OUR STORY

Oakbank Baptist Church was founded in 1895 by four immigrant families with a shared desire to worship God in their own language, German. They began as a house church, meeting in members' homes for the first 13 years of ministry. Their first building was on Main Street in Oakbank, built on land donated by a congregant.

 

Until 1953 the church continued to function as a German-speaking church. In that year, an influential congregant who spoke very little English himself pushed the church to switch to English permanently in order to grow the church and better serve the community. This change would be a defining moment in the life of the church as seven years later, in 1960, they grew to the point of being able to call their first full-time pastor and became an entirely self-supporting church.

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This continuing growth would lead to the need for a new building and in 1971 a building was purchased on Balsam Crescent in Oakbank. This building became outgrown quite quickly and by the mid 1980's there were discussions of building another facility.

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Unfortunately, during this time, the church suffered a split which would see half of the congregation leave to start a new church. In the face of uncertainty, the remaining congregation moved forward in faith and unanimously voted to still construct a building capable of holding a congregation four times their current size. They moved into the Springfield Road location on September 1, 1987, where they remain to this day.

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Oakbank Baptist Church remains as a testament of God's faithfulness, having survived various trials to exist for over 125 years. Today it stands with this purpose: to glorify God through worship, prayer, discipleship, fellowship, service, evangelism, and global mission.