The original Jackson Summit Regular Baptist Church was constructed during 1893. In mid-April 1893, Pastor Watrous started digging for the Church foundation and the next afternoon requested a load of stone from Roy Smith. It was delivered posthaste, evidently free of charge.
“We would not forget that God is due the praise for the blessings we receive in being wisely led and taught.” ~ Annual Association Report
Many of the pastors, especially in the early years, were hired under a subscription method. They would preach a series of evangelistic sermons in what were called protracted meetings, usually early in the year, and a deacon or other Church member would act as a solicitor to seek pledges to pay his salary to the end of the calendar year. Because the congregations were so small, a given pastor may need to seek employment at more than one Church at a time in order to adequately support both himself and his family. Many of the pastors at Jackson Summit were associated with other Baptist Churches in the area, primarily West Jackson (Alder Run) and to a lesser extent, Job’s Corners. The pecking order for how often and when the pastor preached at a specific church was correlated to the amount of money which that congregation contributed to his support.
Most of the pastors associated with Jackson Summit from 1884 to 1938 were also pastors at West Jackson Baptist Church. In fact, the two Churches came to rely upon one another and often considered candidates jointly or failed to accept candidates because no accommodation could be made in the sister congregation. The last recorded combination of this type was between Jackson Summit and Job’s Corners during the pastorate of L. C. (Porky) Voorhees during 1959.