Cambria Baptist Church
Recollection on the Past 60 years
By the History Section of our Intentional Interim Program
The time for the start of this brief history
of Cambria Baptist Church is 1940, a little over 60 years
ago. It was at this time when our little town was forever
changed. World War II was beginning and for this area the
Radford Arsenal was in its beginning stages. Our church saw
many of its young men called into service for our country
and our community was over run with people from all parts
of the United States especially the south; all seeking employment
at the arsenal with every imaginable space filled with people
needing housing. At this time, our pastor was Reverend Peter
Culbom, a good speaker and leader. At the time we had a very
active young people's group and Mrs. Culbom helped with this
ministry; their home was always open to young people since
they had teens in their family. One of the things that stand
out in Reverend Culbom's short time at Cambria was the use
of bulletins. He printed them himself and on Saturday would
walk and deliver them over town. Due to the increase in the
area's population we saw a large number of newcomers in our
church both from the north and south; everything seemed to
be going well and Reverend Culbom was well liked. His Uncle
Sam who claimed priority on his life, called him into the
field of chaplaincy to serve his country. It was a shock to
the church, but who can argue with the government. So we were
without a pastor. As always, the Lord has something good
for His people and He sent to us Reverent W. W. Harrison,
and guess what, he was single, quite a change from one that
had a wife and family of four. He also was a very evangelistic
preacher and speaker and was popular with both the young and
old. We had lots of people attending and many old fashioned
revivals were conducted leading to a lot of new converts.
And, guess what, he did not stay single very long; he had
a young lady in the wings back in Tennessee and soon brought
her to Cambria as his bride. This period in our history was
a wonderful time for our young people, no gas or money, so
all our activities outside of school, were centered in the
church. We knew the church was the place to go for fun and
fellowship. At this time we were blessed with great leadership,
not only the Pastor and his wife, but Mr. and Mrs. E.L. Kuhn
transplanted from Pennsylvania. With everything going good,
Reverend Harrison announced his call to a church in Tennessee
so we reluctantly said good-bye and gave him our blessing.
It is now 1943 and we found our new pastor in Pennsylvania,
a Yankee of all things, Reverend Gerald Goss, who had been
a former pastor of Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn. Gerald and Judy Goss,
two young people, with two small boys were now at home in
our parsonage. He was a good speaker and an excellent teacher,
so we were blessed with deep Bible studies and sermons from
the scripture. He and his wife were both talented in music,
she played the piano and both sang (often doing duets). The
boys were everyone's favorites, but they especially loved
Mr. C.J. Woolwine, (Jim's grandfather) and often sat with
him during services. They really loved him and called him
"the captain," which was his nickname to many. Mr. Goss was
a visiting preacher during his first year he tried to visit
every family in our church, which he accomplished, often on
foot, as gasoline was rationed. We were a growing church numerically
but even better we made great strides in the study of the
Bible especially the young people who had regular times of
Bible training. As always with things going good, the church
was shocked to learn that another church has called our pastor,
but this time instead of a wife and two boys, he had a wife
and three boys with him.
So once again, we go north and find our next pastor, Reverend
Robert E. Crawford. Rev. and Mrs. Crawford and four children
came to Cambria Baptist Church in 1949. He was able to pick-up
where our last pastor left us and continued with good preaching
and Bible training. Again, we had a plus with Mrs. Crawford
being a good musician, but she was really a mother first,
having four children to care for so much of her ministry was
spent caring for her family. Rev. Crawford loved people (young
and old) and that love was returned. He spent a lot of time
visiting both in the homes and hospitals. He was active in
the community at large, in our local ministerial association
and all our mission organizations; he was very interested
in the local, state and national Baptist conventions. Our
men today still have great stories on their days with Reverend
Crawford as their R.A. leader. In every way Reverend Crawford
was a genuine leader even many people outside our church would
consult with him and gain advise on their problems. As in
all Baptist churches, however, we found ourselves without
a pastor again. Good pastors are much sought after and Rev.
Crawford was one of the good ones. This time our church
went south and called Rev. Dean Duke who was graduating from
New Orleans Seminary. He accepted our call but we were told
up front that he felt his calling was to go into the mission
field. Again, our parsonage was filled with our pastor, wife
and two little girls. They were a family easy to love and
were popular with the young people of the church. Reverend
Duke, as all of our previous pastors, had a burden for lost
people and many of his sermons were warnings to the church
of the consequences of not fulfilling our chare of the Great
Commission. We always knew that God had allowed us to have
him for a short time. He never concealed his longing and desire
to go to the mission field and that call was fulfilled when
the mission board assigned him to Chile. It was hard to see
them go, but we understood that God's call takes precedence
to all else; we gave them our blessing and prayers for their
ministry. Twenty years have passed since these recollections
started and we are again searching for a new pastor. We extended
a call to Reverend Lloyd Hilton, which he accepted. Our parsonage
was now home to Lloyd, Betty and two small boys. Again, we
had a musical family; Lloyd had a good voice, as did Betty,
both played instruments, Betty being an outstanding pianist.
