A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

This church had its beginning in the summer of 1958 when a young minister named Joe D. Hayes with his wife Carol came to Flat Rock and began holding services in an old house that stood at the corner of Mill Street and Gibraltar Road. Rev. Hayes was out of Temple Baptist Church in Detroit and had attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. Due to ill health, Mr. Hayes was led to resign about a year later, but during that time he laid a good foundation to build upon the Church was organized and nearly 2 acres of property was purchased on Gibraltar Road.

On July 5, 1959, the little congregation was meeting in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Hurst on Tamarack Street when they called H. H. Clark to be their pastor. On this day they had 22  present. A week later the invitation was accepted. Soon we moved back into the old house at Mill Street. Soon the Sunday School began to grow, a bus was purchased, and we started giving 10% of the offerings to missions. We have continued giving this amount plus special offerings and Faith Promise Offerings during the 12 years that have followed and the Lord God has supplied all of our financial needs in a wonderful way, but during these years only one church has contributed to our support, and that was in the amount of $30.00.

In January 1962 the Church moved into its first building; built solely by faith. In ’63 we built a 42 by 36 foot Sunday School Building. Many souls were saved and added to the Church, and the Sunday School reached a high of 242 soon thereafter. The Lord gave us a faithful people to work with, and they have done” much of the building. Our present auditorium was dedicated to the Lord in the spring of ’69. This was a day of rejoicing among our people because of God’s blessings upon their labors. They did much of the work, and some of the brethren were injured in a near-tragic accident. But God gave the VICTORY. God has given us additional property so that the Church now owns about five and a half acres.

During these years we have helped to establish about 6 other churches. We have ordained 6 men to the ministry and licensed 5 others. The Church contributes monthly to the support of 20 missionary families and a Bible College in Springfield, Missouri where we have 4 of our students preparing for mission work.
These are John and Kathy Holloway, Rick Summers and Karl Engle. Some other very fine young people have gone out from us to other Christian colleges. Two families, both won to Christ thru the ministry of this Church, have been sent out from this to minister in other fields. The Bob Walkers in New Mexico and the Miles Teems in Georgia. May it be made clear the First Baptist Church is not only a missionary church but is also independent and self—governing without any head except our Lord Jesus Christ; however, we believe in fellowship and cooperation with other churches and people of like faith.