In 1960, Pastor Eugene Thurman, from the General Association of Regular Baptist in the United States, founded the First Baptist Church of Antigua and Barbuda, on Thames Street in St. John’s.
On November 28th, 1965, Pastor Cleo Morse, an independently supported Southern Baptist, founded the Central Baptist Church from a Potters Village Baptist Sunday School and the remnants of the disbanded First Baptist Church.
In July of 1967, the Central Baptist Church Building at Radio Range was dedicated.
On April 10th, 1968, the property was turned over to the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention due to financial problems. There was a formal agreement to return the title deeds within 10 years after the Church’s maturity.
In July of 1968, Southern Baptist missionaries began providing pastoral leadership to the Church. These included Pastor Vernon Sydow, Pastor Brown Hughes and on June 3, 1970, Pastor Shelby Smith.
Under the leadership of Pastor Shelby Smith the Central Baptist Church founded the Villa Baptist Church on November 23, 1975. The church also founded the Cedar Grove Baptist Church on the 6th of January 1980. The three churches were organized into the Antigua Baptist Association, which was later admitted to the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist World Alliance.
On January 8th, 1978, Pastor Lambert Mills of St. Kitts was called as Pastor of Central Baptist Church. Recaldo Phillip assisted him.
On December 31st, 1985, the church installed its first Antiguan Pastor, Hensworth W.C. Jonas, who has lead the ministry to the present.
On April 9th, 1986, the church completed a revision of its administrative documents and unanimously passed a new constitution and bylaws. The property of the church was formally returned to the Board of Trustees of the Central Baptist Church from the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board.
In 1988, the Central Baptist Church began a radio ministry call ‘Living His Life’. This was later expanded to a television ministry with the programme ‘Sovereign Grace Hour.’ These media ministries are seen and heard in many eastern Caribbean territories.
On July 16th, 1989 a chapel building was dedicated in the Tyrells community for the purpose of developing a new church.
In September 1990 the Central Theological Academy was started. This initiative was for the purpose of leadership training and development, aimed mainly at the laity. Continuing education courses were offered in Bible Survey, Church History, Systematic Theology, Apologetics, Marriage & Family, Reformed Soteriology, etc. The name of the programme was later changed to the Family Training Institute.
On October 10th, 1990, the church unanimously acted to amend its Constitution to include the 1689 London Baptist Confession and the 1858 Abstract of Principles of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. These documents effectively returned the church to the theological roots of the Southern Baptist Convention as affirmed by its principal founders. The reformation of the church brought about significant changes which include a theological commitment to the Reformed Faith, the introduction of government by a plurality of elders, higher standards of stewardship and church membership, and a general strengthening of the churches educational programme and discipline.
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