A Faith Community on Muessing Street
Cumberland First Baptist Church has stood at 116 South Muessing Street in Cumberland, Indiana, for more than 190 years. Founded in 1832 as a gathering of Baptist neighbors along Buck Creek, it is the oldest church in the town of Cumberland and has been part of the Historic Record for generations. Today the congregation describes itself as a progressive, affirming community where all people are welcomed and celebrated as beloved children of God, rooted in Baptist freedom and shaped by the life of Jesus.
The church sits a short walk from the Cumberland town plat laid out in 1831 along what travelers once called the Cumberland Road, later the National Road, and now U.S. Highway 40. The sanctuary the congregation still uses was dedicated on June 1, 1913, and the surrounding grounds have grown into a place the church calls Sacred Earth at Cumberland, with a Chartres-style labyrinth, beehives, a pioneer cemetery, public art, and more than a hundred trees.
Roots Going Back to 1832
The congregation began on October 20, 1832, when six people met at the home of James Parker on the Atherton Farm, about a mile northeast of Cumberland. James Parker, Ambrose Shirley, John Kitley, Lyman Carpenter, and Sarah Pogue gathered to organize a church "constituted on the faith of the apostles." For its first years, services were simple "cottage meetings" held in members' homes.
Worship in those early decades was held once a month on Saturday at noon, with praise and prayer followed by a sermon and a business meeting. Pastors were called on a yearly basis and preached once a month, later twice a month. Since 1924 the church has called full-time pastors, and over more than 170 years forty-two pastors have served. The church has occupied three buildings, all on the same lot at 116 South Muessing Street. The first meetinghouse, a modest frame structure, was built in 1840 and served for forty-three years. A second building was dedicated in December 1883 and stood for thirty years before the present poured-concrete sanctuary was dedicated on June 1, 1913, its cornerstone laid on September 1, 1912.
The current sanctuary was built on a modified Akron Plan at a cost of about fifteen thousand dollars, with walls sixteen to eighteen inches thick. Two large art-glass windows, fashioned by German artisans from the area, are believed to have cost around six hundred dollars and remain a centerpiece of the room. In 1965 the church added an educational wing; in 1990 a sprawling narthex, additional classroom, and an elevator were dedicated, connecting the older building with the newer wing. The church marked 175 years of ministry in the community in 2007.
What Sunday Morning Looks Like
Worship is held each Sunday from 10:00 to 11:00 AM. Visitors arriving at the front door are greeted at a welcome center, shown to the restrooms and sanctuary, and invited to enjoy a hot beverage and morning treat, even in the sanctuary itself. Services combine thoughtful faith ritual with lively and authentic expressions of community, with the conviction that each person is created equally in the image of God.
The atmosphere is informal and "come-as-you-are." Some people arrive in jeans, others in more formal attire, and both are equally at home. Worship generally lasts about an hour and follows a somewhat traditional format of scripture readings, congregational hymns, a sermon, and a time for prayer requests. Cumberland is an open-table congregation: communion is celebrated monthly, and all are welcome to participate.
Children are always welcome in the service and sometimes lead scripture reading themselves. About fifteen minutes into worship, children ages three and older are invited to Children's Church for age-appropriate lessons using the Shine curriculum alongside in-house materials. A nursery across the hall from the Children's Ministry rooms is available for infants and toddlers. Every adult who serves in children's ministry is trained, screened, and background-checked through Ministry Defender Solutions. Parents new to the church are warmly welcomed to accompany their child to Children's Church until the child feels comfortable.
Accessible, Online, and Open to All
The church takes accessibility seriously. The facility has an elevator and accessible restrooms, and wheelchairs are easily accommodated at the back of the sanctuary. The congregation invites feedback on any additional needs.
For those unable to attend in person, Sunday worship is offered online via Zoom, and recordings are posted to the church's YouTube channel for viewing later. The church is careful with privacy: personal information is never shared, and recordings are managed so individuals are not personally identifiable without consent.
Cumberland First Baptist is explicit about who is welcome. Its vision statement names "no circles of exclusion, no walls that separate, no boundaries that can't be crossed, and no loyalties above those which we owe to God." Its values include the radical welcome of all people regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, and a commitment to justice and care for the vulnerable. Children, youth, LGBTQ+ people, and those who have been hurt by church in the past are part of that welcome.
