Submitted story

ST. PARIS – In the year 1874, there were six Baptist churches actively operating within a five-mile radius of St. Paris, but none within the corporation of the village.

With the limited means of travel in those days, five miles was quite a barrier. Several families who were members of Baptist churches in distant communities which relocated to St. Paris, desired to have a Baptist church within the community.

Nineteen of them banded together on Aug. 13, 1874, each of them presenting a letter of recommendation and proposed the organization of an Independent Baptist church. One week later, on Aug. 20, 1874, these members together with a number of delegates from the nine Baptist churches in this general area met to recognize the First Baptist Church of St. Paris as an Independent Baptist church. This meeting occurred at the Methodist church which was located on East Lynn St.

Ground was immediately purchased by Christian McMorran, where the existing church and parsonage are currently located at the corner of S. Church and W. Plum streets, and donated to the church for the building of a two-story brick building costing $6,000. The original church had a tower 75 feet tall with a huge clock with four faces.

Prior to the dedication, the first meeting was held in the “lecture” room on Dec. 27, 1874. Due to the earnest effort of the building committee and 105 contributors, the entire amount of the building costs were pledged and the building dedicated on Jan. 31, 1875, a mere eight months after the church was organized.

​In the fall of 1913, a decision had to be made to remodel the existing church or build a new one due to increased attendance. In the spring of 1914, the church was dismantled and on July 19, 1914 a cornerstone was laid for the new building. The new church building was completed at a cost of $15,616 and the dedication took place on Jan. 3, 1915.

During the past 150 years, the church has been served by a total of 31 pastors and 16 interim pastors, according to the records.

Today, the church supports multiple missionaries and outreach programs such as the Wednesday evening “Food for the Souls” which provides an average of 225 meals weekly to individuals in the community at no charge; is active with the local Federation of Churches, working together with the area churches to minister to the community with projects such the Food Pantry, community Thanksgiving meal, Angel Tree at Christmas time, Life Wise and the Brown Bag program for Graham students.

​Plans have been made for a special celebration on Saturday, Aug. 17 and Sunday, Aug. 18.

The Saturday celebration will be begin at 4 p.m. with area minister Rev. Mark Click speaking. Several former pastors will speak along with special music. A catered meal which is free and open to the public will follow at approximately 5 p.m. Sunday morning service will start at 10 a.m. with more special music by our children and a guest speaker.

Please join us for this special occasion. Both services will be live streamed on our website www.fbcstparis.com/live, on our Facebook page and on YouTube.

For more information, please call the church office at 937-663-4335 or email [email protected].

Story from First Baptist Church of St. Paris