Our History :

Here we will tell the story of the beginnings of our church and how we became what we are today.

Our first church circa 1870

Our heritage began in 1804 when Rev. Andrew Brown, a Presbyterian Minister came as a missionary to this area and served for the next 16 years. His followers met in homes to worship until John Oliver Green gave 7 acres of land to build a meeting place. This church was called the Westminster Presbyterian Church and from this, the town of Westminster received its name. Because of the close proximity to the Richland Presbyterian Church and the need of a church in the Retreat section, the Westminster Church became known as the Retreat Presbyterian Church.

We have no record as to how the 7 acres of land and log house were turned over to the Baptists, however, in 1831, a Baptist church was organized. Rev. James R. Smith was the first Pastor. The first mention of deacons being selected was in 1850. In the year 1862, we have the first recorded offering for a Pastor. The amount of $15.30 was received and used by Rev. H. M. Barton to go to Virginia to preach to the soldiers during the War Between the States.

In April of 1863, the Sunday School was organized. We had a large number of members withdraw to organize the Westminster Baptist church. Immediately our church became known as the “old” church. This name remained until 1908 when, during a Saturday night business conference, Mrs. J. A. Watkins asked that the name First Baptist replace the words Old Westminster Church.

In 1925, Rev. M. J. Stansell became Pastor and soon the church was full time and a home was purchased on Hampton Street. Rev. Stansell led in an era of progress. A new brick sanctuary and Sunday School rooms were built in 1949 and soon after, a new Parsonage. During his leadership, we grew from 200 to 700 members with an average attendance exceeding 300.