July 21, 2014 / Joanne Yeck

Buckingham Notables: Rev. John J. Spencer, Part II

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Antioch Baptist Church, Courtesy Historic Buckingham

Rev. Spencer’s biography in Virginia Baptist Ministers concludes:

He was tall and robust in figure, quiet in manner, simple in dress, deliberate in speech, reliable in character, with a heart as true as steel, as simple as a child. He loved folks, and his brethren, and was loved by them. His father, Rev. John Spencer, and he covered, in their life spans, one hundred and eleven years and in their work as preachers a century. Two of his churches, Wilderness and Union, had been his father’s churches; his other “flocks,” Antioch and Pleasant Grove, were not so old. In these churches there was little opportunity for growth in numbers, partly because so many converted and baptized in all this countryside moved to the cities and there became active, useful members. . . .

All through Bro. Spencer’s life, at his churches, the annual protracted meeting was a chief event of the year, social as well as religious, when large crowds gathered, all denominations being represented and often in the hottest weather there were three sermons, three services each day.