Personal Narrative: South Knollwood Baptist Church

The greatest asset to my life growing up besides my family were the churches that my family attended. Although we have moved several times due to my father being stationed in various locations with the military, the Baptist churches we have been a part of have been a stable place for me. Currently, I have the privilege of calling South Knollwood Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas my home church. South Knollwood is under the leadership of Pastor Jeremiah Metsinger, a third generation preacher.

South Knollwood Baptist Church started the third Sunday of May, 1957. Clyde Barnes, the planter of the church, along with a few families began to hold services in a small, donated chapel on a piece of farmland. Since its inception, Knollwood has had six pastors counting our current pastor. During the last sixty years, the church has experienced ups and downs. The church has had splits that left vacancies in a varieties of places. Some compromising leaders have changed the direction of the church; but by the grace of God, South Knollwood is back to “old-time religion”.

About twenty years after South Knollwood Baptist Church started, the church had outgrown the chapel they were
The church was running about 120 people and was struggling. The church had just experienced a split. So Pastor set out to heal some wounds and help the church grow. He started soul winning classes, began preaching on why we use the King James Bible, and focused on money management. The church had accumulated over half a million dollars in debt, thanks to God’s goodness and Pastor Metsinger’s leadership, this debt was retired a little over a year after he got there. Pastor got back to the basics by teaching on Baptist distinctives, KJV truth, and basic discipleship. This helped remove some of the compromising culture that had set in before his arrival at South