Who Are These People?
We've been around awhile. In fact, we'll celebrate the 200th anniversary of our founding in 2011. Some of our members track the influence of this church in their lives from the date of their birth. Because we've been around awhile we've learned a few things. One of the things we've learned is that the church is not fragile. We can try new things without threatening the existence of this congregation. Jesus said (Matthew 16:18) that the "gates of hell" would not prevail against it. Children can run here and God won't be mad. Someone less agile might get knocked down, so we tell children that we need to be careful of others but not that they cannot run because they’re in God’s house.
We like to worship. We enjoy singing songs that are new and we enjoy keeping the old hymns alive too. Our singing is accompanied by a Tracker Pipe Organ, an electronic keyboard and guitar. We believe that God enjoys our laughter as much as our singing. We take the time during worship to hear the prayer concerns of the congregation and we pray about those not only during that hour, but throughout the days that follow. Our worship format is easy to follow assisted by visual PowerPoint presentations for everyone to follow. We expect our Pastor to bring us thoughtful and challenging, biblically based messages even though we may not always agree with what he says.
We enjoy each other's company so much that we usually sit around following worship for close to an hour and snack on coffee and cookies (and, of course, some healthy snacks in this day). And, as much as we enjoy each other, we also like meeting new people, so we would love to have you join us anytime.
Each Monday evening we host a site for the Shoreline Soup Kitchen and Pantries, feeding dinner to any who come for food and company. We also enjoy working together to do mission and to raise money to support mission efforts outside of our immediate reach. People connected with this congregation have helped out at the site of the World Trade Towers following 9-11, and have traveled to Costa Rica for a short-term mission project helping to build a theological school there. We connect with other American Baptist Churches and support international and domestic mission efforts through regular mission offerings. Our Booster's group and the Missionary Society help out with fund raising efforts contributing also to mission.
If you are being drawn by God's Spirit to find a group of people seeking to live out their faith in relationship to God, each other and the world around them in real time, we invite you to visit (and maybe stay) with us at The First Baptist Church in Essex.