POUND RIVER CHURCH - HISTORICAL ROOTS SUMMARY
The Pound River Church is a historical outgrowth of the Schwarzenau Brethren, a small group from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany led by a mill operator, Alexander Mack, who was influenced by Anabaptists and Pietists movements of the time. In 1708, Mack became dissatisfied with the false teaching, dogmatic legalism, and deadness of religion in the State Churches. He sought to complete the Reformation’s reform of doctrine with a reform of devotion. He and seven others were led to organize a new and independent body of believers, so they gathered at the Eden River for baptism, an illegal act since they were previously baptized as infants. They simply called themselves “brethren” but later, German Baptist Brethren.
Not only did the Schwarzenau Brethren believe in rebaptism by full immersion, but they also believed in face-forward, trine immersion, which came from their study and belief that it was the apostolic form of baptism. This distinct practice led them to be called “Tunkers”, adapted from a German word meaning to dip, dunk, or immerse. They were later called “Dunkers” or “Dunkards” in English. The original Brethren did not have a creed but emphasized commitment to New Testament discipleship as the binding standard for congregational practices, both by the example of Jesus and with a standard of holiness. The Brethren also believed in the full observance of the Last Supper by a service of feet washing to symbolize servanthood, a fellowship meal known as the “love feast” to symbolize brotherhood, and the commemorative Eucharist to symbolize Saviorhood. The Brethren have always been known for their communion services but just as notably for their belief in mutual church discipline, anointing with oil, laying on of hands, the holy kiss, nonresistance, the refusal to take an oath, and the women members wearing head coverings.
Most of the Brethren’s beliefs were radical in Europe at this time and a threat to the authority of the state churches. This led to serious consequences and persecution, so, beginning in 1719, about 20 families began the first of several migrations of the Brethren to America to seek religious freedom. These families settled on the outskirts of Philadelphia in sparsely settled, Germantown, and on Dec. 25, 1723, their first church was officially organized. The area was mostly inhabited by German Quakers and Mennonites, and history says that these groups extended hospitality to their fellow Germans natives. All three of these denominations later became known as “plain people” and also dubbed the historic “peace churches” in the 19th century, for their strong advocation for nonviolence. Nearly all the Brethren families came to America and eventually migrated all over America. They established organized churches in Virginia in the 1760s.
The first recorded Brethren converts here in Dickenson County, VA, were baptized in the Autumn of 1861 in a dammed-up pool of water in Mill Creek, a beautiful mountain stream whose waters flowed off Pine Mountain in the Skeetrock section of the county. These baptisms were a result of a series of services held by an evangelist in our area, a “Dunker” preacher named Johnnie Osborne, from Scott County, Virginia, accompanied by another Brethren minister, by the name of Noah Sloas (Sluss) who lived at Skeetrock.
After the great difficulties endured during the Civil War, the flock of Brethren converts began to increase in number under local leadership of Rev. Sloas with the assistance of the TN Brethren district ministers. An official congregation was organized in 1900, and a permanent church was built at Skeetrock in 1906 and named “Cumberland Church”. By 1908, the German Baptist Brethren denomination had split into
3 different groups. The congregation at Skeetrock, as well as the rest of the TN District Brethren churches stayed with the main line of “moderate” Brethren who were newly named, “The Church of the Brethren”. The Cumberland Church continued to grow. Members were very scattered in our rural area and with travel being difficult then, they decided to open three mission preaching points: Ramey Flats Church, Ash Camp Church (KY), and Pound River Church.
Pound River Church was built from the ground up on a ridge of farmland donated by local Brethren member, Rev. General Sluss, and opened for services in 1941. The church was situated high on a ridge between Pound River and Cransenest River. Being it was on the Pound River side of the ridge, that’s how it got its name. As membership grew, Pound River Church asked for independence from the “mother” church of Cumberland. They were granted their request and were officially organized as a separate Church of the Brethren congregation in 1972 with Elder Charlie J. Sluss elected as pastor. Two other faithful men, Rev. Cline Sluss and Larry Younce also held pastorship. In 2012, Pound River Church elected to ask Brother Bill Rose to lead our congregation. He accepted our invitation and still faithfully serves in this role today.
Beginning in the 1980s, many of the leadership and membership within the Church of the Brethren denomination began drifting away in their commitment to follow New Testament principles regarding personal morality and it only worsened over the years. In 2021, the Pound River Church membership voted by majority, along with several other churches throughout the nation, to leave the Church of the Brethren sect of the Brethren. After almost 160 years of being a Brethren affiliated church, the Pound River Church body of members elected to withdraw from the Church of the Brethren, and Brethren affiliation as a whole, to become an independent congregation. The local membership voted on the withdrawal in 2020 and elected a new church constitution, bylaws, and statement of faith on February 27, 2022.
