A Church on Highland Avenue for More Than 180 Years
On a stretch of Highland Avenue in Peekskill, New York, First Baptist Church of Peekskill has gathered for Bible teaching, worship, and fellowship since 1959. The congregation itself is far older. Organized in late 1843 and now celebrating more than 180 years of continuous ministry, FBCP is one of the longest-standing gospel-preaching churches in Westchester County. With more than 25 ethnicities represented in its membership, a growing Spanish ministry with live translation in the main service, an active food pantry, and a children's choir that fills the building twice a year with musicals, the church is at once deeply rooted in local history and energetically engaged with its neighborhood.
From a Dutch Reformed Pulpit to 690 Highland Avenue
The story of First Baptist Church begins in the fall of 1843, when a small group of Baptists met inside Peekskill's Dutch Reformed Church to officially organize a congregation of their own. For the next two years, the group met in scattered locations around town, including a gathering at the corner of South and Division Streets. In 1845, after purchasing a parcel of land on Main Street from a man named James Brewer for $600, the church began construction of its first dedicated building at 831 Main Street.
That address served as the church's home for 114 years. In 1959 the congregation moved into the present building at 690 Highland Avenue, where Sunday school rooms, offices, a fellowship hall, and a sanctuary now host everything from weekly worship to a bi-weekly food pantry. A sign out front welcomes visitors to a building the congregation is quick to point out is less important than the people who fill it.
Sundays at FBCP: Worship, Sunday School, and Adult Fellowships
Sunday mornings at FBCP are built around two anchors. Sunday school runs from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and offers classes for every age, from nursery through grade 5 in the children's wing, junior high and senior high classes for teens, and several Adult Bible Fellowships for adults. The young adults class gathers college students, young professionals, and young couples without children. The Ambassador Class welcomes singles and families with preschool through middle school-aged children. The Progressive Class serves couples and singles with older children and college-age students seeking to build a Christ-centered home. A Spanish-language Sunday school class, Redimidos, meets the needs of the congregation's Spanish-speaking adults in a separate room.
The main worship service begins at 10:45 a.m. and runs to about 12:15 p.m. Greeters hand out bulletins in the main lobby. The service includes a blend of contemporary and traditional worship songs led by the worship team, an adult choir, and occasional special music, followed by an expository sermon from Senior Pastor Michael Davis. The pastor's messages are described as biblical with practical application, guiding listeners to apply God's Word to family, work, and daily life.
Wednesday Nights Around the Table
Wednesday evenings are the other rhythm of the week at FBCP. A family dinner opens the night, served from 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall. The dinners run from September through mid-June, with adults paying $5, children under 12 paying $2, and a $15 family maximum. Cash or check only, with payment sent in with the person attending. Once the meal wraps up, Bible studies and small groups meet from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m. The Wednesday evening Kids Club for grades 1 through 5 runs from 6:45 to 7:15 p.m., revisiting the same Bible passage taught that Sunday morning through games, crafts, role play, and memory work.
The PCL Extended Discipleship Class, a two-year journey based on materials developed by CRU, also meets on Wednesday evenings in separate men's and women's groups. Outside of the structured dinner, the kitchen tables and fellowship hall are where much of the church's intergenerational life happens.
A Multilingual Family: The Spanish Ministry
Multilingual ministry has quietly become one of the church's defining features. FBCP offers a Spanish-language Sunday school class, Redimidos, that meets at 9:30 a.m. off the fellowship hall. During the 10:45 a.m. English worship service, a live Spanish audio translation is available to anyone who wants to follow along on a personal mobile device. The Spanish translation is also broadcast as a separate livestream on YouTube.
The Spanish Ministry is directly engaged in the church's weekly food pantry and monthly Fresh Market, where translation is essential for welcoming neighbors. The leadership describes the work as a God-given opportunity to share the gospel with Spanish-speaking residents of Peekskill and is actively praying about how the ministry might expand.
Children, Youth, and the Children's Choir
Children's ministry is overseen by Karen Urbanowicz, who was born and raised in Peekskill and has been part of the church's life for decades. Sunday morning programming includes supervised nursery care for newborns through age 2, a self-contained kindergarten class for children 3 through kindergarten age, and Children's Church for grades 1 through 6, who are dismissed from the worship service partway through for a time of Bible exploration. Curriculum draws on Answers in Genesis, The Gospel Project, Foundation Worldview's Comparative Worldview, and Cold-Case Christianity for Kids.
