On Sep­tem­ber 1, 1957, a small group of peo­ple met in the home of the late Bill and Vio­let Meek for the pur­pose of begin­ning a mis­sion.  Through the ded­i­ca­tion of these few believ­ers and the spon­sor­ship efforts of Pas­tor Bill Raper and the mem­bers of South­side Bap­tist Church, 1621 High Street, their vision became a reality.

The mis­sion moved to the upstairs of the Grove­port Town Hall. The Lord blessed the mis­sion with 16 mem­bers. They offi­cially became known as the “First Bap­tist Chapel Grove­port” in Sep­tem­ber of 1958 with Dave White serv­ing as pastor.

A tent revival was held in Sep­tem­ber of 1958 on a vacant lot on West Street owned by Mr. And Mrs. William Harden.  It was dur­ing this revival that Mrs. Audrey Blake accepted Christ into her life and was bap­tized on Novem­ber 16, becom­ing the first con­vert of the mission.

A few months later, the church pur­chased a small pie-shaped par­cel of land and the first edu­ca­tional build­ing was built. With Mar­vin Warner serv­ing as pas­tor, they con­sti­tuted into “First Bap­tist Church” on Feb­ru­ary 17th, 1960.

With the Lord’s con­tin­ued bless­ings, a new sanc­tu­ary was built in Octo­ber of 1965, with Joe Poole serv­ing as pas­tor. Then in 1970 with Harold Poage serv­ing as pas­tor a new edu­ca­tional build­ing was com­pleted, pro­vid­ing much needed class­room space. A fire set by van­dals caused exten­sive dam­age and nearly destroyed the edu­ca­tional build­ing in 1973.

The prop­erty and dwelling adja­cent to the church was pur­chased in 1978. Sev­eral church mem­bers remod­eled the dwelling in 1981 and it served as home to Pas­tor Glade May and his fam­ily until 1997. Since that time it has been used as a Youth Cen­ter and home to a Cel­e­brate Recovery group.

In the Spring of 1996 ground was bro­ken for our present sanc­tu­ary, which was designed to seat 600. The struc­ture was built from the ground up and com­pleted in less than seven months, just in time for Christ­mas that same year. Vol­un­teer builders from sev­eral states helped build the beau­ti­ful wor­ship center.

In 1997 the old audi­to­rium was remod­eled into an activ­ity and sports cen­ter. Behind the church, a par­cel of land extend­ing to Swisher Road became avail­able and was pur­chased in 1998, with Greg Cooper serv­ing as pas­tor. This par­cel of land will be used for Phase I and II of future building needs.

Our past reflects a bold faith in the Lord’s power and a desire to work through His peo­ple to accom­plish His will in mak­ing dis­ci­ples. As we look to the future, we shall con­tinue to work and build for the glory of God. We want all mankind to know of Him, the One who is still able to per­form mir­a­cles in the heart and lives of those will­ing to yield to Him.