A Landmark Sanctuary on Wacouta Street
First Baptist Church of St. Paul sits in the heart of Lowertown, the historic warehouse neighborhood of Minnesota's capital city, at 499 Wacouta Street. The brick and stone sanctuary that rises on the corner of Ninth and Wacouta was designed by Chicago architect W. W. Boyington and built in 1875 by Monroe and Romaine Sheire, members of the congregation whose firm carved the interior woodwork from black walnut and butternut on site. The Saint Paul Pioneer Press of the day called it "the finest piece of architecture west of Chicago," and it remained the largest religious edifice in the city for years after it was dedicated on May 31, 1875. The original bell from the earlier church on Baptist Hill hangs in the tower. The total cost in 1875 was $120,000, with $8,000 of that for the organ, then said to be the finest instrument between Chicago and the Pacific coast.
The sanctuary retains many of its original features. Ten stained glass windows line the two side walls of the sanctuary and a large stained glass window faces Ninth Street. Each window carries a picture at the top that symbolizes an aspect of the Christian faith. One window is dedicated to Horace Thompson, an early banker who chaired the building committee and died at age 52. In 2014 the organ received much-needed improvements through a $35,000 grant from a Historical Society, and new pew cushions, carpeting, and lighting were put in place. The sound system was upgraded and moved to the main level of the sanctuary. Copper doors depicting the history of the church, commissioned by Norman B. Mears in 1971, stand as a quiet record of the congregation's long memory.
Partners Working Together for God
The congregation traces its life to a verse from 1 Corinthians 3:9, "For we are partners working together for God," which serves as the church's tagline. That verse describes both how the members see themselves and how they have survived. First Baptist is one of the oldest congregations in Minnesota, organized on December 29, 1849 by twelve people who had recently arrived at this frontier village on the upper Mississippi. A Sunday School had begun two years earlier, led by Harriet Bishop, Minnesota's first public school teacher, who had walked into town in 1847 and set up classes for ten pioneer and Native children in an old blacksmith's shop. Six days into her teaching she gathered them again for Sunday School, because, as she wrote, "the children should not only be taught to read and write, but also be taught the Word of God." She invited the whole town to join her for worship.
Because no Baptist church existed north of Iowa between the Mississippi and the Pacific, Harriet carried the entire school-house ministry alone until 1848, when blacksmith Abram Cavender settled in St. Paul and joined her. Constant petitions to the Baptist Home Missions Society led to the appointment of Reverend John P. Parsons as missionary to St. Paul on February 8, 1849, one month before Minnesota was recognized as a United States territory. The original meeting house on what is now Mears Park was built on an elevated plot known as "Baptist Hill," which sloped down to the river at the Jackson Street "Lower Landing." That part of early St. Paul was known as Lower Town. After the church outgrew the first building, a second sanctuary was completed on Wacouta Street near Eighth in 1862, and the present sanctuary replaced it in 1875.
A Vision and Mission Spelled Out
First Baptist identifies itself as an American Baptist congregation working in partnership with other organizations and faith communities. Its vision is "to be a transformed committed community cooperatively seeking unity in Christ," and its mission is to witness to God's grace as exemplified in Jesus Christ by reaching out deliberately and welcoming people of all ages, races, cultures, and backgrounds; caring for one another; providing opportunities for spiritual renewal and growth; gathering for worship and prayer; promoting peace and social justice; and working as American Baptists in partnership with other organizations and faith communities to further the Kingdom of God.
The congregation's history reflects that vision. The first Black member joined in 1856, and in 1864 a group of ex-slaves under the leadership of Robert Hickman arrived by river boat and were part of First Baptist until Pilgrim Baptist Church was formed. A Chinese Bible class was started in 1912, and during World War II the church hosted 25 Nisei who came to Minnesota from relocation camps or were stationed at Fort Snelling. The church became home to a Spanish-speaking congregation with aid from the American Baptist Home Mission Society, which also supported the Wacouta Christian Center at 583 Mississippi Street that sponsored weekday activities for children and families from 1921 until the area was cleared for freeway development in the 1950s. The Downtown Child Care Center was opened in 1966, and twelve churches have been founded from First Baptist over the years, with Woodbury Baptist Church founded in 1962 the most recent.
Three Sunday Gatherings in One Sanctuary
Worship at First Baptist on a Sunday morning moves through three languages in one room. At 10:30 a.m. the English Language Service fills the sanctuary. From 11:45 to 12:00, Children's Sunday School and Karen Adult Sunday School meet in classrooms, and at 12:30 p.m. the Karen Language Service begins, often with the Karen choir and Sunday School children taking part in special music. The 12:30 service is led by Pastor Paw Wah Toe, Karen leaders, Pastor William, and Pastor Sheila Ahlbrand. A livestream is broadcast on Facebook. At 3:00 p.m. the sanctuary becomes home to First Burma Christ Church, a related Burmese-speaking congregation pastored by Reverend Mehm Mya Thi, with people of all ages from Karen, Kachin, Chi, Mon, Myanmar, and Lisu backgrounds meeting for Bible teaching, worship, and prayer.
