First Baptist Church

Salem Baptist Church in Terry is a welcoming community that embraces individuals from diverse backgrounds and stages of life. With a focus on genuine community, they invite all to feel at home and find belonging within their congregation. Generated from their website's infomation

First Baptist Church, Terry, Mississippi was constituted on September 18, 1852, and was first called Friendship Baptist Church. The first church was located in New Town, a community now known as Wynndale, 3.5 miles northwest of Terry. Rev. Jesse Woodall served as the first pastor of the church. The first Sunday School was organized in 1860, and the church letter to the Central Baptist Association in 1866 indicated there were 31 white members and 21 black members. In 1868, the church moved from New Town to the current location of the town of Terry, and a house of worship was completed in 1869. The name of the church was changed to Terry Baptist Church in 1878, and in 1899 a new, large white frame building was built that served the church for many years. That building was replaced in 1955 with a new brick sanctuary. The Children's Building was then built in 1963, and the Family Life Center was constructed in 1978. The church's name was changed to First Baptist Church, Terry, Mississippi in 1974, and a renovation and enlargement of the sanctuary and office suite was completed in 1988. First Baptist Church currently has 1, 147 members, averages 300 in Sunday School and 400 in worship, and provides a full complement of Christian ministries and activities to Terry community and our church family. The church budget for 2005 is about $450, 000 and total receipts last year totaled almost $540, 000. Our church is now in a new day of making Kingdom history in this community! In recent years, we have seen God bless our church with wondrous growth spiritually, numerically, and in ministries and missions! God has truly moved in us and through us in mighty ways to see souls saved and lives changed through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we have ministered in our community, and we are quickly running out of physical space in our church facilities to house our growing congregation and our expanding ministries. Therefore, our church recently voted to undertake a $2 million Long Range Building Renovation and Expansion Project where we will upgrade our current buildings and also build a new, state-of-the-art Education Building, that will provide space for Adults, Youth, Preschoolers, and Children, as well as expanded space for a new Fellowship Hall and Office Suite. In the life of a church, God every so often blesses a generation to do a great work for the glory of His name and the advancement of His Gospel in their community! Dear friends, WE ARE NOW THAT GENERATION! Previous generations in the life of our great church have blessed us with the wonderful and beautiful facilities we have, and now we have the opportunity to be used of God to prepare our church to Grow God's Kingdom By Building His Church and set the course for our church to evangelize and minister to the ever-expanding community of Terry. God bless you all and thank you for your precious love, ministry and support, and please continue in prayer for God to guide, bless, and provide all that He wants us to know and do in this great challenge He has set before us!