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- First Baptist Church of Deale began through
the vision of a fifty year old man who became it's first and founding
Pastor, Benjamin N. Kerby at the age of 50.
Brother Kerby was a hardware salesman who grew up in an Episcopalian Church
and operated a hardware store in District Heights, Maryland and then later
worked doing construction work for High's Dairy Stores. During this time, he
was heavily involved in the Episcopal Church up until the time of his father's
death.
Just before his father died, his father told him, "Don't depend upon the
church to save you!" At that time, that was exactly what he was depending
upon. This statement perplexed him and this drove him to ask his priest
about it. The priest said, "Oh don't worry about it! You're okay! Just keep
doing the things you've been doing!"
With that lingering in his mind and at the age of 40, he found himself in a
Revival service being held at the Boulevard Heights Baptist Church in
District Heights. The church was then pastored by Rev. Frances Chilton.
There he heard how he was a sinner and how he could be saved. There he
trusted Christ as his Savior.
He came home that night and told his already saved wife, Vera, about it. He
felt so right and good about his decision to be saved that he wanted to dump
all the liquor in his liquor cabinet down the drain. His wife stopped him
and told him that he shouldn't do it because he would later be sorry for it
and would go out and replace it. The next night he took her to attend the
meeting with him. When she saw the change in his life and his determination
to live for Christ, she relented and they came home and emptied the bottles
into the sink.
The Kerbys labored in that church for about ten years before leaving there
to answer God's call to search out Deale, Maryland for a place to begin a
Baptist Church. Having had no formal training he found a place to meet and
began the First Baptist Church in what was formally a community center just
a few hundred feet south of where the church is now located. Pastor Kerby
traveled back and forth from District Heights down a rather rickety road in
those days trying to get this church going.
His faith and work paid off. On July 5th, 1959, this fledgling group
organized itself into the First Baptist Church of Deale, Maryland. In 1960
they incorporated and it has been operating every since then. The
immediate need was to have a place of their own to meet in.
Just down the street, an African American doctor had an office that he wanted to sell.
His practice had fallen on difficult times since he was living during the
times when racial prejudice was at its height. Crosses were burned on his
property and he feared for his life. He said he would not sell the property
to a white person, but when he was approached about the building of a
church, he made an exception and the property was purchased.
In 1965, construction began on an auditorium and an expansion to the
building. The church had no funds available. When Pastor Kerby announced a
building program, the people asked, "Where is the money going to come from?"
He said, "It's going to come from God! We've just got to have faith to trust
Him for it!"
He announced a ground-breaking ceremony and they went outside to turn over a
shovel of dirt when a man whose name is known to us as Col. Waters was
driving past the church and God tugged on his heart to send that church some
money. Shortly thereafter, a check arrived at the church for about $151.00.
It was mailed from Virginia and drawn on a bank from Florida. It kept coming
with an additional few cents added each month for the next five years until
it was about $200.00 per month. It was just enough to meet the mortgage
payments in those days. By the time the five years was up, the church had
grown enough to a point that it was able to meet its own needs without
outside help.
Pastor Kerby later said that it took him nine months to determine where the
checks were coming from. When he finally contacted Col. Waters, he said,
"What made you send that money to us in the first place?" Col. Waters said,
"You know as much about that as I do! I was just driving by the church and
saw everybody standing outside with a shovel and God told me to start
mailing it to you." It proved to them that God's hand was greatly on this
work!
First Baptist Church was originally started as a ministry under the
Boulevard Heights Baptist Church, which itself moved to Upper Marlboro. It
is now known as the Fellowship Baptist Church.
Pastor Kerby, along with his wife, Vera, took this church through some
miraculous times. It was his steadfast faith that proved itself over and
over again in the building and supply of God for the ministry of this
church. They never had children of their own, but they parented children all
over the Deale area during the days of his ministry here. He was able to
impact lives of hundreds of people for the Lord in those days. He said his
great regret was that he didn't do more for his God. He dreamed of starting
other churches. He was truly a man of God with a real Pastor's heart.
He used to say, "There are a lot of preachers who can preach the Gospel
better than me, but there are no preachers that can preach a better Gospel
than me!"
In April 1978, after experiencing a church split in which 32 people
announced their intentions of leaving First Baptist Church, Pastor Kerby
felt that it was time for him to retire. On November 19, 1978, at the age of
69, he handed the reins of the Pastorate over to Pastor Robert A. Mayes, a 29
year old Baptist preacher who just finished up a five year pastorate in the
Iola Baptist Temple of Iola, Kansas. Thus far, in the 46 year ministry of
this church, First Baptist has yet to be without a pastor.
First Baptist is a Fundamental Independent Baptist Church which stands
squarely upon the Bible (KJV) as God's Holy Word. Its purpose is to point
people to Christ as their Savior and to help Christians to grow in the
knowledge and practice of God's Word. Its outreach is through preaching and
teaching the Word of God through evangelistic and missionary appeals.
Missions has been the "Heartbeat of the Local Church", both at home and
abroad. Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been spent on Children's
ministries, Teen ministries, Bus ministries and World Wide Missions. First
Baptist loves missionaries and is currently supporting about 40 different
missionary projects around the world presently at $40,000.00 per year.
First Baptist has an active teen ministry with Brother Ben Greenwell serving
as our Youth Pastor. Often, they have about 40 to 50 teens present during
their Youth Group Night on Wednesdays.
Presently, there are ten students in Bible Colleges training in ministry
related services, with others waiting in the wings.
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