CLINTON — Clinton’s First Baptist Church will celebrate its 180th anniversary this weekend.  

On Sunday, The Victorymen Quartet will help members of the church celebrate the anniversary of a church Pastor John Roberson says he’s proud to be a part of.

“It’s a big year for us,” says Roberson.  “You don’t here that a lot these days with churches.”

He says it’s a testament of the people who founded the church and those who have stayed with it over the generations.

“With the history the church has, there’s a weight to leading the church,” Roberson says.  “What I’ve been given; someday I’m going to give to someone else, and I want to make sure I guard that.”

He says he often wonders what the weather was like on that first Sunday in February when the church was founded in 1839.

“What was that first day like?  You can’t help but think about things like that.  And, did they think that, 180 years from then, the church would still be around?”

Services began in the current building in 1968.  Just a few years ago, it underwent a major renovation inside and out.

Roberson is grateful for the pastors and church members that have come before and for those now and what they’ve managed to accomplish.

“It just goes to show you that it’s bigger than just one person,” he says.  “There were quite a few before me, and they were good enough to guard it and protect it and pass it on when they were done.”