A Brief History

In 1954, three ladies by the names of Mrs. Lane, Mrs. Holcomb, and Mrs. Kelley had a desire to start a church where the gospel was preached. These faithful ladies started meeting in a one-room schoolhouse. Not only did they meet at the schoolhouse, they would also meet at each other’s homes. They would pray, sing and plan together. That same year, while meeting in the Johnny Ballard home on Georgia Highway 85, the Faith Baptist Church was organized with R.E. Chambers as the pastor. After acquiring the property in the Kenwood community, the name was changed to Kenwood Baptist Church. The name was changed one more time, this time to Kenwood First Baptist Church.

Mrs. Lane, Mrs. Holcomb and Mrs. Kelley started saving money and would buy one concrete block each week until they had enough to build a 12 x 12 room building. It had a dirt floor and a sheet was used to divide Sunday School classes. Today, that same little room those precious ladies built is still being used for Sunday School.

Kenwood First Baptist church, known as “The Church of the Friendly People”, has and will continue to impact the Kenwood Community as well as the surrounding counties as long as God allows us the ability.

God used Dr. Darrell Hayes as pastor from 1969-1977 and again from 1982-1997 to lead Kenwood First Baptist Church in reaching the lost in the area. Many lost souls came and are coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

In January 1998 God called Bro. Lynn McClain to be pastor of Kenwood. Under God’s direction, Bro. Lynn is leading us to continue reaching out to the lost and hurting in our community. God still works and answers prayer here at Kenwood, and He is using Bro. Lynn to lead us into a deeper relationship with Christ and a stronger commitment to serve Him. We are looking forward to another fifty plus years of God’s hand in our lives.