A Resilient Faith: Community, Leadership, and Legacy of Mt. Olive
November 19, 2025
According to a brief online history, Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church began in the 1870s when a group of baptized Christians began meeting together in various houses and praying under the pastoral leadership of Rev. Willingham and Rev. Warren White. The group identified themselves as Second Street Church. Shortly after the community built their original church, it was destroyed by a fire in 1888. According to this history, members of this church “marched jubilantly” from their temporary place of worship, Union Hall to their new church site on Oglethorpe Street singing “A Charge to Keep I Have.” The new church building stood for over 120 years when a structural engineer deemed the building to be unsafe, and the building was approved for demolition in 2016. Today, Mount Olive meets in a new building on Oglethorpe Street, and despite the many struggles they have faced in recent years, they remain resilient and compassionate within the church and the Macon community.
Mount Olive is located in a neighborhood known as Beall’s Hill. The sanctuary is filled with pews that could fit approximately 150 people, and the congregation welcomes approximately 50 to 70 members per service. Mount Olive is an older historically Black congregation, but it is also multigenerational with a few younger adults as well as a few children ranging from teens to toddlers, who attend Sunday morning services. Services are led by three “reverends,” a women’s choir, musicians, Pastor Timothy Price, and a close-knit congregation. Before and after the services, members always stay for a few minutes to chat and check in with other congregation members. Although they are a close-knit community, they are very welcoming to visitors and new members as well.
Sunday services typically last around two hours. The three reverends began each service during our visits with a period of devotion where they would sing a few hymns. Afterwards, the women’s choir gathered on stage and sings songs conducted by a woman playing the piano and alongside her were musicians playing the drums and a trumpet. In between selections, the three different Reverends led several prayers. Halfway through the service, one of the congregation’s members gave the church announcements which included different events taking place within the church and in the Macon community. Following the announcements, the reverends took up tithes before the sermon. Pastor Timothy Price used scripture to approach his sermons with a particular theme. During our visits, a few common themes that appeared throughout the services included the problems of corrupt leadership, the importance of trusting in God, and the reality that Christians are the conquerors. During the first service of the month, communion takes place after the sermon is given to honor Jesus’s sacrifice. At the conclusion of the service, the women’s choir and the congregation sang one final hymn, and a benediction was offered.
The leadership style of Pastor Price has significantly influenced and shaped the functioning of Mount Olive and how the congregation views him as a leader. In an interview with Pastor Price, he explained that his leadership style has changed over the years. He used to be more “direct and stern” but has become “more flexible.” During his earlier years at Mount Olive, he had elevated expectations of himself as well as members of the congregation, but he has become more lenient over the years as the congregation has changed. He explained that the longer he has pastored, the more he has learned how to lead people rather than manage them. In our other interviews, members also praised Price’s leadership style, claiming that he was as compassionate as Jesus. They also appreciated how he uses the Holy Spirit and scripture to guide his sermons.
Mount Olive has several ministries that seek to build and sustain community within the church and the Macon community, and those involved in leadership are committed to their roles and the services they provide. Congregational leadership includes a women’s ministry that offers spiritual and emotional support to women within and outside of the church. The church supports a YEACO ministry which helps young high school students navigate their next steps in life whether that is going to college or joining the military. Additionally, they have a care calling ministry where members call individuals who may be going through challenging times and keeping up with members whose attendance has declined. During one service, we observed that a church member sent a card to Mount Olive to thank the community for being there and providing for them after their family had faced a tragedy. Even though they were currently unable to attend services, they were grateful for the Mount Olive community. They also have a youth program that meets regularly to discuss topics more relevant to their age group than the topics and themes discussed in Sunday morning services. Furthermore, Mount Olive has a nursery that helps individuals who are new to parenthood navigate struggles and challenges.
While Mount Olive is heavily committed to supporting its members attending the church, they also focus on supporting members who are no longer able to attend, including their college students. For example, during an interview with Timothy Price, he discussed how passionate Mount Olive is about supporting these students. They have a Bobby Gary Mission Ministry that supports them while they are in college by sending them cards, care packages, and supporting them financially. In addition, the ministry provides a shoulder for these students to lean on if they are struggling, and if they need someone to talk to beside their parents. They have had many members grow up, move out of state for college, and become successful doctors and lawyers. The congregation continues to have a relationship with these former members and regularly invites them back to the church for holiday festivities.
