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About Us - Church History
The First Baptist Church of Tulare was organized June 25, 1887, with Rev. Ambrose W. Webb as the first Pastor. Accompanied by his wife and two small children, he came from Nebraska and was sent to this busy little railroad town by the Baptist Home Mission Society to start a church. Rev. Webb was zealous and determined. On Sunday, June 25, a group assembled for worship and considered the possibility of organizing a Baptist Church. Three years later the property on the northwest corner of King and M streets, where Gordon's Appliance store now stands, was purchased and plans for the building of the church began to form. The work on the church building "proceeded apace" through the long hot summer. The pastor labored tirelessly and in October contracted pneumonia and died at the age of thirty three such that the building was first publicly used for the funeral service of Brother Ambrose Webb. The missionary phase of the early church should not be overlooked, as the members worked among the large group of Chinese in Tulare and Mission out stations were also maintained around several sites in Tulare County by our fellowship.
Suddenly this small church with Sunday School, Young People's Union, parsonage and organ were caught in tough financial hard times of the community. The Southern Pacific had extended the line and the railroad shop had been moved to Bakersfield. Many houses were moved away, church membership decreased to 44 souls and the future of Tulare looked dark. The church could scarcely pay a minister even the small salary prevailing then of $40.00 per month and parsonage. Hard times continued but by the turn of the century, things were beginning to turn around. When Rev. Jesse Green resigned in 1900 he had held the pastorate for the longest tenure to date, for a total of four years, as there had been five other pastors called to our fellowship from 1891 to 1896.
Twenty-five years after our church had it's beginning, it seems the members were standing at the crossroads of making new decisions - a larger church, a new pastor, new benches and so on. The church prospered spiritually and financially and it was necessary to enlarge their place of worship. With a membership of 160 the trustees were instructed in 1914 to consider building a new church and to work to that end. Then came World War I but even with young men leaving for war the membership continued to increase and by 1918 had grown to replace the older wood frame house of worship. Work began on the second church building in May 1918 and continued for five months. Church meetings were held in a tent during that summer until the basement was completed. Te dedication of the new brick church was held on September 29. 1918. The Governor of California, William Stephens, delivered one of the addresses and dedicated the stain glass windows in honor of the servicemen of WWI.
Later on the nation entered the Great Depression and funds to carry on the work of the church became a problem. The Ladies Missionary Society even pledged the support of $100 to help relieve the debt of the church, to be raised by a Swiss Steak Dinner in 1934. With the approach of WWII many members joined the ranks and men of uniform were seen in every church service, for an air cadet flying school, Rankin Academy, was nearby and the churches and homes of the community were opened to them. Air Cadet Leo Schlagel who attended our church, later served as a Baptist Missionary in Anchorage, Alaska.
It was in 1951 that the church looked ahead and purchased two acres of land at Cross and Cherry. In this decade the church hired its first Director of Christian Education, added choirs, an active Youth Group, the Men's Fellowship and other outreach and spiritual group programs. During the 1950's the church continued to grow in membership and Sunday School such that there clearly was a need for a new and larger building. The actual work on the new facility at Cross and Cherry started November 15, 1962. With volunteers largely responsible, the day of rejoicing was May 3, 1964, when the third edifice for Tulare First Baptist Church was dedicated. The building included a Fellowship Hall with seating for 400 (to be used temporality for worship services), plus offices and an 11-room educational unit including a well-equipped nursery. In 1974, the Fellowship Hall was remodeled to be the Sanctuary with carpeting, wood-paneling and comfortable pews.
The decade of the 80's saw our church involved in other growing church programs such as Home Bible Studies and the formation of our own child care center, called Wee Care Day Care, of which both continue today as vital ministries. These years also saw three members of our church enter the Mission field, which is such an integral part of Baptist history. As our church continued to bear fruit by meeting the spiritual needs of our community, we found the need to build again. In 1985 the church voted to have the Building Committee begin fund raising to expand our facilities into a new sanctuary and to remodel the present building into the family center and recreation area it was originally designed to be. It was with the hard work and dedication and many volunteers that those plans culminated on Easter Sunday, 1991 with the groundbreaking for our current Worship Center. Our church family was provided all the necessary resources to make possible the moving into the new Worship Center on Sunday, February 28, 1993. One of the unique aspects of this new building are the beautiful stained glass windows, saved from our old church building demolished almost three decades before, by some very faithful church members for all those years. Reconstructed by craftsmen to fit the new building this priceless glasswork originally dedicated back in 1918 provides a link to our past. It can be seen that with God's kind providence and the hard work and dedication of so many of our members, that as we enter the next century we can continue the caring in our community that has sustained us for so many years.
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