Many Generations Growing Together in Love
First Baptist Church sits at 125 NW 10th Street in Corvallis, Oregon, just blocks from Oregon State University and the city's downtown core. The church's mission is short but it shapes everything that happens inside the building: many generations growing together in love and connecting the next generation to Jesus. Long-time believers and newcomers worship side by side, and the church describes itself as a place where babies sit alongside centenarians in the same room each Sunday.
That multi-generational focus is rooted in the guiding values the congregation has chosen: prayer, caring relationships, a welcoming and relational spirit, growth, mission, commitment, Bible-centered teaching, and generosity with time, talents, and treasures. The vision the congregation has carried in recent years is to be a church that is inviting neighbors to experience Jesus with us, where neighbors are understood to be anyone in a member's circle of influence - from friends and co-workers to favorite baristas and next-door acquaintances.
Sunday Morning on NW 10th Street
The Sunday Worship Gathering begins at 10:30 AM and ends at 11:45. The service is a deliberate mix of older hymns of the faith and more contemporary hymns and praise songs, blended so that older believers and younger ones can both connect with God in song. The church calls it an authentic worship experience, not a performance. Fellowship time is set aside before and after the service, and people of every age are welcome.
Walk in from NW 10th Street and you step into a gathering the church describes as a family - not perfect and not everyone put together, but a room where seniors, adults, young marrieds, college students, youth, and children are all present, looking to encounter Jesus and to connect with one another. Each Sunday's message is recorded and posted online, and the archived sermons can be watched or listened to anytime through the church's YouTube channel.
Kids, Youth, and College: From Cradle to Cap and Gown
Children's ministry at First Baptist, called KidMin, opens its doors at 10:15 AM on Sunday mornings. The Nursery, in Room 12, cares for babies through age 2. The Preschool class, in Room 14, takes children age 2 to 5 and pairs play time with a short lesson from the Read and Share Bible. K-5th grade Kids Church meets on the third floor in Room 31, with worship beginning at 10:30 followed by a Gospel Project curriculum lesson. Preschoolers and K-5 children can also keep learning at home through the Gospel Project at Home materials, accessed for free through Lifeway's Ministry Grid.
IMPACT Youth Ministry gathers on Friday evenings at 7:00 PM in the upstairs gym of the church building. Teens come for games, time together, and Bible teaching aimed at helping the gospel connect with daily life. Medical release forms are available through the church for anyone joining in that ministry.
College ministry at First Baptist flows through a partnership with Campus Ambassadors, a community of OSU students who want the college years to be a place where people can be themselves, be heard, and be loved. A Breakfast Bible Study for international students meets Sundays at 9:00 AM at the Welcome House, 136 NW 10th, sharing a meal and conversation around Scripture. Faith + Food gathers college students on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM at the same Welcome House for dinner and a Bible discussion.
Men's Ministry: The Geezers and Saturday Mornings in the Plaza
The men's ministry serves men of all ages through three regular rhythms. The Geezers is a group of primarily senior men who meet every Tuesday at 7:00 AM in the Choir Room at the church for an in-depth Bible study and prayer time, then head to a local restaurant for breakfast together. Saturday Morning Men's Bible Study meets at 7:00 AM at The Plaza in downtown Corvallis and wraps up promptly at 8:00, leaving the rest of the day open. Once a month, on the second Saturday, the men of the church gather at 8:00 AM in the Choir Room for Men's Care Day, a service day tackling yardwork, small home repairs, and small building projects for widows, shut-ins, and senior saints in the congregation.
Women's Ministry: The Names of God and Coffee Connections
Women's ministry at First Baptist centers on a shared Bible study. The Names of God: Discover Who God Is and Who He Calls Us to Be works through eight sessions spanning the Old and New Testaments, exploring names for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three groups meet around the week: Mondays at 7:00 PM in the Choir Room, Tuesdays at 9:30 AM in the Choir Room, and Saturdays at 1:00 PM in the Conference Room. Study workbooks are $25 and available in the church lobby on Sundays. Women's ministry also hosts a Coffee Connection each month for a short devotional, hot drinks, and time to reconnect and hear what is coming up next.
