History of Second Baptist Church of Greater St. Louis
The history of Second Baptist Church is a microcosm of the history of our nation. It has experienced the same vicissitudes. From the pioneer days of its founding in a “rough, untamed frontier town”, it has served the community through financial panics, through periods of affluence and a depression. It has adhered to the principle of individual freedom in matters of faith on which the Baptist church was founded and has long welcomed all believers in Christ to its membership and communion. Religious backgrounds vary greatly including Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples, Lutheran, Southern Baptist, Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish backgrounds.
Second Baptist Church: The Mother Church of Many St. Louis Congregations
When Second Baptist Church was founded in 1833, it included a majority of members from the founding church in St. Louis, which had just voted itself out of existence. The African Baptist Church of St. Louis emerged out of the same congregation. It also had members from the earliest Baptist work in St. Louis in 1818. John Mason Peck had the foresight and courage to begin an inter-racial congregation in St. Louis in that first church and today we all stand as the beneficiaries of his vision.The Heroic Story of Adoniram and Ann Judson
“‘Lost. Lost!’
The Peacemaking Heritage of Second Baptist Church
For a follower of Jesus the pursuit of peace is not an option. Jesus was a peace teacher, a teacher of shalom. To be a church of Jesus Christ is to be a peace church. There is no other way. To speak of a violent church, an abusive church, a fighting church, a church eager for war, is an oxymoron if Jesus is our guide.
THE IMPACT OF THE CIVIL WAR ON SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH
History of Slavery in St. Louis
Slavery has a long history in Native American cultures. Indians generally enslaved the women and children of another tribal people taken captive during warfare. Those who were lucky not to be killed by slow torture became slaves.THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED…The Baptist Church of St. Louis
The original Baptist church in St. Louis took the road less traveled. It was founded by two missionaries sent by the Baptist Triennial Convention to the Missouri Territory, John Mason Peck and James Ely Welch. Together with seven Baptists they found living in this small pioneer settlement, Peck and Welch formed the Baptist Church of St. Louis. It was organized differently than the Presbyterian, Methodist or Episcopal churches being formed around the same time. African Americans had become members almost from the formation of the Baptist congregation in St. Louis. This meant that slaves and their masters could have held the same membership status, a reality unheard of in this era. In most churches, the black members were forced to sit separated from the white members. There is no evidence of such segregation in Peck’s new congregation. It was a racially mixed congregation for its first ten years.
“We Keep the Spirit of John Mason Peck Alive in St. Louis!”
JOHN MASON PECK was arguably “the greatest of the pioneers to set foot in early St. Louis” (St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, M-111).