Church History
On December 21, 1973, there was a meeting called by several Christians for the purpose of organizing a Baptist Church. This meeting was held at the home of Sis. Doris Burns, 32 S. Hooker St., Freeport, Illinois at 7:25 P.M. Sis. Della Pearson opened the meeting by leading the song “What a Friend we have in Jesus”. Bro. Sunnie Brown read the scripture from II Timothy 2:15-26. Rev. Timothy Marshall leads the prayer. There were six (6) persons present at this meeting, namely, Sis. Doris Burns, Sis Della M. Person, Sis. Julia D. King, Sis. Jurline Crawford, Bro. Sunnie Brown, and Rev. Timothy Marshall. It was agreed by all present that there was a need for a new church and it was motioned and carried that the name of the Church would be the “Friendship Missionary Baptist Church of Freeport, Illinois” with the slogan “The Church Where Everybody is Somebody”. Officers were elected as follows: Bro. Sunnie Brown on trial for Deacon and acting chairman of the Official Board. Sis. Doris Burns, Church Treasurer, Sis. Julia D. King, Finance Secretary, Sis. Jurline Crawford, Trustee, and Rev. Timothy Marshall were unanimously elected Pastor of the Church.
Other business was discussed and the meeting was adjourned and the next meeting was to be held at the home of Pastor and Mrs. Marshall at 509 E. Madison Street. At this meeting which was held Dec. 29, 1973 our group had grown to 10. Several points were brought out and Rev. Curry, Pastor of St. Martin Baptist Chruch gave us some encouraging remarks and offered his church for us to hold our meetings till we could establish a permanent place. We held our first meeting Sunday, January 6, 1974, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. community center. The Pastor spoke from the 16th chapter of St. Matthew and the 18th verse, the subject “Who’s Church”.
On Dec. 30, 1973, Rev. Curry and St. Martin Church declared Friendship Baptist officially a church. Since that time our church has grown. We moved from the King Center to 431 S. Adams and from there to 114 E. Stephenson Street and by the grace of God, we are now in our present building which we are buying. Since our beginning we ordained Bro. Sunnie Brown a Deacon and two men acknowledged their calling to The Gospel Ministry. Bro. Johnnie Terry and Bro. William Marshall both were licensed by the Church. Many other things were accomplished. We purchased the lots known as Johnson & Bennet’s Addition, Lots 1, 2 and 3 and the Wright’s Addition, Lots 4 and 5, and paid for them. We have grown from the Original 6 to near 70. We are an Affiliate of the Rockford and vicinity Baptist Association, The State Baptist General Convention, and The National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ Love and Righteousness.
