Local church histories seldom find a wide readership. This is likely to be different with Caleb Morell’s A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism, which tells the 150-year story of Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC) in Washington, DC. When the church’s senior pastor, Mark Dever, asked Morrell, an assistant pastor, why anyone would want to read this book, he replied, “I’m telling the story of a life, the life of a congregation” (xvii).
This book is a dynamic telling of the compelling work of God in a congregation’s life over a century and a half. “Ultimately,” Morell says, “this story is about God and how he delights to do extraordinary things through ordinary people and ordinary churches” (2). Though the book contains plenty of footnotes from members’ meeting minutes and boxes of church archives, there’s much more to the story.
Ordinary Church
Today, CHBC is a thriving congregation located just a few blocks away from the Capitol Building. The church is a vibrant center for gospel preaching, pastoral training, and evangelistic witness. Over the years, numerous well-known and influential people have been named in the congregation’s membership rolls, and the church’s life has intersected with many significant evangelical and national events. There is indeed much that may appear extraordinary about this particular local church.
Yet what’s most extraordinary about Morell’s account of CHBC’s history is just how ordinary it is. The book’s narrative is delightfully accessible and relatable, even quotidian at points. Morell doesn’t tell the congregation’s history as the dramatic tale of a church unlike any other. Rather, the church’s story is the practical outworking of ordinary Christian faithfulness over generations. In many ways, the book is an ode to the humble and faithful men and women who simply “worked, prayed, sowed, and stayed” (4). As Morell writes, “The story of Capitol Hill Baptist Church reminds us that the work of God has been carried on by ordinary people who lived hidden lives and who rest in unvisited tombs” (2).
Though well-known figures such as Billy Graham, Carl F. H. Henry, and Mark Dever play a large part in the story, they compete for space with previously unknown figures such as Celestia Ferris, the woman who called together the prayer meeting in 1867 that eventually led to the founding of the church in 1878; Agnes Shankle, the faithful Sunday school teacher who steered the church away from the modernist pastoral candidate Ralph Walker toward the conservative K. Owen White in the 1940s; and Bill, the faithful deacon who saw the church through a particularly difficult period in the 1980s and early ’90s.
In all this, thoughtful readers will discern that Morell is making an argument: God is pleased to advance his kingdom through ordinary people carrying on quiet, humble, faithful lives in the context of the local church. The success of this local congregation wasn’t built on impressive strategies, creative programs, or dynamic personalities. It was built on a commitment to the means of grace, to holiness of life, and to the sufficiency of God’s Word to do God’s work.
Extraordinary Times
CHBC’s story is interwoven with America’s story. The church’s history touches on some of the most significant events in national memory. Through the experience of a local congregation just a short stroll from the center of world power, we’re given a window into major chapters in the nation’s history such as the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Spanish flu, two world wars, the civil rights movement, the 9/11 attacks, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
God is pleased to advance his kingdom through ordinary people carrying on quiet, humble, faithful lives in the context of the local church.
A major theme throughout the book is the congregation’s dogged determination to stay rooted in its community despite social and cultural challenges. For example, the church had to navigate urbanization and corresponding demographic shifts that sometimes threatened the church’s viability and introduced various difficulties into church life. As the 20th century unfolded, the congregation faced steady pressure to abandon its roots in Capitol Hill and retreat to the suburbs. Yet they remained.
Additionally, A Light on the Hill traces the major evangelical movements and controversies over the last century and a half. Morell highlights how the history of CHBC intersected with the modernist/fundamentalist controversies of the early 20th century, evangelical responses to racial unrest, Billy Graham’s famous DC revival meetings, the founding of Christianity Today, and notable chapters in the Southern Baptist Convention. CHBC often played a significant part in these movements and debates.
Faithful Legacy
Yet CHBC’s role in controversies and the important people who visited are less impressive than the church’s staid faithfulness. As Morell concludes, “Despite internal dissensions and the contextual challenges of being an urban church, Capitol Hill Baptist Church has remained centered on the gospel and rooted in its community for nearly 150 years” (297).
Morell identifies three instrumental factors in CHBC’s preservation throughout the decades.
CHBC’s role in controversies and the important people who visited are less impressive than the church’s staid faithfulness.
First, the consistent and faithful preaching of the Word. The history of CHBC incontestably proves that the pulpit matters.
Second, the persevering faithfulness of the individual members throughout the generations of the church’s life. Of these members, Morell writes, “They never stood in the pulpit, but they knelt in the prayer closet, and the Lord Jesus Christ will reward them when he bestows eternal honors on his saints in glory. Heaven will testify to the cosmic impact of a quiet life centered around the local church” (298).
Third, the church’s commitment to prayer. Morell identifies this as the single most important factor contributing to the church’s long-term health. “The church started as a prayer meeting,” he writes, “and the prayers of the saints have sustained the church during its darkest moments” (298).
Fittingly, the book concludes with a question to the reader: “Is the light of your church shining? What will it take to keep that light shining? Keep preaching the gospel, keep persevering in loving the church, and above all keep praying so that you may ignite a light set on a hill that cannot be hidden” (299). A Light on the Hill provides a compelling picture of a church that has embraced and embodied this bright vision for a century and a half, and, God willing, will encourage others to do the same.
The Gospel Coalition