First Baptist Church (Richmond, Virginia)

Richmond's First Baptist Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Virginia Landmarks Register
Old First Baptist Church, December 2011
Location	NW corner of 12th and E. Broad Sts., Richmond, Virginia
Area	0.3 acres (0.12 ha)
Built	1839-1841
Architect	Walter, Thomas U.
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference No.	69000349
VLR No.	127-0168
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 16, 1969
Designated VLR	November 5, 1968

First Baptist Church is a Christian church whose mission is to "bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia." The congregation gathers for worship, study, service, and fellowship at its campus on the corner of Monument Avenue and the Boulevard, and disperses for mission in the city, the surrounding counties, and around the world. Established in 1780 at a prayer meeting on Union Hill, the church has a long history of mission involvement. Missionaries to Liberia Lott Carey and Colin Teague were associated with this church. Both the Foreign Mission Board and the Woman's Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention were founded at First Baptist. The church is actively involved in serving the city and takes a number of foreign mission trips each year. Current Senior Minister is the Rev. Dr. Jim Somerville, former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C..

The church building was designed by noted architect Thomas U. Walter and built between 1839 and 1841. It is a stuccoed temple-form Greek Revival style building with the two fluted Doric order columns of its portico in antis. During the American Civil War the church building served as an emergency hospital for Confederate Army soldiers. In 1938, the congregation sold the church to the Medical College of Virginia.

Style and Worship

First Baptist Church offers two traditional Sunday services, the one at 11:00 am being broadcast live on a local ABC television station. Most aspects of the church reflect traditional Baptist churches including Sunday school prior to worship and evening bible studies throughout the week. The music during worship is several hymns, an offertory song (usually instrumental) and a choral anthem. Other music that may be added is children or youth choir, English handbells or various soloists on instruments. Wednesdays offer a meal and activities for everyone.

The Youth Group takes up the whole third floor and is 8th to 12th graders. There are usually a minimum 50 people a Sunday.

Firsts

Not only was it the first church of any denomination to be organized in Richmond, the first Baptist church organized in a Virginia city, and the first church in Virginia to organize a missionary society for women, but it also was the first in the city to organize a Sunday school for children, the first in America to send her own members as foreign missionaries to the continent of Africa, and the first in the Southern Baptist Convention to have a church library.

Further reading

• The first century of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia. 1780-1880, Richmond: McCarthy, 1880

External links

• Official website