History Of Free Will Baptists & Faith Free Will Baptist Church

The Free Will Baptist denomination is a fellowship of evangelical believers united in extending the witness of Christ and the building of His Church throughout the world. The rise of Free Will Baptists can be traced to the influence of Baptists of Arminian persuasion who settled in the colonies from England.

The denomination sprang up on two fronts at almost the same time. The southern line, or Palmer movement, traces its beginnings to the year 1727 when one Paul Palmer organized a church at Chowan, North Carolina. Palmer had previously ministered in New Jersey and Maryland, having been baptized in a congregation which had moved from Wales to a tract on the Delaware River in northern Pennsylvania.

The northern line, or Randall movement, had its beginnings with a congregation organized by Benjamin Randall June 30, 1780, in New Durham, New Hampshire. Both lines of Free Will Baptists taught the doctrines of free grace, free salvation, and free will, although from the first there was no organizational connection between them.

The northern line expanded more rapidly in the beginning and extended its outreach into the West and Southwest. In 1910-1911 this body of Free Will Baptists merged with the Northern Baptist denomination, taking along more than half its 1,100 churches and all denominational property, including several major colleges. On December 28, 1916, at Pattonsburg, Missouri, representatives of remnant churches in the Randall movement reorganized into the Cooperative General Association of Free Will Baptists.

Free Will Baptists in the southeastern United States, having descended from the Palmer foundation, had often manifested fraternal relationships with Free Will Baptists of the Randall movement in the north and west; but the slavery question and the Civil War prevented formal union between them. The churches in the southern line were organized into various associations and conferences from the beginning, and had finally organized into a General Conference by 1921. These congregations were not affected by the merger of the northern movement with the Northern Baptists.

Now that the remnants of the Randall movement had reorganized into the Cooperative General Association and the Palmer movement had organized into the General Conference, it was inevitable that fusion between these two groups of Free Will Baptists would finally come. In Nashville, Tennessee, on November 5, 1935, representatives of these two groups met and organized the National Association of Free Will Baptists.

This body adopted a treatise which set forth the basic doctrines and described the faith and practice that had characterized Free Will Baptists through the years. Having been revised on several occasions, it serves as a guideline for a denominational fellowship which comprises more than 2,400 churches in 42 states and 14 foreign countries.

Faith Free Will Baptist of Ray, Michigan is one of those 2400 churches. In January 1974, a few people got together at Don and Sharon Marsee’s home in Richmond, Michigan and decided a Free Will Baptist Church was needed in the area. The Marsee’s worked with the Rev. Charles Cooper, from the Troy Free Will Baptist Church in Troy, Michigan to form a mission church of the Troy Free Will Baptist Church. This church was named Faith Free Will Baptist Church of Ray Michigan.

On February 17, 1974 the first official service was conducted at the Disco Elementary School in Utica Michigan. The Rev. Wayne Rhodes was elected Pastor. The congregation continued to meet in the school for a year then decided to buy land and build a sanctuary. Ten acres of vacant land was purchased at 64395 Romeo Plank Rd. in Ray, Michigan. In order to save money for the building project the congregation moved into a building on Bro. Lester Baker's property in Armada, Michigan for one year, then rented the Masonic Temple in Romeo, Michigan for a few months. Construction of the building started in 1979. Later that year the congregation moved into the new building where we are presently located.

List of former Pastors

• Rev. Wayne Rhodes 1974 thru 1978
• Rev. Oscar Cummings Jr. 1978 thru 1983
• Rev. Roger Cooper 1983 thru 1986
• Rev. Larry L. Iddins 1986 thru 1989
• Rev. Brian Tolliver 1990 thru 1996
• Rev. Rex Evans 1997 thru 2005
• Rev. Ronnie Meadows 2005 to present.