The above picture was made at our 175th Church Anniversary Celebration in March 2015.  Rev. Jeff Wilkie was here as great grandson of our first pastor, Rev. F M Hawkins.  Rev. Bud & Marion Sutton were here in 1990's, followed by Rev. Ronnie & Cindy McCormick and then Rev. Lee & Stephanie Gaddis.  Rev. Ricky & Michele Byrd are our current pastoral family since 2008. 

On Friday, February 28, 1840, a Presbytery consisting of Rev. L J. Hudson and Rev. F M Hawkins ministers) and Merady Scrugs and James Bramblett (deacons) met and "read letters of dismission for eleven members which we examined the principles of the gospel and finding them to be orthodox in the faith, we proceeded to constitute them into a church under the name of the Friendship Church..." The eleven persons were Tolliver Reid, Reuben Roper, Little Berry Edwards, James Haygood, Deliah Haygood, Susannah Compton, Cinthia Roper, Nelly Edwards, Martha Sharpton, Mary Reid, and Mahala Scruggs. The first conference was held on Saturday, February 29, 1840. Tolliver Reid was elected as the first clerk of the church. The church called L J Hudson and F M Hawkins to preach until a pastor was elected. On September 5, 1840, Frederick Marshall (F M) Hawkins was elected to be the first pastor of Friendship. Zachariah Haygood suggested the name of the church.

According to July 23, 1842, minutes, Friendship Church members chose to build the first church of logs and that its dimensions were to be 32 feet by 26 feet on land lot 881. Prior to the building of the first church, we believe that members met in different homes. We are not sure when this first building was constructed. We do have a picture of our present church building in 1874. At that time, the church was facing the east (toward our current outdoor baptismal pool). In 1919, the church building was remodeled with the front facing the south. The steeple was added. The pulpit was placed in the back where the current choir loft is located and two anterooms were added with one at each front door. In 1958, oak floors were placed in the church and the walls were sheet rocked. Sunday School rooms were added in the back of the church a couple of years later. In 1964, the members voted to brick the church and to add memorial stain-glassed windows in the sanctuary. In July 1969, the church voted to install air conditioning in the church. In 1980, additional Sunday School rooms and a fellowship building were built at the rear and to the left of the church and was connected to the church by a hallway. An outdoor pavilion was built in 1984. In 1992-93, a larger fellowship building was constructed and ten additional Sunday School rooms were added. In 1999, the church itself was remodeled adding an indoor baptismal pool, more choir loft area, and more sanctuary seating. The Sunday School rooms adjacent to the sanctuary were removed to allow for the expansion of the sanctuary. Currently, the church sanctuary seats approximately three hundred persons with about a forty-person choir loft area. There are three offices, fourteen Sunday School rooms, and two fellowship buildings at Friendship. A playground was added behind the smaller fellowship building a few years ago.  In 2015, five new Family Life Center classrooms were finished and started being used by the Youth on Wednesday evening.  The Media Rooms and Gym area were finished and the building was dedicated in 2014.