Trumbull Times
50 years ago, 25-member church made
‘A giant leap of faith’
Apr 10, 2008

For Long Hill Baptist Church, plenty has changed since 1958. The congregation’s Park Lane School services are a thing of the past, as is Park Lane School, which has been renamed after longtime teacher Jane Ryan.
The grocery store, where members used to buy supplies for social events, is now a gas station, and the four children Dottie Hallquist used to bring to church on Sundays now have children, and a grandchild, of their own.
But the church community, the indomitable spirit of its members, remains much the same as it was when a small group of pilgrims from Baptist Temple of Bridgeport incorporated a new congregation April 7, 1958.
“A lot of things have changed, but we continue to be a small, friendly church,” said Hallquist, the congregation’s lone remaining active charter member. “This place has been like a second family.”
Her membership in the church actually predates the church itself, which a group of volunteers, led by Dottie’s late husband, Everett Hallquist, erected in 1967.
“Meeting in the school was nice; there was plenty of room,” Hallquist said. “But it wasn’t the same as having an actual church.”
Still, with membership that numbered in the 20s, undertaking land acquisition and a building project was an incredibly ambitious project, requiring four years of planning and fund raising before the members purchased the 2.83-acre plot of land on Middlebrooks Avenue for the princely sum of $18,000.
Construction would go quicker, with Everett leading the building committee and volunteer workers. The group broke ground on the parsonage June 9, 1963, and Pastor Maurice Lund dedicated his new home Jan. 5, 1964.
Work then began on the sanctuary with an Aug. 7, 1966 groundbreaking. The building hosted its first Sunday service July 2 of the following year.
“Everett spent a lot of days and weekends here,” Dottie recalled. “But we finally achieved our dream of opening the new building.”
The church community ebbed and flowed over the next three decades, as membership swelled to more than 100 at times, enough to organize two youth groups, including a puppeteer club of children, which portrayed Bible stories to the congregation.
By the early 1990s though, the church was at its lowest point. It was then that a small-town preacher from North Carolina made his own leap of faith.
“I think the church had maybe 20 members then, and most of them were pretty elderly,” said Pastor Mark Aheron, who moved his family from Winston-Salem to take over the floundering congregation in July 1994.
“I was working as a paramedic, and my wife had a job with US Airways,” Aheron said. “We had just moved into a brand new house, our dream home we called it, and had three small children.”
What would make someone move across the country to take up leadership of a church that, by all accounts, was on its last legs?
“I just had the feeling that this was where God wanted me,” Aheron said. “Sometimes you just have to have faith.”
With Aheron at the helm, the members began making greater efforts at community outreach. The church also welcomed community youngsters, a tradition that continues to this day.
“Now, we have our Teen Night on Tuesdays and Children’s Night on Fridays,” Aheron said. “Both nights will usually have about 30 kids.”
While 30 might not sound like an impressive number, with church membership just under 100, drawing 30 teens means nearly everyone between 13 and 18 attends, and most bring a friend.
“By any standard, we’re still a small church, but we’re a healthy and active community,” Aheron said.
It was the sense of community that helped Dottie through her toughest time, when Everett passed away in 1995.
“The members were at my home night and day,” she said. “It was comforting to have another home and family that cared so much.”
This past Sunday, for its 50th anniversary celebration, Long Hill Baptist welcomed home its extended family and a series of guests, including some who had attended as children, then moved out of the area.
“In a community like Trumbull, that happens,” Hallquist said. “People attend for a few years, then they get transferred or move away.”
Those who returned found the church community essentially as it was, and a church building almost identical to the one that opened in 1967. In the ensuing years, the church has added air conditioning, new carpeting, seat cushions on the pews, and that’s about it.
“When you walk in, it feels like the 1950s,” she said. “We cook out in the summer and have social events where everyone makes their own ice cream.”
It is also a church where members come early and leave late, she said.
“We stay for coffee and just enjoy being together as a community,” Hallquist said. “It’s almost like no one wants to leave.”
Much like family gatherings, Aheron is reluctant to end the Sunday gatherings, typically surrendering the keys with instructions. This Sunday was no exception.
“Last person out, lock up,” he said.

© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers