The History of Our Church

Humble Beginnings

I would like to share some of that with you today, and how far this church has come in the last 75 years. They, it was, everything's upside down, excuse me. Okay, the First Baptist Church became a mission on June 27th, 1948, and was organized as a church on October 17th, 1948.

They moved to a tent from a garage on May 15th, 1949, and then they went to the infamous chicken coop. In all of the writing that you read about it in here, they call it the chicken house, but somehow or another, it became known by the church people as the chicken coop, and that's what it was, eventually.

Then, October 16th, 1949, they had their first anniversary in a new building. And then on October 28th, 1951, on the second anniversary, they broke ground for an educational building. On January 4th, 1953, ground was broken for the two-story educational building that's behind us. In November 1964, a new worship center was built. And then this building we are in now was dedicated on May 1st, 1983. Can you imagine coming from a chicken coop to this? Praise the Lord!

Key Milestones and Charter Members

When they first started on June 27th, 1948, our first record of any that we have is this: they had 11 members, and the offering was $4.10. Years later, in 1987, that had increased to $306,000.

It was first organized as Pioneer Baptist. The name was changed after 60 days. There were 10 original members, and I'd like to name those 10 members because some of the people here, I know, remember them. Reverend F.M. Box was called as pastor, and the members were: Mrs. F.M. Box, Reverend J.R. Burke, Mrs. J.R. Burke, A.V. Burke, Mrs. A.V. Burke, Lee Burke (who joined for baptism that same day), A.J. Hill, Mrs. A.J. Hill, Arthur Hill, and Robert Earl Hill.

Later on, if you would like to look, I have a booklet and I'll lay it up here so you can see it. It has pictures of all of the buildings from where they started all the way up to this one. It's very interesting to look at those pictures and actually see what they had and what they did.

Rapid Growth and Ministry

Huh, there's some... there's Pastor Steve's notes still left up here. I almost read them! Sorry about that, I got my notes mixed up here.

Anyway, once they started, they grew very fast. They quickly outgrew the garage, and on May 15th, 1949, moved to a large tent, and then a smaller tent was purchased for Sunday school. The congregation was growing, with Sunday school classes and separate departments for the training union. A successful Vacation Bible School was held from June 20th to July 1st, with an average attendance of 103, and the school was held in the large rumpus room of Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Hill.

And then after that, they went to the chicken coop, and celebrated their first anniversary with lots of food. Baptists can do that well; they like to eat.

Anyway, as I was looking through here, I found this. It lists what, after a few years, was offered here: they had Sunday school at 10:00, worship service at 11:00, training union for all ages at 6:30 p.m., evening worship at 7:30, prayer meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Women's Missionary Union Wednesday at 1:00, and choir practice Thursday at 7:30 p.m. This is "the new church with an old gospel." Everyone is invited to join.

That's how it was when my husband and I became members here in 1959, and we've been members here ever since. It is a wonderful church. I feel that we are very blessed to have this church. Thank you.