Mission:

Our mission at First Baptist Church is to proclaim the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to lead persons into a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ; Nurturing and developing believers into vital, productive, and mature members of the body of Christ; Encouraging one another through Christ-like love and fellowship.

Beliefs:

GOD - We believe that there is one God who eternally exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

JESUS - We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, was born of the virgin, Mary, was wholly God and wholly man, lived a sinless life, died in our place as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, was buried, arose bodily from the grave, and ascended into Heaven.

CHRIST's RETURN - We believe that Jesus Christ will literally return to earth.

HOLY SPIRIT - We believe that God the Holy Spirit is active in convincting unbelievers of their need for salvation, and is the

Comforter and Guide Who lives in every believer.

BIBLE - We believe that the Bible is the Word of God without any error,vthe sole authority for life and faith.

MAN - We believe that man is a special creation of God, made in His image, but that through the sin of the first man, Adam, mankind fell so that all men are sinners and need salvation.

SALVATION - We believe that Salvation is a gift received through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

ASSURANCE - We believe that every person who is truly saved is eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ.

ETERNITY - We believe that those persons who die with their sins forgiven through Christ spend eternity in Heaven.

BAPTISM - We believe that water baptism is an act of obedience to the command of Christ and is by immersion after salvation.

PRAYER - We believe that each believer has direct access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

GOVERNMENT - We believe in the separation of church and state, but not in separation of God and government.  Christians are salt and light in society.

History:

In August of 1883, sixteen members met to organize Albertville’s first Baptist church.  For approximately seventeen years this growing congregation assembled in the church’s first house of worship, located on West Main Street, near the Old Albertville Cemetery.  The land for the first church was provided by its first pastor, S.T. Collier.  In 1901, the congregation moved into a new building at the present East Main Street Location.  On the first Sunday in April of that year, a formal dedication was held.In 1910, during the pastorate of Rev. A.B. Metcalfe, the Alabama Baptist Convention was held in the small town of Albertville.  During the opening session of the convention, the congregation was led in singing the hymn “I Would Follow Jesus.”  For 125 years, the message of that song has been the church’s singular goal.With all the many forms of community outreach that the church has exercised throughout the years, there has been none more dear to the congregation’s heart than the performance of the Lord’s Great Commission. Beginning in 1907, the church began sending workers into the mission field.  The first was Dr. T.O. Hearn, a medical missionary, who was dispatched to China.  He would be followed by Clarabell Isdell McDonald, who was sent to China in 1936, and Dr. Martha Hagood, also a medical missionary, who was first sent to Japan in 1953, then later to Africa.  Since that time the church has sent out missionaries throughout the world, stretching from the Orient to the Mediterranean. Today, we, the spiritual heirs of these first sixteen members gather to celebrate this legacy of faith, knowing it is our responsibility to pass the work along to the generations that follow us.