History of Hespeler Baptist Church Cambridge Ontario

“...that you might live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way:

bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” Colossians 1:10

76 Adam Street (corner of Adam and Franklin

Cambridge ON N3C 2K5

Phone 519-658-4220

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The History of Hespeler Baptist Church

Hespeler Baptist came into being in October 1889 at the instigation of Rev. Frank Beattie of the Baptist Church in Galt. He became aware

of several Baptist families in the Hespeler area and began to meet with them for regular Bible studies. Before long, regular meetings were

being held and those who attended decided to organize into a local congregation. Organization occurred in October, 1889.

Shortly after the church was formed, Rev. Beattie announced that because of ill-health he would be unable to continue giving leadership

to the fledgling church. Consequently the church called Rev. John McQuarrie as their first full-time pastor.

The church moved quickly to minister to its diverse needs. A Sunday School was organized in 1890 and a young people's group was

started. Three years later, a building was dedicated.

In the first decade of 1890, the church made several changes to equip itself to minister to its own community. Among other things it

modernized and enlarged its facility and added a pipe organ to assist in the corporate worship. At this time the church's membership

numbered around 100.

In the following years a number of pastors came and went and the vision of the church to preach the gospel did not flag. Several

missionaries were commissioned for ministry in Africa during this time including George Reeve and Sam Sheppard. In October 1927, the

church decided to remove its affiliation with the Convention of Baptist Churches in Ontario and Quebec and associate with the newly

organized Union of Regular Baptist Churches whose doctrinal stand and practices accorded more with that which Hespeler Baptist held.

The Union of Regular Baptist Churches joined with The Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches in 1953 to form the Fellowship of

Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada.

Over the years Hespeler has continued to maintain active Sunday School and Youth ministries as well as regular Sunday services and

Missions thrusts, including Women's Missionary groups. In 1950 Rev. Harold Hindry was called to serve the church as pastor. Under his

leadership the church relocated to its present site in 1950, enlarged it in 1962 and again in 1973. Pastor Hindry served the church here

for 25 years. Since then we have been blessed by the ministry of several pastors. The current pastors are Rev. Greg Patus who began

his ministry in 1997, Sean Sherran, 2008 and Dr. Roger Pascoe, 2009.

The church continues to have a strong missions outreach currently supporting 20 different missionaries many of whom are from our local

congregation. To minister to our own community the church meets regularly for Sunday Services and offers mid-week Children's

programs, group and individual discipling opportunities, Youth activities and more.We are grateful to the Lord for the privilege of serving

Him here in Cambridge these many years