About Our Church

Bethel Baptist Church of Sharpsburg has been serving God in the country since 1862.Bethel has retained the best of its rural and farm family heritage while now serving the spiritual needs of all people living in the Edinburg and Taylorville, Illinois area.  Bethel has an emphasis on being a welcoming church responsive to ministry for children and their families.       Bethel is affiliated with the American Baptist Church-USA (www.abc-usa.org/)  and is in the Great Rivers Region (www.abc-grr.org/).       Located in the country, Bethel is surrounded by some of the most productive farm land in the United States.  You can experience the beauty of the country just by driving to the church facilities. Bethel is located within a few miles of both Taylorville and Edinburg.  Just look for the Bethel signs along Illinois Route 29. Please feel free to come to any of our services or events.  You are always welcome.      At Bethel, we work to make worship child-friendly, and children are welcome in all parts of worship. Activity bags for use during worship are available in the entryway.  We also provide nursery care for infants and toddlers downstairs for the entire worship service.  Preschoolers and kindergartners are invited to go downstairs for junior church at the end of the children's sermon.

Statement of Beliefs

Our Church Covenant as adopted by the congregation is: Believing in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and led by the Holy Spirit, we covenant with God and one another to be an authentic Christian community. We will walk together in Christian love, sharing each other's joys and sorrows. We will help one another to think, speak, and act as Christians, centering our lives in God through worship, study, prayer and service. We will cultivate within our church an accepting and creative environment for all persons, respecting one another as together we grow in Christian faith. We will support our church through faithful participation and sacrificial giving of our energy, our money, and our time. We will open our doors to the world, to love its people and to be engaged with them in the struggles of live. Living in a complicated world, we will do the best we can to be God's faithful people, confident of God's sustaining grace.

Church History

Bethel was founded in October of 1862.  Bethel's founders were primarily farm families, and the church is located in the country 1 1/2 miles from the small village of Sharpsburg (which is located on Route 29 between Taylorville and Edinburg, Illinois).  The charming country church has a small creek separating it from the Bethel Cemetery, which is up on a hill.  Like the family farm, Bethel has adapted and changed to stay viable in the 21st century. While we greatly value our unique country location and farm connections, many of our members now live in cities and villages within 10-15 miles of the church (Edinburg is 2 1/2 miles northwest, Taylorville is 4 1/2 miles southeast).