A Progressive Congregation on the Main Line
Central Baptist Church gathers on West Lancaster Avenue in Wayne, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Philadelphia's Main Line suburbs. The building with its stained glass and comfortable pews is home to a congregation that describes itself as progressive, inclusive, and justice-minded, drawing people of various ages, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities into a single community of faith. Members come together each Sunday at ten o'clock to worship, to learn, and to live out what they call the social gospel. The church office is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
The Four Freedoms of a Baptist Identity
Unlike many Christian traditions, Baptists have no central governing authority - no pope, no bishops, no presbytery directing what a local church can or cannot do. Central Baptist belongs to that wider Baptist world as a member congregation of American Baptist Churches USA, and the church grounds its progressive identity in what it calls the Four Fragile Freedoms of the Baptist tradition: Bible Freedom, Soul Freedom, Church Freedom, and Religious Freedom.
Bible Freedom at Central Baptist means that every person has the right and responsibility to interpret Scripture for themselves. The congregation does not typically follow the Revised Common Lectionary, freeing worship planners to explore passages the lectionary skips over and to spend whole Sundays on a single text when the narrative warrants it. Soul Freedom expresses the priesthood of all believers: each person stands accountable to God without creed or clergy imposed between. Central Baptist practices Believer's Baptism, dedicating children rather than baptizing infants, and welcomes new members by profession of faith and baptism, by transfer from another church, or by Christian experience. Church Freedom is the autonomy of the local congregation, and Central Baptist exercises that freedom by working with other churches through the Philadelphia Baptist Association, the oldest continuing community of Baptist congregations in the United States. Religious Freedom is the freedom to worship or not, rooted in the First Amendment and championed by Baptists from John Leland through the present-day Baptist Joint Committee. Leland's own words, quoted in the church's history materials, argue that the very idea of toleration is despicable when some have pre-eminence to grant indulgence, and that all should be equally free.
Welcoming and Affirming Since the 1960s
Central Baptist is a Welcoming and Affirming congregation in the Philadelphia Baptist Association region of American Baptist Churches USA, and LGBTQ+ persons are part of every aspect of church life and leadership here, including pastoral ministry. The congregation became one of thirteen founding members of ABC Concerned in 1993, the body now known as the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists. Although the official Welcoming and Affirming designation came in the 1990s, the presence of gay and lesbian members and staff was recognized and welcomed as early as the 1960s.
The church is also affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America / Bautistas por la Paz, POWER Metro, and the Main Line NAACP, where CBC is a lifetime member. The congregation has expanded its ecumenical and interfaith connections since the early 2000s with nearby progressive Christian communities, Muslims, and Jews. Since 2006, CBC has hosted an annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service with Temple Brith Achim in King of Prussia.
Sunday Worship at Ten
The weekly service takes place at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings in the worship commons, what most congregations call the sanctuary, on the upper floor of the building. A typical service runs sixty to seventy-five minutes and is structured but does not follow a set liturgy. A paper bulletin handed out on the way in outlines the order of worship, and visitors are invited to come as they are: jeans and T-shirts sit alongside Sunday best.
Music plays a central role. The service weaves together hymns, anthems, worship songs, folk music, the occasional secular song, and original music written by congregation members past and present. There is plenty of opportunity to join in, through the choir, the band, and special musical offerings. On the fourth Sunday of Advent and on Easter, an orchestra made up of musicians from within and outside the congregation joins the music.
On the first Sunday of each month, the table is set for open communion. Everyone who feels led is welcome to participate. At every service, members are invited to share joys and concerns so that the community can hold one another in prayer.
Music at the Heart of Worship
Music is woven throughout the life of the congregation, and Central Baptist has long sought out music that reflects its progressive values and theology. The church has held several songwriting retreats to create new music that expresses its commitment to justice and equality. New participants are welcome at any time, with no auditions required.
The band leads singing at the beginning of each service, rehearsing on Sunday mornings at nine o'clock. Participation can be weekly or occasional. The choir sings an anthem in most services, with a break over the summer, and rehearses on Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. September through May, with warmups on Sunday mornings at 9:30.
Dwayne Morris serves as Director of Music. A pianist, choir director, and music educator with a Master's Degree in Piano Performance and more than three decades as a church musician, Morris also teaches Vocal Studies and Music Production at Westtown School.
