Emmanuel Baptist Church History
1978 –

• On May 4, 1978, thirty-six people met at the A&R Plumbing Building owned by Rufus Whittamore to discuss the possibility of starting a new mission work.
• On Sunday, May 7, 1978, the first service of Faith Baptist Mission was held at the home of Joan and Sherman Sparks. There were eighty-seven people in attendance. The evening service was moved to and continued to meet in the old Baker Williams building on US-25.
• On June 25, 1978, Brother Frank DeClue accepted the call to become the first pastor of the church and the name Emmanuel Baptist Church was adopted.
• The church was constituted on July 9, 1978, with eighty-four charter members and was accepted into the Tates Creek Baptist Association as a Southern Baptist church in October 1978.
• The four acres of property on which the church is presently located was purchased from Geneva Jennings for $16,000.
• The meeting place of EBC was moved to the old Harrison Farm Service Building on October 9, 1978, where services were held until completion of the new building. The first service in the new building was held on February 25, 1979. There were 104 people present for Sunday school.
• The church has called seven pastors since its inception, including Frank DeClue, Rich Everett, Phillip Barbour, Michael Wells, James Overbee, Hurstle Laxton and our current pastor, Joey Kays, who preached his inaugural sermon on Easter Sunday 2002.
• In August 2002 the church voted to begin a building program to add a new wing, including five Sunday school rooms, a fellowship hall with a kitchen and new bathrooms. The addition was completed in the summer of 2004 and the Lord blessed the church financially with the payoff of the loan in the spring of 2007. The church celebrated with a note-burning at the end-of-year fellowship on December 30, 2007.
• In 2013 EBC underwent a sanctuary renovation with new carpet, pews, and sound system.
• There have been approximately 290 baptisms, 8 deacon ordinations and 2 men ordained and licensed into ministry during the forty years the church has been in existence. A total of 22 men have served as deacons, with five currently serving, including Boyd Adams, Bill Cope, Justin Dargavell, Dennis Grant & Joe Kays. Emmanuel Baptist Church continues to be a growing family of believers committed to the worship and service of Jesus Christ our Lord.

What we believe

The congregation of Emmanuel Baptist Church is an evangelical body of baptized believers committed to the worship and service of Jesus Christ.

We are a Southern Baptist Church, associating with the ministry of the Tates Creek Baptist Association, the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.

We believe the Bible is the inspired, Infallible, Authoritative Word of Almighty God and is our only rule of faith and practice. The church subscribes to the doctrinal statement of the Baptist Faith and Message. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins, was buried and rose again from the dead, and that salvation is only available through faith in Christ. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

We believe in one God, the Creator, Preserver, Sustainer, and Ruler of all things. God is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

We believe Jesus Christ is the Head of the church. We are a local, autonomous, New Testament church of baptized believers under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the scriptural officers being pastor and deacons and the church ordinances being baptism and the Lord’s Supper.