Hopeful Baptist Church was organized in October 1814 when members of the Church at the Pinewoods Meeting House purchased the land on which the meeting house stood for $10. The first minutes in Hopeful's history were the legal indenture recording the name “Hopeful”: “The Church of Christ at Hopeful met in conference.” Built from 1850 to 1855 at a cost of $5,000, the fourth building, in Greek Revival style, is unaltered and retains its original pews, pulpit, windows, shutters, and moldings. The church's white and Black antebellum congregations worshipped together in the Baptist faith. In 1867 Black members formed nearby Second Hopeful Baptist, which remains active. The cemetery to the rear dates to 1855 and includes the graves of Nancy Palmer Johnson (1786-1855), mother of Georgia Governor Herschel V. Johnson, who served from 1853 to 1857, and Reverend J. H. T. Kilpatrick (1788-1869) and his wife Harriett; he fostered missionary sentiment and was a first trustee of Mercer University. Edmund Byne, founder of the Byne family of Burke County, was the moving force in establishing Hopeful, but he died in 1814 before seeing the fruition of his labors, and Hopeful's first service was dedicated to him. Hopeful Baptist Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 1, 1993.