He was a people person, never met anyone too poor or down
and out or one too rich for him to visit and try to win to
Christ. He was always on the go to see a prospective member
and as a result we really began to grow. Reverend Hilton had
a dream, he wanted to see our church expand its ministry and
build a new church as we were out growing our present building,
a big undertaking, and it was, but we did it with the Lord's
help. After moving to our new location we continued to grow,
but as is often the case when things are going forward, the
Lord calls the pastor some place else. It was a difficult
time to give up this family, which had done so much for our
church; but they must follow their call. Lloyd, Betty, and
two boys and a baby girl said good-bye to this pastorate,
leaving behind a legacy not soon forgotten.
We extended a call to Reverend Samuel Edwards to be our next
pastor to take residence in our parsonage (which, by the way,
was build during Reverend Hilton's tenure). After being here
a short time, he began to make changes. He was newly out of
seminary and the ultra conservative trend was just in its
infancy, however, he brought many of their ideas especially
our history of long missions support and many of our older
members found it unacceptable and as a result he resigned
and a good number of members went with him to form another
church in our area, not Southern Baptist but independent.
This was a terrible blow as we were still under a heavy indebtedness
for our new building, but to God be the glory, we were able
to pay our indebtedness not only on time, but ahead of schedule.
Now, we had the task of seeking a new pastor. As always, there
were prospects, but once you gave them our recent history,
they lost interest. Finally, after a number of contacts, Reverend
Quentin Lee accepted the call to our church, but not a very
happy wife came with him. They had only been on the field
a few months when they had to leave due to the death of his
brother, and take over the family farm. Oh, not again
so soon, yet we were pastor searching, but God had a wonderful
surprise in store for us---as always, God had a plan! We were
to be the church for Reverend Crawford and family to come
to again. What joy this brought to a congregation who was
going through so much hurt. Only those who were there at that
time can fully appreciate this part of our history. Back they
came and did so much to rebuild this church. Cambria Baptist
Church was back on track. He was with us for eleven good years;
always the same loving pastor to all who came through the
doors. Then, as age has a way of catching up on all of us,
he reached retirement and through all of our sadness was a
thanksgiving for all he had been able to accomplish in these
past eleven years at Cambria. To our pleasant surprise, they
would only be moving to Blacksburg to a house they had purchased
over there for their retirement years. Now the big question
for our church, who will replace our beloved Reverend Crawford?
Again, as always, God had our man and we just had to find
him and make a call; we did just that and Reverend Doctor
Maurice T. McCarthy, his wife, and two boys said yes and they
were the next occupants in the parsonage. Our church grew
and prospered in many ways during his pastorate. He was the
perfect one to succeed Reverend Crawford; this was proven
to us when Mrs. Crawford discovered she had cancer and even
though they had become members at a Blacksburg Church, Dr.
McCarthy (or Butch as he was affectionately called) became
her special minister. Butch, the young minister developed
a real rapport with Reverend Crawford, a much older and mature
pastor and thereupon is a wonderful story of how God works
with His children. Reverend McCarthy not only ministered to
Mrs. Crawford, but also invited Reverend Crawford to be a
visiting minister for our church. A great solution; help for
Butch and Reverend Crawford doing what he loved best. Only
a wise God could work out things so wonderfully. Butch
was with us fourteen years and when he resigned to return
to his home town in Lynchburg, the church had enjoyed the
longest tenure of all our pastors. Cambria Baptist Church
went through a few turbulent years before entering into the
Intential Interim Program between June 2001 and August 2003.
During this process, the church formed a Transition Team.
The team was encouraged by the congregation to thoroughly
examine each aspect of the process. Upon completing this,
the congregation could organize and release the Pastor Nominating
Committee to begin their process as soon as possible. This
enabled us to focus on issues and the process rather than
"just going through the motions." The church is to be commended
for this and it also speaks well of the congregations acceptance
of Pastor Burgess as our shepherd during this transition time.
In June of 2004 the Reverend Thomas Harvey was called to be
our pastor.
Cambria's Vision
We envision Cambria Baptist Church as a lighthouse in our community where the light of Christ beckons the lost to enter, empowers the believer, and is dispersed to all parts of the world through Missions opportunities.