Welcome to the First Baptist Church
We deliberately work to make room for many different perspectives and life experiences; young and old, different cultures, different faith experiences, all coming together and sharing the richness of our
faith with one another.
About Us
The congregation engages in Christian learning and spiritual growth for people of every age and we offer opportunities for faith formation and development for people of every age. From Bible Study to weekly social outings to youth summer camps, we bring our members together to learn and strengthen our faith in God.
Adults get together for weekday and weeknight learning opportunities, small group experiences, and for gatherings on Sunday mornings that include First Baptist Café, a new multi-subject twist on the old idea of Sunday School.
Our Values
We aren't too concerned with dogma.
We are less concerned with doctrinal statements and dogma and are more concerned with seeking the wisdom of scripture, tradition and our own faith experiences in making sense of our lives today and counting on the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us.
We always meet you where you are.
Whether you are a believer, a seeker or a doubter, we invite you to develop and foster your faith in an environment that is encouraging and safe.
We see faith as something you do.
Faith is not something you have, it is a call to action. In faith, we seek to be a community who love beyond our congregation to the community and the world, not to manipulate people into becoming one of us, but to do good for the sake of doing good and contributing to the world.
We are inclusive.
We are a community that works at being inclusive and diverse. We reflect this commitment to inclusion in our leadership as well as our membership. Thus, we invite anyone, regardless of gender identity or expression, regardless of race or ethnicity, and regardless of sexual orientation to be fully engaged in any and all aspect of the church. Women and LGBTQ have long served in leadership roles and have preached from the pulpit. We lift these two groups up specifically because many other Christian traditions exclude these groups from leadership even if they allow them into membership.
We don't claim to be the only way.
We acknowledge that there are many different faith traditions and experiences that draw people into deep relationship with God. As Christians, we accomplish this through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, seeing Christ as the lens through which we make sense of the world and God’s activity in it.
We are intentionally intergenerational.
We are a historic church body that has always been a place for people of all ages to come together. We preserve that value and work to make room for people of many different ages to be together in fellowship. This is why we have only one service and that service is blended in its style. One may not relate to every element of the worship service, but there is bound to be several components that one will relate to.
The moment that I walked into First Baptist, I knew I was "home." The people are welcoming, friendly, and accepting. The most important thing for me is that the word of God is being preached every Sunday, in a way that anyone can understand and apply to his or her individual daily life. It means a lot to me that we are accepting of all, following Jesus’ example of love. Gender, race, age, financial status, or LGBTQ discrimination are not part of who we are at First Baptist. I thank God for leading me here.
What Does First Baptist Offer You?
A place where you matter.
Whoever you are, whatever you do, whatever your place of origin, your politics, or your sexual orientation, whether you are as orthodox as the day is long or you find yourself crossing your fingers at certain nuances of doctrine, you matter to us and we will love you because you matter to God and God loves you.
Period.
Others may attach strings to accepting people as they are. Not us.
Worship that matters.
Worship is central to our life together as a community. In worship we learn, get inspired, pray, and commune with God in a unique way.
Services are interactive, humorous, personal, balanced between traditional elements and more light-hearted elements. Something for everyone and it’s intended to be enjoyed in your own way.
A place to explore and express your faith.
The congregation engages in Christian learning and spiritual growth for people of every age and we offer opportunities for faith formation and development for people of every age. From Bible Study to weekly social outings to youth summer camps, we bring our members together to learn and strengthen our faith in God.
Adults get together for weekday and weeknight learning opportunities, small group experiences, and for gatherings on Sunday mornings that include First Baptist Café, a new multi-subject twist on the old idea of Sunday School.
Opportunities to do something worthwhile.
First Baptist Church is a mission minded community that looks for opportunities to contribute to the good in the world whether it is feeding teens at the Youth Resource Center or sending money to dig wells in Haiti. We are always looking for ways to express our faith through action.
We eagerly partner with many different organizations combining our efforts. In addition to providing needed services, we also feel called to advocate for social justice reform and to be a prophetic community standing up for the humanity of all who experience oppression and exploitation. In other words, if people are rallying around a good cause, we will be there.
