History

First Baptist Church has been in town a long time. As the name says this is the oldest baptist church in Wisconsin Rapids. But this church would not exist without the efforts of American Baptist missionary CH Rust. In May 1903 Rust came on the railroad to preach the gospel in Wisconsin Rapids, and his efforts led to the founding of First Baptist Church of Wisconsin Rapids. Rust had been sent out and supported by established American Baptist churches in other parts of the country. When Rust’s railcar meetings brought together a congregation of 38 believers, he led them to form a church, and they met in that railroad car and rented rooms until they were able to erect a building under A.L. Putnam, the first official pastor of the church. First Baptist took part in the same baptist association which sent out missionary CH Rust to plant the church until 2016 when the church voted to leave ABCUSA for the Southern Baptist Convention over concerns of a liberal drift. The church remains part of the SBC today. It is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

Going back further, in one way or another, First Baptist can trace its roots back to five baptist churches who gathered in 1707 to form the Philadelphia Baptist Association. These churches organized to pool resources to better accomplish the Great Commission. One of the first things the Philadelphia Baptist Association did was help to fund a school: Rhode Island University, better known today as Brown University. The confession these first American Baptists held was basically the same confession held by Baptist churches across the pond in England, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. This confession was the undisputed standard for Baptist churches in the American colonies, and Benjamin Franklin originally printed their confession for them, which they called the Philadelphia Confession. The Philadelphia Baptist Association formed in 1707 with five churches and around 500 members. By 1903 the Baptist churches that sprung up through their labors numbered over a million and reached Wisconsin Rapids about 1000 miles away.

First Baptist has gone through many changes over the years, with many challenges, and a move to the current building on 910 McKinley St. in 1961, but the church continues to this day by God’s grace. Our aim is to take up the torch of the Baptists and Christians who have gone before us from the earliest times and help advance the church’s mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ here and to the ends of the earth. As Jesus said over 2,000 years ago, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.“