Our Story
First Park Memorial Baptist Church of Springfield, Massachusetts is the product of the 1982 consolidation of the First Baptist Church of Springfield and the Park Memorial Baptist Church. The congregation meets and worships in the former Park Memorial building.
The history of the church dates back to May 13, 1811 with the establishment of the First Baptist Church with 19 members meeting in private homes and a school house until a building was built in 1821. The 150th anniversary booklet best describes the ensuing years. “Thus First Baptist Church was born and has remained through the years in which she has experienced rejoicing and weeping, growth and decline, uniting and dividing.”
Uniting included the combining through the years of the First Baptist, State Street Baptist and Highland Baptist into the First Highland Baptist and finally again into the First Baptist Church.
Dividing gave birth to several new churches including Carew Street Baptist, Chase Memorial, Grace Baptist, Church in the Acres and a “Mission Station in the southern part of the City” which was to become the Park Memorial Baptist Church.
Both First Baptist and Park Memorial prospered through the first half of the twentieth century in spite of two world wars and the great depression. The 1960’s and 70’s however, with social-economic changes, urban deterioration, civil unrest and social concerns had its effect on both churches. First Baptist, an inner city church, after prayerfully exploring its many options for the future, made the decision to accept an invitation to join with Park Memorial where the resources of the two churches would best be used to further the Kingdom of God. After a year of meeting and worshipping together as two separate organizations, final consolidation took place on January 24, 1982. First Park Memorial Baptist Church celebrated its birth as a new entity for the work of Christ.
Our Journey
Twenty three years later we are still striving to be a people that are faithful to our church covenant, committed to our Purpose Statement to follow Christ as our Lord and Savior and to nourishing and equipping our people spiritually, emotionally and physically in order to witness the love of Christ to our families and our neighbors, whoever they are and wherever they may be.
We see the world as a mission field and are committed to struggle with the call of Micah 6:8 “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humble with your God.” Believing, as we respond to this call on our lives, we will not be far from God’s truth and the Holy Spirit’s redeeming power.
At the end of the day we are but a group of beggars who have a deep desire to show other beggars where there is “life saving” bread.