First Baptist Church to celebrate 70 years in Lewes April 6

First Baptist Church will host its 70th anniversary celebration at 10:15 a.m., Sunday, April 6, at 1001 Kings Highway, Lewes.

Community members are welcome to join in giving thanks, particularly those who have been impacted in a positive way by the ministers, congregation and message of the church over these many years.      

Before the existence of the U.S. Coast Guard, the United States Life-Saving Service was organized to rescue shipwrecked sailors caught in life-threatening conditions.  In 1884, the service constructed a post in Lewes. Some 70 years later, another kind of life-saving station was established in this coastal town when a group of Christians gathered in a local living room to discuss the formation of what would become the First Baptist Church of Lewes.

It was the early 1950s, and southern Delaware was growing. Following World War II, DuPont turned its attention to nylon production, and hosiery mills were springing up all over the region. The mills needed workers, those workers needed infrastructure, and a migration of labor ensued. 

Several of the families moving into the area during this period were Baptists by conviction. They initially worshipped in other area churches, but that changed in 1955 when a man named Norman Sellers was transferred from Seaford to Lewes to work in the A&P market on Second Street. 

Sellers and his wife were members of the First Baptist Church of Seaford, and they initially planned to drive the 35 miles back and forth to attend church on Sundays. They quickly recognized that this was not sustainable, nor did it provide the kind of weekly fellowship and accountability they needed. As they met others in town who shared their convictions, a small group formed and contacted the Rev. Raymond Street, the Sellers’ pastor from Seaford, about coming on Sunday afternoons to conduct services.   

With 15 people in attendance, the first service was held in Lewes April 13, 1955. In the months that followed, those faith-filled founders drafted a covenant, hired their first full-time pastor, and purchased the property on Kings Highway where the congregation gathers for worship and instruction to this day.   

Much has changed since those early days, but the most important things have remained the same. As Baptists, FBC’s founders firmly held to the authority and inerrancy of the Bible, and sought to plant a church that placed God’s word front and center in its teaching and practice.  All these years later, the First Baptist Church of Lewes still seeks to exalt God primarily by explaining and applying his word.

A refusal to change in this specific regard is precisely what keeps the church relevant. Humanity’s greatest needs, struggles and questions haven’t fundamentally changed in the last 70 years.  Neither has the answer for many of them.  For those who are searching for time-tested solutions to universal human problems, the First Baptist Church continues to point to God’s word.