What the Church Believes
The congregation holds to the Basic Baptist Principles it calls the Basic Baptist Principles. Soul freedom affirms that every person has the inalienable right and responsibility to relate personally with God, unmediated by creed, clergy, or civil government. The priesthood of all believers teaches that each person stands equally before God and is called by God to a ministry using the gifts God has given. The autonomy of the local church means each congregation is free, under the authority of Jesus Christ, to determine its membership and leadership, order its worship and work, ordain whom it perceives as gifted for ministry, and voluntarily associate with other churches and faiths. Religious liberty is understood as freedom of religion, freedom for religion, and freedom from religion, with a firm separation of church and state. The church also embraces the long Baptist tolerance of and openness to diversity across age, race, gender, nationality, and theological stance.
Sacred Earth: The Grounds as a Spiritual Practice
Behind and around the sanctuary, the church has shaped several acres it calls Sacred Earth at Cumberland. A Chartres-style eleven-circuit turf labyrinth, installed in 2010, offers a meditative walking path with no wrong turns. Conceived and built by Dan Mack, Kevin Rose, Barb and Heyward Fluitt, Wyatt Watkins, and Eagle Scout Charles Collins, the labyrinth is open to the public. Many walk it to find strength or clarity in grief, stress, or life transitions; others come with no agenda and simply walk.
Two beehives, brought to the property in 2019 with the help of Tim Caldwell of the Beekeepers of Indiana, sit on the south edge of the grounds. They are surrounded by native plantings of foxglove, coneflowers, compass plant, Joe Pye weed, tall ironweed, beebalm, aster, boneset, milkweed, and native grasses that feed the bees and other wildlife.
The Rare Holy Place Gazebo and patio, installed in the summer of 2022, is dedicated to the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Robert N. Sanders, who conducted an interim ministry at Cumberland between 1999 and 2001. Dr. Bob was the one who began calling the congregation a "rare holy place" because of its early decision to welcome all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification. He is interred in a green burial in the church's pioneer cemetery beside the gazebo, joining others whose lives trace back to the 1700s.
Near the Muessing Street entrance hangs the historic Cumberland School Bell, which once marked the start of the school day at the Cumberland School, located on this site from 1904 to 1964. To the southwest corner of the property lies the Historic Cumberland Cemetery, donated by Samuel Fullen, the town's 1831 plattor, containing a Revolutionary War veteran, several Civil War veterans, and members of Cumberland's founding families. The earliest known burial is from 1837.
The Journey Tree, a hand-carved twelve-foot walnut trunk created by artist Philip Campbell, stands beside the labyrinth. It honors the life of Pastor Kevin D. Rose, who began serving Cumberland First Baptist in March 1989 and died in 2018. Twenty-four images and symbols are carved into the trunk, including a barred owl, a bear, a canoe, a rose, a pumpkin mug, a question mark, a timepiece, and a wooden medallion inscribed with Kevin's favorite verse, Micah 6:8: "And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
Love in Action: Service and Mission
The church hosts and supports several community efforts. Community Outreach Ministry Eastside, one of seven member churches, operates a food pantry out of the Cumberland First Baptist building. The congregation supports the pantry through volunteering and collecting shelf-stable items. Cumberland Arts, also hosted at the church, supports creative work in the community; volunteers and donations come from the congregation.
A Little Free Library on the edge of the parking lot provides books and reading material and, beyond books, shares water, snacks, single-serving pantry items, hats, scarves, gloves, handwarmers, Chapstick, and tissues in winter, plus sunscreen and personal care items in summer. Books and supplies can be donated by placing them in the library box or in a designated bin inside the narthex.
Through special missions offerings chosen each year by the congregation, Cumberland First Baptist supports organizations including American Baptist United Mission, the Alliance of Baptists, One Great Hour of Sharing, Bridges of Hope, the World Mission Offering, American for Christ, the Retired Ministers and Missionaries Annual Offering, Faith in Place, Edna Martin Christian Center, CROP WALK, Exodus Refugee Immigration, IYG, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, Umoja Partnership, Circles of Indy, and the Association of Welcome and Affirming Baptists. An internal Caring Ministry fund supports members and the wider community.
The Green Team, one of the church's leadership groups, guides environmental stewardship. Solar panels were installed on the church roof in 2014, the area to the south of the church has been planted with trees, flowers, and shrubs, and a bee colony was brought to the grounds in 2022. A basket at the back of the sanctuary recycles worship bulletins, and the congregation is regularly reminded to conserve power.
Music, Staff, and the Journey Ahead
Paulo Castro serves as Director of Music, leading congregational hymn-singing and the music program. The church also has an Administrative Assistant, a Videographer, and a Custodian who keep Sunday morning running smoothly. The pastoral position is in transition, and the church is welcoming its next interim pastor.
Between the food pantry at its front door, the labyrinth out back, the hymns in the sanctuary, and the long list of mission partners near and far, Cumberland First Baptist Church invites everyone in Cumberland and beyond to join a journey of faith that has been unfolding on Muessing Street since 1832.