Our History

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4–5

Praise be to our Holy God—Father, Son, and Spirit—for our Lord has been building his spiritual house at Ramah for nearly 200 years. Ramah traces its spiritual heritage back to the preaching of the great Baptist leader Luther Rice, whose preaching in the home of Larkin Dunn in 1826 led to the constitution of our church, with the first structure for worship built in 1828. The chief Shepherd has been pleased through these last two centuries to send faithful undershepherds to his church at Ramah. Men like James Rainwater, J. S. Dodd, and R. C. Rhodes each labored for decades throughout our church’s first century, preaching God’s Word and equipping the saints for the work of ministry. The second century of Ramah’s story is accentuated with men like Ralph Bobo, Daryel O’Barr, and Tom Edwards whose ministries all spanned more than a decade. Time does not permit us to list every undershepherd in Ramah’s history, but they would each point us to chief Shepherd after all. History does not record every deacon who has served at Ramah, but every servant of the church would point us to the one who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Space does not allow the description of every building project that has taken place atop this hill, but we know that the most important work done here is the Lord building us into a spiritual house, by his word and by his Spirit. While many things have undoubtedly changed in the course of these last 195 years, much remains unchanged. From our earliest days, we have been a church committed to the word of God. Until Christ returns or calls us home, our commitment and submission to God’s word will never change.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

    but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:8