Our History
Formerly the Bemis Church of Christ
Our best records show that the first religious services conducted in Bemis were held in the meeting hall located above the company's general store at the corner of Missouri and Second Streets.
Mr. Bemis, for whom the company and town were named, was a religious man and he had materials shipped in from Boston to construct a building at 23 North Massachusetts Street to be used for union services. This union church building was dedicated on April 19, 1909, and the Memphis Conference of the Methodist church soon sent preachers to help and today it is the Bemis Methodist Church.
Members of a Baptist Church and Church of Christ decided to meet elsewhere and the Baptist built a building on Bemis Pike in 1912. According to our best information the members of the church began to meet in what was known as Davis' Store building on the east side of the property at 91 Bemis Lane.
On June 16, 1916, John M. and Maude Raines deeded to the Bemis church of Christ a building lot 40 foot x 90 foot that is now part of the parking lot on the west side of the building at 91 Bemis Lane. This gift was deeded to trustees Dr. J. T. Raines, G. C. Pruett, and D. H. Irvin who soon carried out the work of construction the first little frame building that was used until 1950. The original frame building was moved and is the Holliday Chapel Church of Christ in Carroll County.
Some of the older preachers who proclaimed the word in Bemis were Wilford Heflin, brother Greer, E.R. Harper, J. E. Green, J. A. McNutt and W. Claude Hall. Brother E. R. Harper preached his first sermon at Bemis in 1920. From 1943 until 1988 Lowell Altizer, Harold Trimble, Loyce Pearce, Charles R. Williams, Royce Dickinson, A. E. Emmons, Jr., O. D. Johns, and Don Readhimer served the church on a regular basis. During this time the church undertook two more building projects. The building at 91 Bemis Lane was constructed during the summer and fall of 1950 with the funeral of brother Albert Hall being the first service conducted in the new edifice. Many faithful members worked hard on the building and the cost was $33,000.000. The new educational annex was completed in the summer of 1973 when brother A. E. Emmons, Jr. had completed eight years of labor with the church.
O. D. Johns moved to Bemis from Bolivar in October of 1973, and worked under elders A. D. Taylor, Joe Carden, James Simpson, Sid Scott, and Bill Wadley. In 1982, Don Readhimer began working with the Bemis congregation and labored here until 1988, when Ed Ballard came to Bemis from Camden. The wings in the auditorium and 2 classrooms had been added in 1986. Jeff Scott, who had been preaching at the Cairo church of Christ, became associate minister in 2002, working with the youth and sharing the pulpit.
Ray Pack has been the minister since November of 2009.
Early in 2006, it was decided to relocate to the property that had been purchased in 1999 at the corner of Highway 18 and Gobelet Rd. The official groundbreaking for South Jackson Church of Christ was November 5, 2006. Our first service in the new building was January 20, 2008.