History of Eastside MBC

 In 1955, driven by a great burden, Bro. Charles Samuel and his wife Imogene were sent out by Calvary MBC in Minden to preach the gospel and plant a New Testament church on the northeast side of Minden. With only a handful of people and a great desire, they launched out on faith meeting in the forestry building at the fairgrounds. Within a few months though they began construction on their first auditorium. A beautiful new two-story facility which consisted of Sunday school rooms upstairs and auditorium downstairs and also had a basement which served as living quarters for the pastor and his family was completed in Sept. of 1955.

1956 was a good year for Eastside as a young mission. The Lord had added many new members and the mission was able to organize on the first Sunday in March, 1956. Due to failing health, Bro. Samuel had to step down as pastor. He later went home to be with the Lord on July2, 1957.

Following the passing of Bro. Samuel, Eastside called Dr. A.T. Powers to be their pastor. This giant of a man stood head and shoulders above everyone else and preached the word with boldness and sincerity with his tiny wife Ida at his side. They served the church until 1961.

In 1962, the church called Bro. Roy Chapman to pastor with his wife Bobby. Under his leadership, the church launched out in their second building project. A beautiful new auditorium was built by the membership and dedicated in Sept., 1965. For 13 years the Chapmans would serve as pastor.

In 1975, Eastside called Bro. Julias Carter to pastor. Along with his wife Mildred, they served the Lord here until 1978.

In 1978, Bro. William Reed was called to pastor. Along with his wife Annette and son Mark, they labored here until 1985. During these years, the church completed it’s third building program, a new fellowship hall.

For the next 13 years the church would be led by the second of the Chapman twins, Bro. Cloy Chapman and his dear wife Opal always at his side.

With Bro. Cloy’s retirement in 1998, the church called Bro. Richard Methvin as pastor and six months later, in the spring of 1999, the church began the first phase of a three phase building program which consisted of enlarging and remodeling the Sunday School rooms and making the existing fellowship hall more rooms and offices. With the absence of a fellowship hall the church had fellowship in the hallways and classrooms till 2001, when a new 7000 sq. ft fellowship hall and children’s dept. was built. This completed the second phase of the building program and was dedicated on July8, 2001.

As the church grew, the existing auditorium was becoming too small and out of date for what the church needed, so in Nov. 2004 plans began on a new auditorium which would accommodate the needs of the church. After much prayer and planning, the church broke ground in Jan. 2007. The fellowship hall was transformed into a temporary auditorium while construction took place and on Feb. 3, 2008, Eastside MBC marched into a new 550 seat auditorium.

From the very beginning until now, Eastside has been blessed with great people who sacrificed and worked, but ask anyone of them and they’ll tell you all the glory goes to Jesus our Master who so eloquently said in Mt. 16:18, “Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

 Bro. Richard Methvin, Pastor

August, 1998 - present

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DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

OF THE

AMERICAN BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

1. We believe that love one for another as Jesus loves the believer manifests our discipleship, proves our love for God and symbolizes our authority as New Testament churches. Love is therefore the great commandment of the LORD Jesus Christ upon which all others are dependent (Matt. 22:35-40; John 13:34, 35; John 15:12; 1 John 4:7-21; 1 John 5:1-3; Rev. 2:4, 5).

2. We believe in the infallible, verbal inspiration of the whole Bible and that the Bible is the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice (Psalm 119:160; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17).

3. We believe in the personal triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in divine perfection (Matt. 28:19).

4. We believe in the Genesis account of Creation (Gen. 1; 2).

5. We believe that Satan is a fallen angel, the archenemy of God and man, the unholy god of this world, and that his destiny is the eternal lake of fire (Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:11-19; Matt. 25:41; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 6:10-17; Rev. 20:10).

6. We believe in the virgin birth and sinless humanity of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:18-20; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22).

7. We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ (John 10:30; John 1:1, 14; 2 Cor. 5:19).

8. We believe the Holy Spirit is the divine Administrator for Jesus Christ in His churches (Luke 24:49; John 14:16, 17; Acts 1:4, 5, 8; Acts 2:1-4).

9. We believe that miraculous spiritual manifestation gifts were done away when the Bible was completed. Faith, Hope and Love are the vital abiding Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor. chapters 12-14).

10. We believe that Man was created in the image of God and lived in innocency until he fell by voluntary transgression from his sinless state, the result being that all mankind are sinners (Gen. 1:26; Gen. 3:6-24; Rom. 5:12, 19).

11. We believe that the suffering and death of Jesus Christ was substitutionary for all mankind and is efficacious only to those who believe (Isa. 53:6; Heb. 2:9; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18; 2 Peter 3:9; 1 John 2:2).

12. We believe in the bodily resurrection and ascension of Christ and the bodily resurrection of His saints (Matt. 28:1-7; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Cor. 15:42-58; 1 Thess. 4:13-18).

13. We believe in the premillennial, personal, bodily return of Christ as the crowning event of the Gentile age. This event will include the resurrection of the righteous to eternal heaven, and the Millennium will be followed by the resurrection of the unrighteous unto eternal punishment in the lake of fire and that the righteous shall enter into the heaven age (John 14:1-6; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Thess. 2:8; Rev. 19; Rev. 20:4-6; Rev. 20:11-15; Rev. 21:8).

14. We believe that the depraved sinner is saved wholly by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and the requisites to regeneration are repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 13:3-5; John 3:16-18; Acts 20:21; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8, 9), and that the Holy Spirit convicts sinners, regenerates, seals, secures, and indwells every believer (John 3:6; John 16:8, 9; Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20; Eph. 4:30; Titus 3:5).

15. We believe that all who trust Jesus Christ for salvation are eternally secure in Him and shall not perish (John 3:36; John 5:24; John 10:27-30; Rom. 8:35-39; Heb. 10:39; 1 Peter 1:5).

16. We believe that God deals with believers as His children, that He chastises the disobedient, and that He rewards the obedient (Matt. 16:27; Matt. 25:14-23; John 1:12; Heb. 12:5-11; 2 John 8; Rev. 22:12).

17. We believe that Jesus Christ established His church during His ministry on earth and that it is always a local, visible assembly of scripturally baptized believers in covenant relationship to carry out the Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, and each church is an independent, self-governing body, and no other ecclesiastical body may exercise authority over it. We believe that Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission to the New Testament churches only, and that He promised the perpetuity of His churches (Matt. 4:18-22; Matt. 16:18; Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 1:14-20; John 1:35-51; Eph. 3:21).

18. We believe that there are two pictorial ordinances in the Lord's churches: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Scriptural baptism is the immersion of penitent believers in water, administered by the authority of a New Testament church in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord's Supper is a memorial ordinance, restricted to the members of the church observing the ordinance (Matt. 28:19, 20; Acts 8:12, 38; Rom. 6:4; 1 Cor. 5:11-13; 1 Cor. 11:1, 2, 17-20, 26).

19. We believe that there are two divinely appointed offices in a church, pastors and deacons, to be filled by men whose qualifications are set forth in Titus and 1 Timothy.

20. We believe that all associations, fellowships, and committees are, and properly should be, servants of, and under control of the churches (Matt. 20:25-28).

21. We believe in freedom of worship without interference from the government and affirm our belief in civil obedience, unless the laws and regulations of civil government run contrary to the Holy Scriptures (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-15).