First Baptist Church of Hammond
| First Baptist Church, Hammond | |
|---|---|
.JPG) |
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| Location | Hammond, Indiana |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Independent Baptist |
| Previous denomination | American Baptist |
| Website | fbchammond |
| History | |
| Founded | November 24, 1887 |
| Founder(s) | Allen Hill |
| Clergy | |
| Senior pastor(s) | John Wilkerson |
The First Baptist Church of Hammond is a fundamental Independent Baptist church in Hammond, Indiana. It is the largest church in the state of Indiana, and in 2007 was the 20th largest in the United States. Though founded in 1887 by Allen Hill, it was under Jack Hyles' leadership from 1959–2001 when it became one of the megachurches in the United States and during the 1970s had the highest Sunday school attendance of any church in the world. In 1990, the church had a weekly attendance of 20,000. It also operates Hyles-Anderson College, a non-accredited institution established for the training of pastors and missionaries, and two K-12 schools, called City Baptist Schools (for children of the bus route of the church) and Hammond Baptist Schools (for children of the members of the church). John Wilkerson is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church.
First Baptist Church was founded in November 1887 by Allen Hill of Jennings County, Indiana. Its first meeting was on November 14, 1887 with 12 members on the 28th. However, it originally met in the Morton House Hotel which stood on what is currently the 100 block of Willow Court. Allen Hill's pastorate was short lived at approximately 4 months.
By April 1888, B.P. Hewitt became the church's permanent pastor and Allen Hill went on to start several other churches. Needing more room, Hewitt moved the church's meeting place to the Hohman Opera House at the corner of State and Hohman. In 1889, the church erected its own structure for $2,358 when Marcus Towle, Hammond's first mayor and member of FBC, donated land on Sibley Street to the church.
Subsequently, on January 3, 1901 Pastor E.T. Carter proposed a new building, and the first service was held on April 14, 1901. On November 27 of that same year, Carter announced his resignation for a job at the Central Baptist Orphanage in Michigan.
During the early and mid 1970s the church's Sunday school used carnival-like entertainment along with free transportation by a fleet of over 200 buses to attract thousands of people from the Chicago Southland and northern Indiana. In 1975 weekly attendance was at 14,000, with a peak of over 30,000 in March of that year. Time magazine described the church's claim of having the "world's largest Sunday school" as "rock solid for the U.S., if not the world."
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