Mount Olive is heavily involved outside their congregational community in the Macon community as well. Frequently, the church gets permission from the local Beall’s Hill neighborhood for members of Mount Olive to hand out flyers and encourage neighbors to come to one of their services. Also, they engage in community outreach by aiding the homeless population in Macon and participating in canned food and clothing drives. One member explained during an interview that she is involved in a ministry that is a staffing agency that helps people find jobs and clients who need services. Many members also volunteer at local nursing homes and at the Ronald McDonald House in Macon, which provides free housing for families who need to be near their children receiving serious medical treatment at a nearby hospital. While the church does not “necessarily believe in Halloween,” they still host a trunk or treat event where they “decorate the trunks with something spiritual in mind” and pass out candy. For example, one car might be decorated with spider webs that were a web of Jesus’s love. A member explained, “we don’t have to be of this world” but “we do have to live in this world.” Through these many ways, Mount Olive strives to participate in the local Macon community and live out their religious values.
Mount Olive is also a politically active congregation. Pastor Price regularly addresses difficult issues in his sermons. During our visits he spoke on issues of corruption among national political figures, both Republican and Democrat. He also addressed the problem of violence among young men in the African American community. These difficult and perhaps divisive topics are regularly addressed at Mount Olive, and this is not unique for historically Black congregations. According to a research study conducted by Pew Research center, “Black adults tend to think offering sermons on political topics is an important role for houses of worship.” Among Protestants who attend Black churches, around 26% think that offering sermons on political topics is essential and 42% think that it is important but not essential (Mohamed, Cox, Diamant, & Gecewicz 2021). Mount Olive, like many historically Black congregations, believes that political issues need to be discussed openly in religious communities.
Mount Olive has been resilient in the face of numerous hardships and has fought to overcome them. As an older congregation, the community was hit extremely hard by Covid. The impact of the pandemic is still lingering over the church, and they are still working to fully recover. According to Pastor Price, Covid played a role in the decline of members at Mount Olive. In 2023, the church held a memorial service for 45 members who passed away. Several members still wear masks to church, and the community checks people’s temperatures before they enter the sanctuary in order to keep the community healthy. Services are still live streamed on Facebook for viewers at home and Bible Study is held both in person and virtually. Like many congregations across the United States, Mount Olive is working to better retain members as well. The church welcomes on average about one new member every month, and most of these new members are older like the rest of the congregation. Mount Olive is currently experiencing a generational shift where many older members are passing away, and many of their former younger members have moved away. Despite these trends, Mount Olive continues to live out their faith and build community with one another.
As the neighborhood around Mount Olive has changed over the years, the church has had to remain resilient to maintain its presence and voice in the community. A few years ago, someone in the community wanted to open a restaurant, and they wanted to build it across the street from the church. The owner of the restaurant wanted to share a parking lot with Mount Olive, but the congregation opposed this plan because the restaurant was going to sell alcohol. Pastor Price actively spoke out against the church sharing a parking lot with the restaurant, and the restaurant ultimately never opened.
Prior to this, Mount Olive was forced to relocate to a new building when a structural engineer deemed their historic sanctuary unsafe for gatherings. Many members wanted to renovate the old building instead of relocating to preserve its history. The church’s original building was the first fully brick Black church built in Central Georgia. Unfortunately, the congregation was told the building would collapse if they attempted to renovate it. One of the congregation’s members, who is the head of the building committee, explained that some families making up a sizable portion of the congregation were heavily opposed to abandoning the building under any circumstances. To reach a solution, they proposed that any willing members to undergo a 90-day fast and if it were the Lord’s will, they would provide the church with the additional funds necessary to take the proper precautions to keep the building standing. In the end, the congregation relocated across the street. However, the old building surprisingly remains standing to this day.
Mount Olive Missionary Baptist church is a community that is filled with love, compassion, and resilience. The congregation has faced several conflicts and hardships that they have had to overcome. Despite their struggles, they have remained a loving and compassionate community both within the church and the wider Macon community. Mount Olive finds many ways to assist their community by having different ministries within their congregation, such as their Care Calling Ministry, YEACO ministry, and Bobby Gary Mission ministry. Members of Mount Olive go out into the community and volunteer at nursing homes, the Ronald McDonald house, and help people find jobs and provide services to clients as well. Mount Olive is the kind of place that makes one want to be a better human. Those who receive even the tiniest glimpse of this community will walk away with a smile on their face grateful for having met such an incredible group of people.
Chenya Paul is a sophomore majoring in Pre-nursing with a Women and Gender Studies minor.
Clayton Burnett is a sophomore majoring in Kinesiology on the Pre-med track.
Hannah Simpson is a sophomore majoring in Psychology with a Sociology minor.
The Macon Religious Communities Project 