Baptist by conviction, not only by name. That means the church practices believer's baptism and congregational government. Under the headship of Christ, the congregation as a whole carries the authority in the church, with each member responsible to honor Christ and keep the Great Commission in view. The term elder, the church teaches, is synonymous with pastor, and the pastors guide the church by the Word and with wisdom rather than by top-down authority.
Multigenerational Community. What holds Hopewell's people together across age and stage of life is shared unity in the gospel. The church encourages people of different generations to know, serve, and love one another. Beyond the age-based ministries for children and youth, adult groups are intentionally not broken up by age or stage of life, because the church believes there is real value in wisdom and experience being shared across generations.
Mission Focused. More than two centuries of ministry has not bred complacency. The church believes it is God alone who has kept Hopewell standing, and the Great Commission is taken seriously in everything the church does. Hopewell is active in local and international missions and is intentional about its gospel witness in every community event it hosts.
From Anderson to Uganda: The Mission Beyond
Three mission partnerships stretch Hopewell's reach well beyond Anderson County.
Christ Mission Network, Uganda. Since 2023, Hopewell has partnered with Christ's Mission Church in Uganda. Each year a team travels to offer pastoral training for Ugandan pastors and to encourage the churches there. The church also supports a native Ugandan pastor throughout the year as he serves faithfully in his own context.
Redeeming Grace Baptist Church, Indian Land, South Carolina. The church planters, Mason and Sarah Watts, were sent out of Hopewell, and the church family is committed to their work as they prepare to plant in Indian Land, just over the state line.
Fostering the Family. Because the church teaches that life is sacred from the womb to the tomb, Hopewell partners with Fostering the Family, an organization that serves foster families and the foster care system. The partnership is flexible and aims to meet needs wherever they arise.
Leadership at Hopewell
Dr. Dalton Fowler has served as pastor since June 2018. A native of the Upstate of South Carolina, he earned a B.A. in Christian Studies from North Greenville University before moving with his wife Nicole to Wake Forest, North Carolina, where he completed an M.Div. in Pastoral Ministry and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Fowlers have two children, Janie and Dean.
Ryan Marino serves as youth director, bringing a blend of creativity, energy, and a passion for discipleship to The Well Students. David Clardy has been part of the Hopewell family since September 2012 and serves as music director; he has previously been a youth coordinator with his wife Carla, a choir member, and a volunteer on the property and grounds and audio/visual teams. Lynn Greer, who has been at Hopewell for more than 30 years, has served as administrative assistant since 2008 and also as children's director. Cindy Ashenfelder serves as pianist.