During the long months when in-person services were not possible, CBC musicians recorded and produced more than one hundred videos for use in virtual worship. The church continues to use some of those recordings at the opening of its weekly livestream.
Learning Together: Sunday School and Adult Classes
Valuing the faith development of children, Central Baptist runs Sunday School for kids during the ten o'clock hour, using the Shine Curriculum. Classrooms are stocked with extensive art supplies and updated learning resources for playing and interacting. Teachers are experienced, and every employee and volunteer has obtained background clearances.
Adult Learning Community typically meets on Sunday afternoons or on a weeknight over Zoom, drawing participants from across the country and around the world. Sessions are led by members who teach from the wealth of their own knowledge and experience and invite participants into robust discussion. Recent sessions have included a presentation by Pini Kidulah, founder of Jitokeze Wamama Wafrika, a nonprofit with deep ties to CBC that empowers vulnerable girls and women in West Pokot, Kenya; a study of Karen Armstrong's Sacred Nature led by members of the Ecology Faith in Action Team; a series on Not Counting Women and Girls; a session on the origins of Lent led by a CBC Hebrew Bible scholar; and a study using curriculum from the Baptist Joint Committee on "Christians Against Christian Nationalism."
Faith in Action: A Century and a Half of Justice
The church's justice work is, in its own words, part of its DNA. Central Baptist came into being through a split with the Baptist Church in the Great Valley in 1840, when its members refused to be content merely with the presence of Black members and demanded a bolder stand for the abolition of slavery. That commitment has continued through every generation since.
In the late 1890s and into the 1920s, members worked to address slumlord conditions in Wayne's Highland Avenue neighborhood, helped build what is now the Radnor Township Civic Association, and taught English as a second language to local Italian immigrants. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, the church basement served as a temporary emergency hospital, equipped by volunteers and officially recognized by the US Public Health Service afterward. In 1958, CBC took legal action against the Main Line Board of Realtors in the project known as Project Free, pushing for open housing policies. In 1963, the congregation established the Central Baptist Nursery School, the first integrated nursery school on the Main Line, now an independent nonprofit still housed in the church building.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the congregation voted to mortgage its building for one hundred thousand dollars to give to Black businesses. The mortgage was never taken out: church and community members together raised close to nine hundred thousand dollars in today's money. Before Roe v. Wade, the church housed a hotline for the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion. In 1985, during the civil war in El Salvador, Central Baptist became a Sanctuary Church, housing undocumented Salvadorans around the clock with church members present twenty-four hours a day.
The congregation's work continues through Faith in Action Teams (FIATs), open to members and non-members alike. Solar panels installed on the church roof in 2009 supply about thirty percent of the building's electricity. In 1992 CBC joined what is now Family Promise, hosting families without homes on a rotating basis with meals, companionship, and overnight hospitality. The church maintains its longstanding partnership with Jitokeze Wamama Wafrika in Kenya, supporting a nonprofit that empowers vulnerable women and girls to overcome poverty and improve their resilience to the impacts of climate change. Following Hurricane Katrina, CBC partnered with the Baptist Peace Fellowship and St. John Baptist Church in New Orleans to provide financial support, work crews, mental health support, and pastoral visitations.
Getting Here, Worshiping Here, Giving Here
The church sits at 106 W. Lancaster Ave., with the parking lot at 111 W. Wayne Ave. Sunday parking is also available at the kiosks along West Wayne Avenue and in the municipal lot between West Wayne Avenue and Runnymede Avenue, all free on Sundays. The front entrance on West Lancaster Avenue leads directly into the worship commons on the upper floor, with four steps outside and five steps inside; the back entrance at the lower floor has an elevette, available with assistance from someone who knows how to use it.
Men's and women's restrooms are on the lower floor (stairs required), with an all-gender single-stall option on the upper floor. Visitors are welcome to use the restroom that best aligns with their gender identity.
Livestream is available on Sundays beginning a few minutes before ten o'clock; the link is sent out by request to anyone who emails the church office. Giving is accepted online through the easyTithe giving page, by text to 610-624-2220, by mail to P.O. Box 309, Wayne, PA 19087, or through a bank's online bill pay.
The hall and sanctuary are available to rent for meetings, parties, weddings, catered events, and small-scale musical performances.