Amazingly, meeting in this leaky- roofed hoopskirt factory 1879-85, a church began to take shape. Since then, the blessing of the Lord has been unmistakable. The Apostle Peter wrote as his life was nearing an end…2 Peter 1:14 “For our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life, 15 so I will work hard to make sure you always remember these things after I am gone.” For Peter, “these things” were the truths of God, His power and His Word that we endeavor to pass along each week as we gather. The Apostle Paul had written in Colossians 2: 6 “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

 

 

Deep rootsmake a good foundation and we have such roots. In 1887, a building was constructed and CarewStreet Baptist Church began.

It got off to a good start but the 60 years that followed in that location were tumultuous.

 

 

It included a fire in 1905 that destroyed the church and a new one was built in its place. It faced closing, merging, and moving throughout the 20’s & 30’s but God wasn’t finished with us. The Lord brought godly men to the pulpit to renew the spiritual heartbeat and stability was soon replaced by growth. Selling the property in 1948, six lots were bought on Roosevelt Ave. & Berlin St. in Springfield, for $3,400.00 and the church moved forward to build.

A historical document reads:”The pastor, Rev. Detweiller, being a Bible believing, Bible preaching, man of God, suggested three names from the Bible.” They were Gethsemane, Berean or Bethlehem. The document continues… “That meeting will surely never be forgotten by the members of the Carew St. Baptist Church. After prayer and discussion and careful consideration BethlehemBaptistChurch was chosen. It signifies the birthplace of our Lord, and we trust the birthplace spiritually for many souls in future days.” Those were exciting times for the church as they sought God and His leading. Their prayers would indeed be answered.

 

Bethlehem Baptist on Roosevelt Ave. got its start in 1949. There were many exciting years for Bethlehem on Roosevelt Ave. It included adding a Christian Education Building in 1957, a dynamic Radio Ministry, and a Day Care Center to minister to the parents of that community. In the late 80’s we were planning to connect our two buildings and were raising funds through the “Looking Up and Reaching Out” campaign to pay for the $425k expansion. God was at work, however, and other options presented themselves. We found ourselves praying and waiting at the crossroads.

 

We set aside a Day of Prayer in October 1989 specifically praying about at least three possibilities-- staying & expanding where we were, relocating and building a new church or possibly merging with Wilbraham Bible Church (they had an option on a piece of property on Main St. in Wilbraham), or  perhaps something else that God wanted to show us. It wasn’t long after that day, however, the Lord made our plans clear. It was time to move again! It was 1990 and God had answered.

 

Our expansion plans changed to plans of relocation. God’s Word encourages us to look back to the words of Asaph, the worship leader, which inspire us as he writes in Psalm 77:11 “But then I recall all you have done, O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. 12 They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.”

 

Selling our Roosevelt Ave. building meant moving out and each Sunday morning, Sunday school and worship were held at Pioneer Valley Christian School, in Springfield.  

Those were exciting days and none more so than when we broke ground on November 18, 1990.

 

 

An amazing winter followed and progress was fast and furious as the walls started going up in January. HAVE YOU EVER WATCHED A BUILDING RISE?  

Obviously, when it is your home church it has great meaning to many and that was certainly the case as people would come regularly to see the changes.

 

 

 

The trusses went from the ground to seemingly floating on air, and a church took shape. The people of the church kept the cost down.

Beginning with Saturdays in the winter and moving to whenever people could come, our construction supervisor Stan helped us do much of the work ourselves.

 

 

 

What a thrill for all as we turned off Allen Street and into our new parking lot and building with room for every car and every body (at least for a while). It was thrilling to see God’s blessing right before our eyes. 

  

 

Our first Worship Service was July 21, 1991and the Lord has blessed us at our new location. By fall 1992, we decided to add a second Worship Service. We slowly continued to grow and enlarged our staff in 1996; our Sanctuary in 1997. In 2001, the Wilbraham Bible Church made the decision to strategically close their doors and join with us to make a greater impact on our shared communities. Around this same time, staff was in change mode as one Associate Pastor departed and two were called to strengthen our ability to meet needs. There is a bit of mystery in growth, perhaps you have noticed, but it’s hard to grow a church. You really do get used to things happening in a certain way and growth forces you to change.

 

On Jan. 30, 2003 we invited all who were interested to come to a meeting to begin imagining what a larger Bethlehem might look like. This was quite similar to 1989, back on Roosevelt Avenue. Perhaps, by expanding the sanctuary yet again and adding a wing to mirror the existing wing we could grow as the original architects had envisioned.  This would require our purchasing adjacent land as illustrated on this chart. We wait on the Lord for His direction. The Project Development Team has met regularly over these last few years, taking a few road trips to see some possibilities. There are some very exciting possibilities out there.

 Also in 2003, we began a Ministry to our seniors with Pastor Al Vantassel and his wife Fran. They had retired to Florida from Pastoral ministry in Springfield some seven years before but were returning to the area. It seemed like a good fit and the church agreed as we asked them to join us to minister part-time to this great group. 

In the summer of 2005, our neighbor, Miss Shumway, kindly agreed to allow us to expand into her property and more than double the size of our overflow parking. This allowed us an extra year to plan our next step. Finally, needing to create more space on Sunday mornings, we began our third worship service on Saturday January 13, 2007 at 5:00PM. This service has been well received and a number of families have found it helpful due to their work schedules or health issues. Our growing technology ministry and the need for added emphasis on our children resulted in adding Cindy Catuogno to our staff in 2006 as our Children’s Ministry Coordinator.

The question for us all to NOW consider is…WHAT IS NEXT FOR BETHLEHEM?

We have two obvious possibilities:  to expand at our current location, as we have
been planning, or relocate and start anew.

It should be equally obvious that we have a limited capacity for imagining all the possibilities and that God may still have other plans for us that we are simply just not aware. The only way we will know is to ask Him. We are now praying the following:

“Lord, what do You desire to do through Bethlehem, and how can we best accomplish that through existing and/or new facilities.”

Bethlehem is not a building it is a people. It is all of us who by attendance, loyalty, giving and service say that Bethlehem is our church home. WE are the church, God desires to work through us, and so we are praying for wisdom regarding our future…