Our Founding

Antioch Baptist Church has its roots deep in a religious revival known as ‘The Great Awakening,’ which produced a group known as the ‘Separate Baptists.’ From Connecticut, that movement spread southward to North Carolina in the mid-seventeen hundreds. The Haw River Church,  from which Antioch descended, was formed in 1764 near Bynum, just south of Chapel Hill.  By 1772, it had grown to six branches.  One met on Collins Mountain just off the Old Pittsboro-Hillsborough Road in (now) Chatham County, about two miles south of the church’s present location. The church we know as Antioch was founded in 1806, when that branch, known as the “Haw River Mountain Church”,  applied to the Sandy Creek Baptist Association for a separate constitution.  The congregation changed the church’s name to Antioch,  when they moved to the present location in 1830.

Proceeds from the sale of the building at the original site were used to build a new building on land later purchased from William Durham.  No photo, drawing or description of either of these first two buildings is known to exist. The second building was torn down in 1898 and a new cracker box style sanctuary was erected.  Wings were added in 1923, 1936, and 1947 to accommodate classrooms. That sanctuary was torn down in 1973, and the present brick sanctuary was constructed in 1974.

Other additions included the church parsonage in 1953 (now home to our Associate Pastor), the education building in 1959, the gazebo in 1984, and the fellowship hall (along with a choir room and two sanctuary connectors) in 2002-03.