First Baptist Church of Goderich: Led by the Spirit of God

First Baptist Church on the corner of Montreal and Market streets was called a ‘handsome and commodious place of worship’.

The first meeting of Baptists was held in the home of James Lewitt’s home on April 1, 1902. Lewitt, the Goderich Knitting Company manager, was a devout adherent of the Baptist cause.

He gathered the few Baptists in Goderich and convinced them that Goderich was a ripe field for the evangelical denomination.

His pioneering work, and those of a few devout congregants, established the Baptist Church in Goderich on the corner of Montreal and Markets streets.

Over 120 years later, from their humble beginnings at the church continues to thrive and survive in a secular world.

The Baptists were always a tiny faction in Goderich.

The 1848 census lists only six Baptists in Goderich. Yet, as early as 1868, a Baptist Church had been established on the Base Line south of Auburn.

Clinton’s Baptist Church was built in 1882. Lewitt appealed to Rev. James Dunlop, the Clinton Baptist pastor, in 1901, about the need for a permanent present in Goderich (Dunlop’s son, William Dunlop, become Ontario Minister of Education from 1951-1959).

Dunlop readily agreed to share mission work in Goderich and in 1902, held the first services in Smith’s Hall on East Street (later the Grayhurst Building, destroyed in the 2011 tornado).

In the early years, the congregation met at the Temperance Hall and in 1905, rented the lecture hall in the Goderich Library.

The church’s first baptisms were held in the Maitland River by Piper’s Dam.

“Having been led by the Spirit of God,” Lewitt petitioned at the Baptist Home Mission Board for recognition of the Goderich congregation.

The Home Mission Board agreed and appointed a student pastor, C.R. Jones to take charge of the work in Goderich.

Lewitt organised a board of three deacons, three trustees and a secretary-treasurer to oversee the congregation’s growth, which soon demanded its own church edifice.

The corner lot on Market and Montreal streets was purchased and work commenced on raising funds for a new church.

On October 18, 1905, the board approved the design for an impressive 50x60 foot building with a basement and seating capacity for 250 people.

The front exterior was made of pressed brick, the remaining brick would be kilned in Benmiller. A church tower denoting its purpose as a house of worship would surmount the main doorway.

On May 24, 1906, the church’s cornerstone was ‘well and truly laid’ before a large audience, according to the Goderich Star.

Participation by the local clergy who endorses the work of the new congregation made it an ecumenical service. Rev. W. Norton, Home Missions Superintendent, and Rev. H. Wright, Goderich Baptist minister, laid the stone with a silver trowel.

A time capsule of local papers among other items was laid in the stone for future generations.

Rev. Norton articulated the principals of the Baptist church. As an evangelical church, Baptists believed that he main divisions between people were neither race nor class, but between the saved and those needing redemption.

Rev. Norton explained that Baptists believed that ‘all life responsibilities are of a personal character – faith, repentance, forgiveness must be personal – and every man is in duty bound to study the Word for himself and to answer to God for himself’.

Every individual formed their own relationship with God.

Adult baptism, their distinguishing ritual, whereby the individuals made their personal decision to join the church, must be a conscience decision by the individual as only the individual could achieve one’s salvation.

As soon as the cornerstone was laid, local tradesmen went to work on the new building.

They received much voluntary labour from the congregation. Rev. H. Wright was often seen with his sleeves rolled up helping to build the church.

At the January 1907 church business meeting, it was announced that in the last year, 13 members had been added to the roll and over $1,000 raised in building funds.

On May 26, 1907, the Baptist church was formally opened and dedicated.

Three public worship services were held for the occasion. The Knox Church Choir and the Blackstone Orchestra provided music accompanied by an organ made by the Goderich Organ Company.

Other congregants donated money for the front windows and a baptismal.

The Baptist Ladies’ Aid Society, the first church organisation formed after the board, put on a supper in the library to celebrate.

McMaster Baptist University’s Rev. Dr. Cross gave the inaugural sermon.

The Star pronounced the new church a ‘handsome and commodious place of worship’, which must ‘remove any doubt as to the permanency of their cause here’.

Indeed, in its first year, the church held 27 baptisms. Over the next few decades, the Goderich Baptist church took up its role in earnest in the community.

It held Red Cross meetings during the Great War, closed for three weeks during the Spanish Influence Pandemic and always supported the Temperance cause.

In 1920, the church was prosperous enough to purchase a parsonage on Picton Street.

An outreach mission was established at the Taylor’s Corner church in 1923.

In 1927, the church paid off its building debt and became financially self-sufficient.

During the Great Depression, the church struggled financially. The Taylor’s Corner mission was closed in 1933.

The financial situation became so acute that in May 1940, a congregational meeting was called to decide whether they would carry on as a church or not, because the church was not meeting financial obligations.

Despite war and depression, members stepped up their donations and the church survived.

In the post-war years, the church thrived with the help of long-term congregants like Bill Chase who held church offices from a youth in 1949 until his passing in 2012.

In 1951, the Baptist Vacation Bible School hosted over 100 children and 20 volunteers. A new baptistry was installed in 1953.

By 1961, the Baptist church advised the Home Mission Board that ‘we will, God willing, not needs any [financial] help again’.

By 1963, aside from the Sunday School and Ladies’ Aid Society, the church had a Mission Band, Explorers Club, Junior Church, Women’s Mission Circles, a Dorcas Club, a Couples’ Club and a vibrant Baptist Young People’s Club with 70 members.

In 1964, the congregation officially changed the name to First Baptist Church to denote its adherence to the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec and distinguish itself from the 1963 founding of Calvary Baptist Church on Bayfield Road.

In June 2009, Rev. Rod Gauthier accepted a call to minister at First Baptist Church. Rev. Gauthier reflected that moving with his wife Sherry and three teenage children from St. Catherines to Goderich was a big decision but a good one.

After 16 years in the pulpit, Gauthier feels blessed by the community and church he serves.

On August 21, 2011, the F3 tornado damaged the church tower and tested the congregation’s will once again as the tower, windows, roof and walls were badly damaged.

Once again, the small but dedicated congregation rallied and repaired the tornado’s damage.

After serving the longest tenure of any First Baptist Minister, Rev. Gauthier says he has seen the changing of the guard from generation to another.

When he first arrived in town, all the congregants were from Goderich, but now he sees people from the GTA, Kitchener-Waterloo and London, who contribute to church activities.

Rev. Gauthier said this church has not only meant a lot to him and has meant a lot to the greater Goderich community for over 120 years.