Nine months ago there were no Seventh-day Adventist members in Highland County. It was one of the dark counties in Virginia. Today there is a new congregation worshiping in a new white-brick church with wall-to-wall carpeting and cushioned pews.
The congregation of twenty-nine members (one has passed away) saw this church dedicated eight months and one week after the first member was baptized. It stands as a new memorial shining for God along a country road in Highland County. This county is called the Switzerland of Virginia because of its many mountains. It is west of Staunton and touches the border of West Virginia.
This new memorial is unique in that it was occupied before the congregation was officially organized, about four months after its first members were baptized. And it was dedicated 140 days after it was organized. It has a seating capacity of 150 and is valued at more than $30,000.
The Highland Seventh-day Adventist church is a twentieth-century story of faith, work, and prayer. It actually came to the day of dedication in three steps.
The first step was taken in October, 1961. Pastors Elmer Malcolm and Herbert Broeckel held four Sunday night meetings in a vacant Presbyterian church called Bethlehem. The response was so good that it inspired plans for another series.
The second series was conducted by Pastors Elmer Malcolm and Robert Clarke with laymen from Staunton assisting. These meetings began in the month of May, 1962. The attendance was so good that they continued every Sunday afternoon for one year. When attempts were made to secure a new lease for the use of the church building, the board in charge informed Pastor Malcolm that a new lease could not be granted and that he must close the meetings.
Here is where a portable airatorium came to the rescue. At the close of his last sermon in the Bethlehem church our brother announced that he had been forced to close his meetings in the church, but that the following Sunday meetings would continue across the road. It made the people wonder, because there was nothing across the road except a cow pasture.
The very next day the Potomac Conference air tent was inflated on that spot. And May 19, 1963, the doors of the cloud tabernacle were opened to Highland County for the Bible Speaks Evangelistic Crusade. The Bible Speaks evangelistic team was comprised of John Kuhn, evangelist; Albert Ellis, director of music; Mrs. Lucy Gattis, Bible instructor. Mrs. John Klim was organist and chalk artist, and Mrs. Albert Ellis sang with her husband and did secretarial work. Pastors Elmer Malcolm and Robert Clarke and their wives joined with the team.
Again the response of this small rural community was magnificent. The interest was so strong that the crusade originally scheduled for two months was extended to seven months. More than 200 non-Adventists were present every night for the first twenty nights. But when plans were made for the first baptism, the opposition began to thunder. There was the usual campaign to distort and misrepresent. One minister visited many of our baptismal candidates in an effort to block them. The same minister also arranged for a woman minister, who was a former Seventh-day Adventist, to hold four revivals in churches all around the Cloud Tabernacle. The organized opposition did very little to hurt the attendance of our evening meetings, but it did cut off a number of good families who were attending our Sabbath services.
When the first Sabbath worship service was held about forty non-Adventists were present. No building in the community was available for Sabbath services. This brought to focus the need for a new church building for these people. But new church buildings don't automatically spring up, especially where there is no organized congregation. It was recommended that a little chapel or wing be built that could later be enlarged into a complete church building.
After much prayer and study pastors Malcolm and Klim felt strongly impressed that a new full-sized church building should be constructed—a building that would be the most modern and up to date in the county. Plans were submitted to the conference committee, which were approved. Elmer Malcolm was released from evangelistic visiting to devote his full time to supervising the new building program.
Like the Red Sea, hearts opened. Friends and relatives in the community and outside of the community began making contributions, which ran into thousands of dollars. In response to Pastor Malcolm's enthusiastic appeals dozens of workmen volunteered their services. The community marveled as they witnessed the rapid rise of beautiful white brick walls. One Sunday fifteen bricklayers were on the scene. They came from Washington, D.C., Staunton, Harrisonburg, Elkton, and other places.
Four days before Christmas the first service was held in the new church building in the fellowship room. This was probably the first time in the history of the Potomac Conference that a new church was occupied before the church body was organized.
It was on December 28, the last Sabbath of the year, that the church was officially organized as the Highland Seventh-day Adventist church. Elder H. J. Capman, then president of the Potomac Conference, conducted the service and Elder R. G. Burchfield, treasurer, assisted.
One year after the doors of the Cloud Tabernacle were opened for meetings in a cow pasture, a new set of doors were opened several hundred feet away in the same cow pasture for a special meeting—the service of dedication. Elder Neal C. Wilson, president of the Columbia Union, preached the dedicatory sermon. Elder C. H. Lauda, president of the Potomac Conference, led the congregation in the Act of Dedication. And Elder H. J. Capman, retired president of the Potomac Conference, offered the dedicatory prayer.
This service brought unique thrills to the pastor and evangelistic team. Not only was a new church being dedicated, but a dark county was being crowned with a new memorial whose fires would blaze with the light of truth until the King of truth comes with great power and glory. And the words of the Lord echoed in our ears: "'Go forward; add new territory; enter new territory with the tent, and give the last message of warning to the world. There is no time to be lost. Leave My memorial in every place where ye shall go. My Spirit will go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rearward.' "—Evangelism, p. 61.