Our History - Emmanuel Baptist Church

A History of God’s Guidance

Emmanuel Baptist Church has served God through our community for 20 years. This is a history of how God has blessed and directed our path in Irvine, Kentucky. We give Him all the glory!

On August 11, 1999, a group of 35 people met at the home of Gary and Eloise Mullins in South Irvine Kentucky to discuss the possibility of starting a new Baptist Church in Estill County. The belief among the group was that all the Baptist churches in the area were either liberal, dismissive of clear teaching of the scripture or extreme and legalistic. There was a clear atmosphere of unity, excitement and persuasion that the Lord had drawn them together, and His presence was obvious to all.

In the weeks to follow, several men met regularly to produce a Constitution, By-laws, Articles Of Faith and Church Covenant. It was moving to note how quickly these documents came together and the harmony with which all agreed on the wording, realizing these documents would be the basis on which the church would be established. During this time the group continued to meet together in homes, barns, fields or wherever a space could be found. The meeting places didn’t seem to matter as they were worshiping together and God was truly blessing them.

On Sunday night September 12, 1999, a group of 67 people who wanted to be charter members met in the conference room of the Citizens Guaranty Bank in Irvine, Ky. Their purpose was to establish the Church having acquired a vote from the Thomas Baptist Church which authorized them to organize. Brother Sherl Thomas called the group to order for business and the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Irvine Kentucky was constituted. Before the meeting was adjourned the Constitution, By-laws and Articles Of Faith were approved and all recited the Church Covenant together. An offering of $4,382.47 was received, a motion was made to call Brother Sherl Thomas as pastor and it was seconded. The vote was unanimous and Brother Thomas accepted the call.

On November 12, 1999, the Church was given the opportunity to rent a building at 3905 Richmond Road in Irvine, Kentucky for $750 per month and they moved into the building shortly thereafter. Emmanuel Baptist Church subsequently purchased this same building on October 16, 2004 for $80,000. The Church started a building fund right away, realizing that the building and parking area were not going to accommodate future growth.

On September 29, 2007 Emmanuel Baptist Church purchased 10 acres just off of Stacy Lane in Irvine from Jimmy Noland for $110,000. The building fund continued to grow until early 2017 when construction started on a new building on the property at Stacy Lane. Emmanuel Baptist Church moved into the new building in March of 2017 and closed a loan of $450,000 in April of that same year. The new building cost over a million dollars to build, not counting the land. The property at 3905 Richmond Road was sold on February 3, 2017 for $75,000 to J&M Ministries.

On December 1, 2018 Emmanuel Baptist Church called its first Associate Pastor, Brother Greg Winn.

On September 15, 2019 the Church celebrated 20 years in our annual Homecoming services. God has richly blessed Emmanuel with a spirit of love and harmony and we thank Him for the wonderful opportunity to serve Him through His Church.

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