More than 120 individuals gathered at the Bonnerdale Seventh-day Adventist Church on Sept. 5 to celebrate its 120th anniversary, honoring generations of faith, fellowship, and community—and the connections that have kept the congregation rooted through the years.
Returning Pastor Ryan Long and current Pastor Sergio Festa spoke about the importance of connection, with Long’s message focused on koinonia, something the church has experienced for generations. The day’s activities themselves reflected the meaning of koinonia: people participating together rather than simply attending an event.
The congregation was organized in 1906 in Lucky, Ark.—a community later renamed Bonnerdale—approximately 20 miles west of Hot Springs. The church grew quickly. A school opened only a year after the congregation was organized, and by 1910, membership had reached 55, making it the second-largest congregation in the conference.
The school became an important part of the community's identity and continues today as Florence Ewing Junior Academy, providing a faith-based education through eighth grade and including facilities such as a full-size gym.
Former Teacher Larry Burton presented the school's history, sharing what he had learned through many hours of research. Burton noted that 2026 marks the school’s 120th year, although its operation was interrupted once.
At one time, the school served approximately 100 children. The school bound the community together, as relationships formed and strengthened. Families worshiped together. Neighbors worked together.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Bonnerdale's history is the number of families whose connections to the church extend across generations.
William N. Ewing and Thomas “Babe” Lambert were among the congregation's original founders. Ewing donated land for the church, and the Lambert and Ewing families were later joined through marriage. Other longtime families connected to the congregation include the Dillards, Peckhams, Mooneys, and Weatherfords.
Current church members Denny Nooner Jr. and Tim Bainum are descendants of both the Lambert and Ewing families through their grandmother, a Lambert who married into the Ewing family. Nooner’s great-great-grandmother Ewing also came from the Dillard family, which was represented among the church’s charter members. Nooner and Bainum still own their grandmother’s farm, purchased in 1928, where three generations of the family have lived—nearly 100 years of family ownership.
Bainum's daughter and granddaughter represented the sixth and seventh generations descended from the original Lambert and Ewing families to attend the church, and another member of the Dillard family is an eighth-generation descendant who attended the Bonnerdale Seventh-day Adventist school and graduated only a few years ago.
Generations remained close enough to know one another. The connections didn’t necessarily end when families moved away. During a Bonnerdale homecoming and reunion event in the early 1990s, approximately 300 people returned to the small rural church and school, a remarkable number for a community of such small size.
The physical church itself provides another remarkable link between generations. The current building is the fourth structure, but the congregation has never moved from its original location. The front door of today's building is within 50 feet of where the original church building stood. Times and people may have changed, but the church has remained rooted in the same place.
The cemetery provides another visible reminder of that history. It contains approximately nearly 200 plots. What began as a family cemetery for some of the founding families expanded as the community grew. Generations of families are literally rooted in the same ground.
One of the most moving moments of the 120th anniversary came around 1:30 p.m., when 72 people gathered for a photograph in the same location where an earlier generation had posed approximately 70 years ago. Placed side by side, the photographs tell a story that words alone cannot.
The earlier photograph shows a rural community gathered together in another era. The 2026 photograph contains a much larger gathering representing multiple generations and people whose lives now extend far beyond Bonnerdale. Yet the location remains familiar. For those in attendance, this was not just an exercise in nostalgia but a visible reminder that history is not preserved merely in old photographs and records, but is carried by people.
And one individual provides a particularly meaningful link between the two photographs: Church member Don Dumler is pictured in both the earlier photograph and the 2026 anniversary photograph.
The anniversary prompted a larger question: What made this community endure for 120 years? Faith is certainly part of the answer. Those gathered at Bonnerdale recognize God's providence in the congregation's history.
But there is another part of the story that can be seen in the photographs, family records, farms, cemetery, school, and generations of names. There was connection.For decades, family and neighborhood relationships formed a backbone for the community. The church and school became places where those relationships could flourish and be strengthened.
That raises a difficult question for today's communities: Can that same kind of deep connection be created intentionally when multigenerational relationships are no longer as common? Perhaps it is not as simple as trying to create “community” inside a church, school, or civic organization. The Bonnerdale experience suggests that strong institutions may be built upon something that comes first—people who are connected enough to care about one another and about the place they share.
The 120th anniversary was ultimately not only a celebration of what Bonnerdale was. It was a reminder of what it can continue to be. The hope expressed at the conclusion of the celebration was that the community would continue to grow in the practice of koinonia—community, participation, and service to both the local and wider communities.
After 120 years, the buildings have changed, families have moved away, and the world surrounding Bonnerdale is very different from the world of 1906. Yet the congregation remains in the same place. The descendants of its founders are still connected. The school continues. The farms remain in family hands. The cemetery holds generations of those who came before.
