Our Mission:

Shiloh Baptist Association is a body of churches cooperating to:

Located in the beautiful "Upper Piedmont" of Virginia, our Association is seated in the midst of an historic area. Brandy Station (where the largest cavalry battle in the western hemisphere was fought) and other important Civil War sites are within our boundaries. The home of James Madison, the president who was instrumental in getting religious liberty (separation of church and state) in the Bill of Rights, is in our southern area. Madison was influenced by John Leland, who served as pastor of Culpeper (then Mt. Poney) church for about a year. Prior to religious liberty, many Baptist ministers were arrested and jailed in our area for refusing to be licensed by the Anglican Church, then the official state church.

Likewise, many of our churches are old and historic. Our oldest church, Blue Run, was established in 1769. Elijah Craig, a prominent Virginia Baptist minister, was instrumental in the founding of the church. During the period 1769 to 1800, eight of our churches were established. During the 1800s, 21 churches were established; eleven between 1801-1850 and 11 between 1851-1900.

Only three churches were established in the early to mid 1900s, one in mid-century, but several since 1996. In addition, two churches have moved to Shiloh from neighboring associations.

Our churches are moderate to small, ranging from 1,000 in membership (Culpeper) to less that 100. Several of our churches are served by bi-vocational, “semi-retirees,” or student pastors. We have approximately 6,500 members in all of our churches combined, making us 29th among Virginia’s 43 associations. We are in a rapidly growing area, which is a challenge for our churches as they seek to reach out with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the "newcomers," as well as to people who have lived in the area all their lives.

We are an association of churches voluntarily cooperating together, thereby "doing more together than we could do alone."