Roswell Street Baptist Church

History

As Roswell Street Baptist Church is in its sixty-sixth year, we can look back at a great history. In 1943, God led thirty-three individuals to sign the original resolution of organization. They resolved to join hearts, gifts, talents, and resources to begin the church in response to the apparent need in the county and locality as both population and industry located to the central Cobb area.

Having sought the counsel of the Noonday Association, the group of believers that became Roswell Street Baptist Church located property east of the Marietta Square. On a dirt road, the former Roberson Plantation was selected as the appropriate site for the new church. The old plantation house was affectionately known as The Big Home. It had several outbuildings that would initially be used as meeting space. First Baptist Church of Marietta negotiated the purchase of the homestead for $10,000 under an agreement with the Georgia Baptist Convention.

On August 11, 1943 twenty-four interested people, most of them members of First Baptist Church of Marietta, met at the plantation house to make plans for the birth of the church. With a month of planning, meetings, prayer times, and worship, the group was ready to formally organize and constitute its beginning on Sunday, September 12, 1943. Reverend Hoyt G. Farr was officially selected as the first pastor and presided over the organizational meeting, initiating a request to join the Noonday Baptist Association of Churches.

One of the thirty-three original members of Roswell Street Baptist Church signing the membership charter was Mr. Vernon McAllister. Joining by profession of faith, Mr. McAllister was the first person baptized and subsequently committed his life to the Gospel ministry.

During the first days of Roswell Street, Bible Study was a priority. The humble beginnings of the church and Sunday School required the use of every available space on the property. Preschoolers and children met in outbuildings and the juniors/young people met in a two-story chicken house, soon remodeled for continued service. The adult classes began meeting in the attic of the Big Home.

The following is a quote from “A Golden Past-A Glorious Future”. “So distant were all the Sunday School classes from each other that some means had to be devised by which to call the classes together for the worship hour. To remedy this, the church purchased a dinner bell from Mrs. Calista Blackwell, mother of Callie Jordan, one of the charter members. The price paid for the bell was five dollars. The church would eventually return the bell to Paul and Callie Jordan, but until that time, it was used weekly to beckon members from Sunday School to ‘the preaching service,’ which was held on the main floor of the plantation house.”

Pastor Jimmy Garrett, successor to Reverend Farr, recorded memories of the early days as he wrote, “It is impossible to forget the large number of babies and toddlers who filled the servants and old slave quarters…and who today we find in full time service or serving the Lord in their churches.”

By the end of 1943, RSBC set a membership goal of 150 to be reached by the first Sunday in February 1944. The following Sunday, four new members joined the church.

Reflecting back to the beginnings of RSBC should make us humbly grateful for the lives of those who followed God’s leadership and laid the foundation for the vibrant church that exists today. From thirty-three to thousands now, the Lord has built a body of believers passionate for His heart and kingdom.