A History Lesson on the Martinsville Church of Truth
History is important in defining who we are as a church and where we came from. It helps us to see the progress we have made and keeps us anchored to our past.
The Martinsville Church of Truth has its roots in the Pentecostal Holiness Church, now known as the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. The founders of the Church of Truth were my father-in-law, Brother Ira Yeatts and Brother Harvey Johnson, both of whom were products of the Emmanuel Pentecostal Holiness Church of Dry Fork, Virginia, where Brother Dewayne Kelly pastors presently. The Emmanuel Pentecostal Holiness Church of Dry Fork was once a powerful holiness church that produced some great saints and a multitude of ministers. One of the most well-known pastors of the church was my wife’s great uncle Dewey Yeatts. Brother Dewey Yeatts was well known in the organization as a capable preacher and served as the superintendent of the Western North Carolina Conference of the Pentecostal Holiness Church for several years. In the revival in which my father-in-law and Brother Harvey Johnson got saved at the Emmanel Pentecostal Holiness Church, there were about one hundred people saved in that meeting and many were sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. In the mid-1950’s, the Pentecostal Holiness church began to drift from its original holiness standards. Alarmed by the direction of the movement, Brother Ira and Brother Harvey withdrew from the Pentecostal Holiness Church and organized the Dry Fork Church of Truth in 1956. The Dry Fork church now meets in a new building, but the original building is still in use as part of the Chrisian school run by the church. The Dry Fork Church is now an independent church body.
Brother Harvey Johnson was the original pastor of the Dry Fork Church of Truth. Brother Ira Yeatts attended the church and composed the Discipline of the Church of Truth. The introduction to the Discipline contained the Apostles Creed, an acknowledgment that all born again Christians are part of the church of Jesus, a defense of church organization, and a justification for starting a new one: “Not desiring to confuse minds or to complicate records, but in order to defend the truth, spread holiness, expose sin, and define worldliness, “The Church of Truth” is justified in its existence.”
On April 16, 1958, the Dry Fork Church of Truth approved the purchase of a 75 x 200-foot lot on the Franklin Turnpike in Danville, VA, for the purpose of starting a new church. A basement was constructed and services were held in the basement until a sanctuary could be constructed in 1960, Bro. Ira Yeatts was the pastor of that church for sixty years. The Danville Church of Truth became the sponsor and supporter of the Martinsville Church of Truth. Services first began in Stanley town, Virginia in 1975 in a frame house on Oak Level Road. Brother Joey Yeatts was the pastor there until 1979. In 1978 the Church of Truth purchased the Pentecostal Fire Baptized Church at 301 Red Oak Street in Martinsville for ten thousand dollars. Brother Irvin Stone had founded that church as an independent church and subsequently joined the Pentecostal Fire Baptized Church. The Church of Truth moved their services from Stanley town to the new Martinsville location. It was in this location that I began my ministry in Martinsville in 1982.
After the resignation of Brother Joey Yeatts in 1979, Brother Ira Yeatts began holding services on Saturday nights at the Red Oak Street building with Brother Johnny Watkins, his wife, Sister Mary, and their son Sam. He kept the church open until August of 1982.
Judy and I got married in June of 1977. I was pastoring the Antioch Pentecostal Fire Baptized Church in Lula, GA, at the time. I resigned the Antioch Church in 1978, and was assigned, by the Georgia Conference to the Galilee Pentecostal Fire Baptized Church in Madison County, Georgia, were Sister Olivia Johnson’s Dad pastors now. I stayed at the Galilee Church for four years. I first pastored Brother Dillard and Sister Derenda Wood at the Galilee Church. Brother Dillard was the deacon at that church.
In 1981, I was invited to speak at the Pentecostal Fire-Baptized Campmeeting at Westminister, South Carolina. It was during this campmeeting that God spoke to me that he had another assignment for me. I did not know where the assignment would be, but I began to prepare for a change. During the following months, Brother Ira Yeatts offered the pastorate of the Martinsville Church of Truth. After praying about the offer, I felt that God was calling us to the work in Martinsville. I resigned from the pastorate at the Galilee Church and turned in my resignation to the Georgia Conference in August 1982. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I made it in confidence that I was doing the will of God.
Judy and I moved to Dry Fork, VA the week of August 17, 1982. I started preaching at Martinsville on August 22, 1982. That first Sunday there were six people present including my family. Kendall was our only child at the time. The other three people were Brother Johnny Watkins, his wife and son. I felt an excitement about the work in Martinsville. I preached Sunday morning and night on the words of Christ in Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” I was convinced that God was going to build the Martinsville Church of Truth. I had no idea at the time of the trials and difficulties that lay ahead. God did not do me like Paul and let me know ahead of time the suffering I would go through to see the church established. He told Paul up front at his conversion of the great things he would suffer for Christ’s sake. I began with lofty goals. I did not anticipate the time that it would take to see a functioning church and to develop stable and faithful people. I learned that I could not will results for the kingdom of God. God was in control.
