History

The word “primitive” means first or original, so as Primitive Baptists we follow the doctrines and practice taught by the apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. The Pulaski Primitive Baptist Church was constituted on November 28, 1964 with seven charter members. During 1964 she had several ministers to preach in the town of Pulaski where she was meeting. We were encouraged by the response and began to pray for a minister to come and pastor our proposed church. Elder Roy Bowles had moved from Virginia to California and we had correspondence with him about our services being held during that summer. He became burdened with the efforts here and soon moved his family to Pulaski, arriving in September 1964.

We rented the Woman’s Club auditorium and have met each Sunday continuously since that date. At our constitution we called Elder Bowles to be our pastor – he served the church for six years and during this time several were added to our number. Pulaski Church has always been a small church, today (2013) we have thirty-five members but fifty to sixty in our congregation each Sunday morning and nearly twenty in our Wednesday Night Bible Study. Shortly after we organized as a church Elder Earl Singleton joined with us; being a minister from another order of Baptists, he was received by baptism and soon ordained as an Elder. He was very soon called away to pastor other churches  the last one being Faith Primitive Baptist Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. Due to age and health issues he moved back and spent his last remaining years as a member at Pulaski.

Elder Bowles moved to Winter Garden, Florida in December 1970 to pastor a church. We continued meeting each Sunday during the year of 1971 and were fortunate to have guest ministers preach for us almost every meeting time. The church was blessed to be able to purchase land near the village of Newbern with the hope of erecting our own building one day. Elder Reuben Hawks, Jr., accepted the pastorate of the church in December 1971 and in August 1973 construction began on a new church building. One of our members, being a contractor, was employed to do the heavy construction but much labor was donated by members and friends of the church. The first meeting was held in the new building in March 1974; dedication services were held the fifth weekend in June 1974 with Elders Gene Thomas and Roy Bowles preaching the dedication sermons.

Brother Jay Harris was given liberty to preach in March 1975 and began speaking to the church on a regular basis after the resignation of Elder Hawks in November 1975. He was ordained as an Elder and called as pastor in May 1976 where he served until October 2007 when he stepped down due to health issues. In November of that year, Pulaski Primitive Baptist Church called Elder Don Singleton as pastor and today he serves in that capacity.

The construction of a fellowship hall with baptistery and kitchen area began in 1996. This addition was completed almost entirely with donated labor of members and friends and their financial generosity. With the blessings of our Lord, when our fellowship hall was completed in September 1996, we were debt free.

The great hymns of the faith can be heard in the form of congregational singing during each service at Pulaski Primitive Baptist Church. All hymns are sung in the a cappella style; songs are selected by the congregation from the Old School Hymnal. A library containing sermons of several ministers is maintained by the church.