The

Sharpsburg Baptist Church membership is heading in

several directions at one time.

Behind its

current location on Ga. Highway 34, it is building an

11,000-sq. ft. building that will contain a new

sanctuary, fellowship hall and Sunday School rooms. The

new sanctuary will seat 299. The existing facility will

remain.

Founded in

1837, just 12 years after the creation of Coweta County,

the current church building sits just a few hundred feet

across the road from the first building.

The church

owns several acres around this first site and, due to the

fact that its fall festival now requires more and more

space, the membership and one of the groups using its

facility, the Sharpsburg Sharpshooters Sons of

Confederate Veterans, spent several hours last Saturday

cleaning out years of fallen brush and kudzu growth

The church

has always been active in the community and will soon

sponsor a gospel singing at the Town Recreation Center,

with a number of groups participating. Profits will be

give to the church building fund.

Working

just as hard as everyone else was the Rev. Dr. Watson

Mills, pastor for the past 15 years.

He is a

professor at Mercer University during the week. He is

author of a number of books, one of those being a Bible

dictionary. It was so well received, he was given an

award by the United Nations in 1990 for the best research

volume published that year.

Said

Sharpsburg mayor and church member Alvin Arrowood,

"It's still the same old street where old friends

meet."