Church History
Our
Story
Founded in 1869, shortly after the emancipation of blacks, the church was organized by the Rev. Henry Johnson as the Cedar Grove Baptist Church. The first place of worship was a small white-frame building located in the southwest section of Greenwood Cemetery, facing North Bern Street. Reverend Johnson resigned in 1881 and founded what is now Guildfield Missionary Baptist Church, located on Green Street.
After the Rev. Alfred Leonard Edward Weeks was named pastor, the church experienced its greatest early triumphs and tragedies.
Weeks considered the educational opportunities for blacks to be very poor, so he founded the Collegiate Industrial Institute. The school opened with an enrollment of 300 students and three teachers – using a two-story, 45-by-65-foot building with four classrooms downstairs and an assembly room upstairs of the Weeks School.
In 1905, during a time when plans were underway to build a new church edifice, the original church was destroyed by fire. Plans shifted to building the new church on land across the street. A year later came the cornerstone for a new brick church.
According to Bryan’s historical gatherings, the new Gothic Revival edifice was completed in 1908, making it the first known brick church in New Bern built by and for an African American congregation.
With it, the congregation changed the name to First Baptist Church. Weeks resigned in 1912 and the school closed.
The Rev. Nathaniel F. Brooks pastored from 1912 to1916, followed by the Rev. John L. Jordan, who served until 1926. During Jordan’s tenure, the church narrowly escaped destruction again with the Great Fire of 1922. The fire burned up to the front door. With so many people left homeless, First Baptist Church opened its doors and sheltered victims in the basement.
Another church milestone of the 1920s came two years after The Great Fire, with the liquidation of the church mortgage debt.
A major change in the 1980s came in a directive by the General Baptist State Convention. It required that the word “Missionary” be incorporated in the name of all its member churches.
The decade of the 1990s brought a major challenge to the membership when it was determined that extensive repairs were needed to restore the structure.
For the sake of safety, the congregation decided to close its doors in June 1995 and worship elsewhere during the work.
Learning of the congregation’s plight, the Rev. Thomas M. Denton and the congregation of First Baptist Church on Middle Street invited Tripp and his congregations to use their chapel for Sunday morning services. Other facilities were made available for special occasions, from January 1996 until April 2001.
The congregation was heartened when it learned that the church building was eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
In January 1998, the Rev. Tripp tendered his resignation and for a short period, the church was without a pastor.
In May of 1999, the Rev. Jimmie L. Cooper became the 22nd pastor.
On the morning of April 21, 2002, the congregation walked from First Baptist Church on Middle Street to First Missionary Baptist Church on Cypress Street.
In the same month, restoration of the sanctuary commenced.
The final stages of restoration were completed in March 2003.
