First Baptist Church marks 125 years of community outreach
First Baptist Church in Niagara Falls will celebrate its 125th anniversary Sunday with little fireworks and fanfare.
“The best way to really celebrate 125 years of God’s faithfulness to our congregation is by doing the things our congregation has been called to do,” said Pastor Brad Peters.
While the focus Sunday will be primarily on the worship service, and everyone is welcome to attend, the Dorchester Road church plans to mark the anniversary throughout the year with a series of events and outreach projects.
“We didn’t want to have an anniversary Sunday event and that was it,” Peter sad.
“We want to spread the goodness out over the entire year.”
The congregation at First Baptist is active in the community and supports various agencies including Project SHARE and Niagara Falls Community Outreach.
Members are also involved in an ecumenical group comprised of members from other churches in the north end of the city.
First Baptist Church has had four locations in Niagara Falls since it first welcomed parishioners in 1892.
“We’ve always been a little nomadic,” Peters joked.
Initially an outreach of the Main Street Baptist Church, members would meet in a small building on Morrison Street. By 1911, the church had grown dramatically and the decision was made to move to a new location on Jepson Street.
During that time, the congregation shared the building with the community. It was a makeshift emergency hospital during an influenza epidemic in 1918 and a blood donor clinic from 1943 to 1945.
With the baby boom of the 1950s, the church continued to grow and the church relocated to Pettit Avenue.
For the past six years, the church has been on Dorchester Road near Thorold Stone Road. It shares the property with the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.
“We look radically different than we did 125 years ago, but then again we look radically different than we did two-and-a-half years ago,” Peters said. alangley@postmedia.com