Small Groups Across the Week
Small groups are the main way the congregation builds community beyond Sunday mornings. A singles/couples group for adults in their 20s and 30s meets Wednesdays from 7:00 to 9:00 PM in various homes around Corvallis, working through the book of Romans with dessert, conversation, and prayer. The Wille/Kelley Small Group gathers every other Thursday from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, alternating between Carole Wille's and Nancy Kelly's homes. The Rinkin Small Group studies 2 Samuel on Fridays from 1:30 to 3:30 PM at Mike and Judy Rinkin's house. Pastor Barry and Jeannie host the PB&J Small Group on Friday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, working through the passage from the previous Sunday's message. Children's, teens', and college-age gatherings each have their own meeting places built into the week.
Missions at Home and Around the World
First Baptist partners with several local ministries and supports more than fifteen missionaries and families around the world. Locally, the church is one of forty partner churches with Love INC of Benton County, helping provide resources to those in need. It also assists Corvallis for Refugees, supporting refugees resettling in Corvallis and the volunteers who welcome them. The church supports Willamette Valley First Responder Chaplains, a group placing highly trained chaplains with public safety agencies.
The international missions roster reaches across continents. Leo and Lulu Calva serve with World Venture in South Ecuador, planting churches and developing leaders in the Loja region. Mike and Rebekah Gervasi run Next Wave Missions to inspire and train short-term missionaries. Jonathan and Annalyn Guest work with International Students Inc. Jeff and Teresa Harris coach Campus Ambassadors staff across OSU, WOU, Willamette University, Chemeketa Community College, and Central Washington University. Chuck and Nancy Kelley and Natalie Meeks serve with Bridge Builders International in the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, reaching children, youth, families, artists, orphans, addicts, prisoners, and ministry leaders. Waffle and Dr. Val Lomilo plant churches in Uganda with New Horizons. Chuck and Danita Lovelady serve with Missions Door in Utah. Kent and Kimberly Rasmussen work with Wycliffe on Bible translation. Russ and Kristen Richmond reach Corvallis with a missionary mindset through World Venture Pacific Northwest. Jeremy and Mindie Tice serve as Missionaries in Residence at Bethel University, working to reverse the trend of aging mission agencies by discipling the next generation of cross-cultural workers. Bruce Tissell directs the Baptist Theological Seminary of Teresina in North Brazil, training future pastors and missionaries. Ed and Sarah Trussell support TeachBeyond's Latin America Region through formal Christian schools, English institutes, camps, and seminaries. Dean Aithwaite serves as the Willamette Valley First Responders Chaplain.
What First B Believes
The church's Statement of Faith teaches that the Old and New Testaments are the inspired, inerrant Word of God and the supreme authority in matters of faith and life. God is one God in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - equal in every divine perfection. The church affirms the full deity and full humanity of Jesus Christ, His sinless life, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension, priestly intercession, and personal, premillennial return. The Holy Spirit works in regeneration, sanctification, and preservation, empowering believers for godly living and service. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from any human merit or works, and results in righteous living, good works, and concern for others. Satan is a fallen angel and the ultimate source of evil, but God has promised his final defeat.
On the church, the Statement of Faith holds that the true church is the spiritual body of which Christ is the head, composed of all who have trusted in Him, expressing itself in local assemblies. The two ordinances are believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper. First Baptist teaches that baptism is an act of obedience for believers, not a requirement for salvation, and that each local church is self-governing and free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority. Christian conduct is summed up in four pursuits: blameless living, assisting the less fortunate, faithful stewardship, and growing toward the full stature of spiritual maturity in Christ.
A Pioneer Church in Corvallis
The First Baptist Story Vol. 1 covers the first 120 years of the congregation's ministry, telling a history the church says continues to form its present. Members have been gathering in Corvallis since the era of the American Civil War, following Jesus through Emancipation, both World Wars, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, and the long sweep of American history. Services have been recorded on tapes, broadcast on radio, archived on VHS, and now downloaded from the internet - every president from Millard Fillmore onward has been prayed for by people meeting at First Baptist Corvallis.
The church frames its past as a pioneer spirit sanctified by the Holy Spirit, marked by sacrifice, service, generosity, and faithfulness on behalf of Jesus and the people of Corvallis. That same story, the church says, is its present and its future too, lived out through Psalm 78's call: we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, so that each generation might set its hope anew on God.