Faith Baptist Church

On November 11, 1980, six families met together at the YWCA to establish the Faith Baptist Fellowship. Missionaries Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Johnson of the Hiawatha Baptist Missions (now Continental Baptist Missions) were also present and served as moderators at our meeting. We decided to have Bible study and prayer meeting every Wednesday night.

Our first Sunday service was held on July 5, 1981, at the Mohawk Square, located at 22 North Georgia. Over the next few months a Covenant, Constitution, and Articles of Faith were formulated. On October 11, 1981, the Faith Baptist Fellowship was dissolved to be replaced by the Faith Baptist Church of Mason City, Iowa. A Charter was opened with 32 people signing as Charter Members of the church.

On November 10, 1981, a Recognition Council of fundamental Baptist churches was called. Upon examination of the church’s Covenant, Constitution, and Articles of Faith, the Council publicly certified their agreement that Faith Baptist Church met all the Biblical qualifications as a fundamental Baptist church.

On November 22, 1981, we called Jerry Johnson to be our Pastor. Our first Annual Business Meeting was held on January 20, 1982. The church voted to seek fellowship with the State and National General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC).

In April 1982, we budgeted $175 a month for missions, which included $50 each for the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp, Shepherds Home and Continental Baptist Missions, and $25 for the Iowa Association of the Regular Baptist Churches State Office.

On May 25, 1982, an Ordination Council met with Pastor Johnson, and after examination, recommended that the church proceed with ordination, which they did.

On March 16, 1983, we made an offer to the Calvary Alliance Church for their small church building at 1807 South Kentucky. On April 20, the amount of $72, 500 was agreed upon. Because the title had been lost it was not until April of 1984 that the purchase was official.

In 1984 it was decided to build a new addition onto the building. Blueprints were reviewed and revised and approved in June. Also that year, a new Kawai piano was purchased, and we took on Lee and Violette Abuhl as our first missionaries for $50 a month, and we changed the time of our Sunday Evening Service from 7:00pm to 6:00pm.

Groundbreaking for the new 290 seat auditorium and fellowship hall took place on Mother’s Day, May 12, 1985. The construction of the bi-level, 40´ by 88´ new addition was overseen by Dan Jeffery and Dean Button, missionary builders with Continental Baptist Missions. The previously existing building was remodeled into offices and classrooms.

In January of 1986 we decided that any of our members who went to a GARBC approved college would receive $50 a month toward tuition. In May we gave Dave Callison a Certificate of License to preach the Gospel. On September 19 the building project was completed and a dedication was held the next day.

In June of 1987 we hired our first church secretary, Lisa Ogilvie. In November we decided that we would take the first 15% of our Thanksgiving Offering and divide it evenly among our missionaries as a Christmas gift.

In January, 1988, we voted to increase our number of deacons to one for every 25 members, with a maximum of twelve. By fall our parking lot had to be paved. The project was completed and paid for from the Thanksgiving Offering.

In May of 1988 Pastor Johnson announced that he was resigning and would be moving to Pennsylvania to plant another church. A pulpit committee was selected to search for a new pastor. In June we decided to take on the Johnsons as missionaries for $300 a month.

After much searching, the pulpit committee asked Miles Grismore from Burton Avenue Baptist Church in Waterloo to candidate. Pastor Grismore and his family came to candidate the first week in November. The vote was unanimous with 74 voting members present. In December we bought a parsonage for $80,000 at 4 North Regency Court. January 15, 1989, was his first Sunday as our Pastor.

In 1989 twelve teens and five adult sponsors traveled to Hanover, PA, to conduct summer Back-Yard Clubs for one week. On July 19 we voted to form a Building Committee. The following men were elected: Pastor Grismore, David Callison, Richard Brookhart, Wayne Ryan, Bob Wilson, Gary Michaelsen, Lon Barkema, Jim Davids, and Dave Ott.

On July 11, 1990, we voted to call Dave Callison as Associate Pastor with emphasis in Christian Education and Youth. He began full-time in mid-October.

In 1991 we conducted a “Phone’s for You” campaign. One half of the city was called to discover people who do not have a church home.

On April 22, 1992, we voted to engage the services of Accord Architects to develop a master plan for our property. On January 27, 1993, we voted to hire Craig Skott Architects to draw up plans for a new auditorium. On September 5, “Super Sunday”, we burned the mortgage from the previous construction and then broke ground for a new $500,000 auditorium and fellowship hall.

On October 2, 1994, the new auditorium was available to move into for our first service. Remodeling of the existing facilities continued. We celebrated the completion of the project with an Open House and Dedication Service on May 20 and 21, 1995.

In 1997 the parsonage was improved with beautiful seamless steel siding at a cost of approximately $10,000.

With the retirement of Wendell Schaefer as our Choir Director after many faithful years, we recruited interns from FBBC in Ankeny to serve on weekends in that capacity. Greg Crown served in 1997-98 and Chad Hol in 1998-99.

The IARBC initiated an outreach program to reach every home in Iowa with a “Forgiveness” tract. On April 11, 1998, we kicked off our “Project Forgiveness” effort and concluded on October 11, having covered Mason City and several surrounding towns.

A committee of ten was formed in 1998 called Committee for Building and Grounds Maintenance to upgrade our care for our properties and to lessen the load on the deacons.

In early 1999 Pastor Dave and Mary Callison attended the Evangelism Explosion Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Consequently, a training program was begun for our members that spring as our outreach to the Mason City area.

In 1999-2000 an attractive church sign was installed at the church entrance.

At the Annual Business Meeting on January 24, 2001, we approved the budget which included $61,000 for Missions. The missions families has grown to sixteen plus support of other agencies. We voted to install curtitions in the fellowship hall for an approximate total cost of $20,000, and they were installed in the spring and summer.

April 30, 2001, was Dave Callison’s last day as Associate Pastor, serving faithfully for ten years. He accepted the position of Assistant Director of the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp. Darwin Miller, Jr. began as Associate Pastor on December 1, 2001.

On July 21, 2001, twenty-three members traveled to Alaska to help missionaries Dean and Julie Blood with several construction projects and conduct Vacation Bible School. The “Alaskan Adventure” ended August 4.

A platform lift to aid the physically challenged was installed in August and September of 2001 at an approximate cost of $22,000.

The Gospel Life Baptist Church, Kharkiv, Ukraine, became our sister church on January 1, 2002, and we began to support them at $300 a month.

Two mortgage burnings took place in 2003. On August 31, for the church building, and on November 16, for the parsonage.

In November 2004, the church voted to purchase the house and additional lots across the street from the church to be used as a parsonage and additional parking for a cost of $275,000.

A new staff position of Associate of Outreach & Discipleship was approved in January 2005. Scott Greening accepted the church’s call and began January 1, 2006.

In June 2006, Pastor Miller resigned to take a Senior Pastor position in Brayton, Iowa. In November of that same year Derek Phillips began servings as Associate of Children’s and Youth Ministries.