About First Baptist Kentwood

Connecting and equipping people to serve Christ and make Him known

A Brief History

First Baptist Church Kentwood was birthed on March 12, 1893 out of Osyka Baptist Church, where Kentwood residents had been worshipping. On that date it was determined that there was a sufficient Baptist population in the Kentwood community to support an independent congregation. (Incorporation as a town did not occur until a year later in 1894.) Twenty members brought letters from Osyka Baptist Church and agreed to meet twice a month in the dual-purpose town hall and schoolhouse, the site today of the gymnasium of Kentwood High School. The Reverend Milton Shirk of Osyka preached the first sermon from the text of Hebrews 8:5: “See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to you in the mount.” By the end of the first revival meeting in August of the same year, church membership had grown to sixty. On September 10, 1893, the six-month-old church voted to erect a sanctified place of worship. That first church building was completed in 1895 on the same ground that First Baptist occupies today.

Contact Us

First Baptist Church Kentwood
310 Avenue E
Kentwood, LA  70444
(985) 229-8111

Click here for map