The Children's Choir, for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, rehearses on Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. between September and Mother's Day. The choir presents two full musicals a year, one at Christmas and one near Mother's Day, with weekly attendance and memorization expected of all participants.
Students in grades 6 through 12 have their own Sunday school classes, with junior high focused on applying spiritual principles to everyday life and senior high tackling current teen issues against the absolutes of God's Word. The youth program is managed by Krystel Heady, who came to FBCP after graduating from Davis College in 2024 and completing a three-year internship in biblical counseling for students. A team of three adult leaders, Christopher Gross, Analia Cavajani, and Andrew Leonforte, walk alongside the students.
Reaching Out: Food Pantry, Fresh Market, and the Public Schools
Reaching out to the Peekskill community is woven through almost everything FBCP does. The church operates a bi-weekly Monday food pantry in the lower parking lot from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., distributing perishable and non-perishable groceries to anyone in need. A monthly Fresh Market follows the same schedule. Both are opportunities for volunteers to welcome neighbors, share a conversation, and, when appropriate, share the Gospel. Volunteers range from teenagers through people in their 80s, and Spanish speakers are especially welcomed.
Through the Good News Club and a companion soccer-and-pizza outreach, the church has an established ministry inside the Peekskill Public Schools, meeting students during the school year. Family Night Dinners, while primarily for members and regular attenders, are part of the same outward-facing posture, gathering the larger church family around tables every Wednesday during the school year.
Discipleship Classes and Evangelism Training
A structured discipleship pathway runs through the church. The Foundations Class is a six-week introduction offered several times a year, covering topics like being confident in salvation, living under the Holy Spirit's guidance, and developing habits of spiritual growth. It is also a prerequisite for church membership. The PCL Extended Discipleship Class is a two-year journey based on materials developed by CRU, with separate men's and women's groups meeting on Wednesday evenings.
Periodically, the church offers a six-week Evangelism and Discipleship Training Class designed to give everyday believers the tools to share the Gospel naturally in ordinary conversations. The women's ministry runs a recurring Bible study on the book Lies Women Believe by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, offered in both a Sunday evening and a Wednesday morning section. Men's ministry is built around a Tuesday morning Men's Breakfast with prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and a hardy breakfast, open to men from inside and outside the church.
What FBCP Believes
FBCP holds to a Declaration of Faith rooted in historic Baptist distinctives. The Bible, consisting of the 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books, is taught as the verbally inspired, inerrant Word of God and the final authority in faith and practice. The church affirms the Trinity, the full deity and ministry of the Son (virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, bodily resurrection, ascension, and present intercession), the full deity and ministry of the Holy Spirit, salvation by grace through faith, the personality of Satan, the Genesis account of creation, the reality of heaven and hell, and the eternal security of the believer.
Baptism by immersion is practiced as a believer's act of obedience rather than a means of salvation, and the Lord's Supper is observed as a symbolic ordinance remembering Christ's broken body and shed blood. The church teaches a personal, visible, glorious return of Christ and the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust. Local church governance rests in the hands of elders and deacons, with the local congregation retaining final authority over matters of membership, policy, government, discipline, and benevolence.
Pastors, Staff, and Ministry Leaders
Senior Pastor Michael Davis has led the church since 2024. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, he earned his Master of Divinity before his first daughter was born in 2016 and completed his Doctor of Ministry in 2024. He served ten years in youth and college ministry in Texas, then moved to western New York in 2019 to serve as a lead pastor before joining FBCP.
Associate Pastor Corby Angle oversees pastoral care, finance, missions, and Christian education. He came to faith in November 2003 after nearly three years of attending FBCP, joined the staff in September 2010, and now serves alongside his wife Debra, with whom he has been married for more than 42 years. Karen Urbanowicz directs children's ministry, Krystel Heady manages youth ministry, and Annie Leonard serves as church secretary.
The Music Ministry is led by Elder Chris Duncan as coordinator, with Sal Cuccia directing the adult choir and managing the audio-visual team, and Phyllis Hill coordinating special music. The deacon ministry is chaired by Nestor Santos, the deaconess ministry by Lani Leuthner, the young adult ministry by Elder Joe Urbanowicz, and the technology ministry by Elder Roman Boychew. The church's normal office hours run Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the staff can be reached at office@fbcpeekskill.org or (914) 737-0321.