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Bay First Baptist Church \to celebrate centennial
Special to the Echo
The members of First Baptist Church of Bay St. Louis will be holding a centennial celebration the weekend of June 8-9. First Baptist Church turned 100 years old on April 19.
Many of the church?s former pastors, staff members and long-term members will join Dr. Ed. J. Deuschle in sharing memories of the church?s past.
Events include a dinner and historical program starting at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8, and a special Sunday morning program and worship service at 8:30 a.m. June 9, with former pastor Dr. Nathan L. Barber delivering the sermon.
First Baptist Church was first located in 1896 near the comer of Easterbrook Street. In
1947, the church relocated to its present Main Street facility. The present sanctuary is actually a relocated U.S. Army chapel that was dismantled at Camp Van Dorn in Centreville, and rebuilt at its current site.
The first pastor in 1896 was Rev. J.J.W. Mathis, who served in a part-time capacity. In fact, it wasn?t until 1945 that the church had its first full-time pastor, Rev. John T. Dearing, who came to the pulpit June 3 of that year.
Other pastors who followed were Revs. Robert L. Lee, Schuyler Batson, Bill Baria, Franklin Atkinson, Emory Green, John T. Dearing a second time, Perry Neal and Dr. Nathan L. Barber, who served in the church from 1974 to 1992, when the present pastor, Dr. Ed J. Deuschle came to the pulpit.
First Baptist Church is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has more than 30,000 churches in all 50 states with more than 13,000,000 members.
First Baptist Church, which is a medium-sized church in the Convention, has been noted for its mission-mindedness through the years. Since 1980, many of its members have had the opportunity to serve on mission trips to destinations throughout the U.S. and the world.
. Locations of these trips include California, Alaska, Michigan, Tennessee, the Caribbean, South America, Rome, Kenya and a number of others.
First Baptist Church also has a special home for Southern Baptist missionaries who travel back to the United States for periods of rest, or furlough, from their missionary endeavors. Two of its members, Uless and Mary Lee Bergeron, are full-time Southern Baptist missionaries in the country of Peru. They just returned to Peru in April, after being on furlough
for the past year.
First Baptist Church also focuses its mission-mindedness on local surroundings. It has sponsored several new churches through the years, notably the First Baptist Church of Waveland and Diamondhead Baptist Church, and presently sponsors the Bayside Baptist Mission in Bayside Park.
Some of the church?s more visible activities in the community include:
?an annual week-long Vacation Bible School that attracts about 250 children each summer;
?active youth and children?s ministries and choirs, including an adult choir which presents a Christmas cantata every year;
?an ?English as a Second Language? program that ministers to those in the community who need to learn English;
?and a thriving Hispanic ministry along with weekly worship services in Spanish.
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