For three years we lived in Dry Fork in the house where Judy was raised and drove back and forth to the church three times each week. We had midweek service on Tuesday night so that the people from the Danville Church of Truth could attend the services. They were a great encouragement.
When we moved, I had to transfer my Blue Cross and Blue Shield policy from Georgia to Virginia. Judy was expecting Kyle, our second child, at the time. When I went to accomplish the change, the agent told me that I could opt to take out a better plan of coverage. With Judy expecting in February of 1983, I decided to take the opportunity. I did not know how important that decision would be, but God was looking out for us. Judy began to have complications in the pregnancy. She developed toxemia which results in high blood pressure. She had two hospital stays to try to stabilize her blood pressure. Kyle’s birth happened while she was in the hospital the second time. He was about a month early and his lungs were not properly developed. He was sent to Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg where he spent nine days in the pediatric intensive care unit. The bill was over ten thousand dollars. Our insurance paid all but about one thousand dollars. I did not have a job at the time, but God sent the money that we needed to pay our debt in a short time. The people of God rallied around us and provided the funds we needed.
We slowly picked up a few people at the church. Sis. Velda Hall had been driving to the Church of Truth in Danville from her home in Basset, Virginia, but decided to attend our church because of the convenience. She became a great blessing to our church. Charles Draughn’s father Lonnie came to help us for about six months. He was a good man and loved me and Judy, but he decided to go back to his previous fellowship.
In September of 1982, we attended my dad’s campmeeting in Wetumpka, AL at the Grier Chapel Pentecostal Fire Baptized Church. Brother G. W. Birdsong was the invited speaker to that camp. He had been the invited speaker at the Toccoa Pentecostal Fire Baptized Campmeeting in Toccoa, Georgia in 1969 when I got saved. It was at the campmeeting in Alabama in 1982 that we met Sis. Ann Roberts, who had come to the camp meeting with her parents. Shortly afterward she began to attend our church with her four boys, Mickey, David, Paul and Freddie. At about the same time, Sister Frances Davis and her son Steve began to attend as well. Judy and I had known them from childhood from seeing them at the Dry Fork Church of Truth Campmeeting in Dry Fork, Virginia. Sister Frances testified once that people should treat the children with kindness because you never know if one of them may be your pastor someday.
During the time that I was without a job, God provided for us through the church and the kindness of Ralph Jones, Jr. He attended the Danville Church of Truth with his parents and raised veal which he sold to Jewish kosher establishments. He committed to support us for one year with $150 per week. That was quite a sum of money for that day. He also gave me work to do on the farm and paid me for it. Those early days were marked by multiple miracles of God’s love and provision.
We met for almost two years in the building on Red Oak Street in Martinsville. The building was in need of major improvements. The walls were bowed outward. At the suggestion of Brother Ira Yeatts, we decided to remove the roof and the walls and rebuild from the floor up. We checked with the city and were told that improvements that drastic would qualify as new construction. The city would not give us a permit to build because the lot was too small to meet code for a public building. The lot was only 75’x100’.
We began looking for land on which to build a new church. The Danville Church of Truth allocated thirty thousand dollars that had been inherited by the Danville Church from the estate of Brother J. Elmer Doby and his wife Florence. We planned to sell the building on Red Oak Street and use that money as well for the new construction.
We looked for some time on the east side of Martinsville thinking it would be more convenient for the Danville and Dry Fork people to support us. Finally, after many fruitless searches, we widened our search. One day while driving through the Rich Acres Community, I saw a level piece of property being used for a garden space. I liked the way the property lay. It did not have a “For Sale” sign on it, so I stopped and inquired at the neighbor’s house being rented by the Connor family, When I inquired about the owner they pointed me to Mr. Bill Price in Martinsville. I called him and asked if he wanted to sell his land in Rich Acres. He replied that he had been thinking about selling it because he was getting too old to work a garden. He told me that he would get back to me.
When Mr. Price responded, he asked for $15,000 for the entire property. The property was divided into two large lots. We had not allotted that much money for land, so I proposed buying a portion of one of the lots to offset the cost to the church. The Danville Church approved purchasing the whole property and dividing one of the lots for me and my family to purchase. I bought a half acre off the lower lot for five thousand dollars with the aim of building a home on that property when able.
Construction on the new church began in May of 1984. The original sanctuary was 32’ wide and 68’ long. It had restrooms in the front and a nursery. There were two Sunday School rooms behind the pulpit area. Brother Ira Yeatts, Brother Ralph Jones, and Brother Thelbert Johnson, all from the Dry Fork area, worked sacrificially until the church was completed in September of that year. Their wives, Sister Mary Joanne Yeatts, Sister Mattie Jones, and Sister Alma Johnson contributed much hard work the building. Brother Ralph pulled his camper on the building site, and he and Sister Mattie stayed many nights in the camper. Judy, my wife, labored in providing food and supplies to the workers. Others also labored some along to see a holiness church in the Rich Acres Community.
Bill Preskitt