a brief history

Berlin Baptist Church was organized in 1876 as part of Mt. Herman Baptist Church.  The Mt. Herman Church building burned on December 28, 1925.  Mt. Herman began meeting in the old Berlin Schoolhouse, which was located on the right side of what is now Highway 302, South of the Salley Road.

 

There was some controversy as to where a new church building would be built.  Two places were suggested and voted on by the church. The first place suggested was the place between the railroad crossing and the field on the left of the road near Dead Man's Branch. The second place suggested was where the public road from Hollow Creek intersected the public road that leads to Wagener. The first place received 24 votes and the second place received 18 votes. Rev. K. D. Smith was called as pastor on the first Sunday of May, 1927. On the second Sunday in May, the pastor and deacons were chosen to submit the plans for a new church building. The pastor was to have the exclusive right to select the site for the building. The site chosen by the pastor was the second one that had been proposed. There was once again disagreement over this site. A portion of the membership decided to go back across the river and built Mt. Herman on its present site. The remaining members continued meeting in the schoolhouse.


Berlin School built a new building on the land where Calvary Baptist Church currently resides. The church began meeting in the new building and continued to meet there until 1935 when the first New Mt. Herman Baptist Church was built.

 

Seivern Baptist Church demolished their old wooden church building in order to build their present building. The old lumber from the wooden church building was acquired from them.  Some of the men from New Mt. Herman moved the lumber on two-horse wagons from Seivern to the present site and the first church building was constructed.


In the years that followed there was some difficulty in distinguishing the New Mt. Herman Baptist Church from the old Mt. Herman Baptist Church. To eliminate this confusion, in 1964 the members of the New Mt. Herman Baptist Church decided to change the name to Berlin Baptist Church after the old township in which it resides. The church continues to be known by this name today.

who we are

We Used to Be…

We used to be completely broken, held captive by the power of sin and death, but we are now grateful recipients of undeserved redemption, astonished by the amazing Grace of God, healed by the forgiveness found at the cross of Christ, and humbled by the divine invitation to be included in God's mission on the earth.

 

We Are...

We are real people saved by grace through faith, committed to a common mission and vision, joined together by the Holy Spirit of God in the gracious love of Christ our Lord.

 

We Serve…

We serve a God who is perfect in all His ways and all His attributes. The nations are His dwelling place and our lives are His vessels for the Gospel. We are called to have compassion for the poor, while opening our hearts to the rich. We love because Jesus Christ first loved us.

we believe

The Bible:

We believe the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.


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The Trinity:

We believe there is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

 

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The Church:

We believe a New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.


The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.


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The Savior:

We believe salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.


We believe election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.


We believe all true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.   

 

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The Coming King:

We believe God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

 

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The Rest of the Story...

Follow this link for our complete doctrinal statement, The Baptist Faith & Message 2000.