The three services share a single building but move through distinct cultural rhythms. The Karen congregation has about 175 members and gathers beyond Sunday mornings for Home Thanksgiving services, visits to homebound members, and a monthly twelve-hour prayer service. There is an active women's group and youth group. First Burma Christ Church has a Women's Service at 6:00 p.m. and an elders' prayer service on Saturday afternoons over Zoom. The hope of the congregation is to be "two in one," two cultures working together as one church with mutual freedom to honor different languages, traditions, and ways of doing things. A Combined Leadership Team that meets four or five times a year, with members from both the 10:30 and 12:30 services, was created to help the two cultures communicate and find ways to do more things together as a mutually transforming partnership.
A Heritage from Burma
The Karen and Burmese ministries are the heart of who First Baptist has become in the twenty-first century. Reverend William Englund, the longest-serving pastor in the church's history, became involved with refugees from Burma seeking a new home in St. Paul. Large numbers of people from Burma, especially those of Karen ethnicity, began arriving to worship at First Baptist in 2000 and brought new traditions with them. About three-quarters of the church's members are now Karen, and English services use an interpreter when the pastor preaches.
The relationship between the congregation and the Karen Baptist Convention USA, the Karen people on the Thai-Burma border, and the wider country of Myanmar is more than pastoral. Members organize weekly prayer on Friday, Bible study on Saturday, and prayer for COVID-19 on Tuesday, all over Zoom, with the Kachin Baptist Churches of America. They sponsor fundraising events to assist people in Burma facing the violence of the coup that began February 1, 2021, and the Karen community at First Baptist has held caroling for members on Facebook Live during Christmas, New Year's prayer services, and regular youth, women's, and Sunday School-led services. The church also partners with American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS), whose work in evangelical ministries and faith formation has included Got Style? training in natural ways to share the gospel delivered online to the Kachin Baptist Churches of America during the pandemic.
That deep connection has carried outward. Reverend Englund has traveled to refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, where he baptized ten candidates in a river watched by hundreds along the bank and celebrated the twentieth anniversary of a camp with ten choirs. He has met with Karen leaders and Minnesota legislative staff from the offices of Senators Klobuchar and Franken and Representative Betty McCollum to press for Karen representation in repatriation talks, expedited family reunification, and security for those returning to their homes. He tells the story of an unnamed Karen deacon who said, "Pastor, isn't it amazing how God works. How did God know that First Baptist Church of St. Paul would need spiritual revival at the beginning of the twenty-first century, so God sent missionaries to Burma two hundred years earlier." Judson Sunday, observed each July near July 13, the day Ann and Adoniram Judson first sighted Burma from the deck of the Georgiana in 1813, has been celebrated at First Baptist for about twenty years and is one of the ways the two cultures mark their intertwined history.
The Pastoral Team
The pastoral staff of First Baptist carries that bicultural ministry. Reverend William M. Englund, who has served as pastor longer than anyone in the church's history, preaches and provides pastoral leadership for the whole congregation. Reverend Sheila Ahlbrand serves as Associate Pastor and Director of Children and Youth, leading Wednesday evening Lenten Bible studies, writing reflections on the fruits of the Spirit, and teaching youth and adults. She has been on staff since 2000 and was sponsored by the congregation as she pursued ordination while studying at United Theological Seminary. Reverend Saul Lu serves as Associate Pastor with a focus on the Karen community, preaching in the Karen Language Service using an interpreter, leading Bible teaching, and organizing the rotation of leaders for each Sunday's worship. Pastor Paw Wah Toe, also part of the pastoral team, leads the Karen Language Service alongside Karen leaders. Psaw Paw Kasuh serves as Youth Director, organizing Youth Sunday services and leading the youth group to Quest Camp at Green Lake, Wisconsin, an experience that has shaped First Baptist's young people for more than twenty years.
Children, Youth, and Families
Children's Ministry is a year-round rhythm. Camp Noah is a weeklong summer program for children from pre-K through sixth grade, with older youth serving as volunteers. Past themes have included Knights of the Kingdom, where children learn about the full armor of God, and Passport to Peace, where children listen to scripture and Bible stories to discover how to be peacemakers. Storytime, a regular video reading of children's books by the pastors, includes titles such as Shelter by Céline Claire, The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie DePaola, Charlotte and the Quiet Place by Deborah Sosin, Enemy Pie by Derek Munson, and The Giant Hug by Sandra Horning. KFC, a Wednesday evening children's program, hosts fundraisers like a busy night of pho, porridge, meatball kabobs, and craft activities. TLC, the younger elementary group, meets regularly. The church also hosts an annual Easter Egg Hunt, a Christmas Eve service with recorded messages, and a Sunday School curriculum taught by young adults in mentorship with Pastor Sheila.
Youth Ministry runs deeper. The youth of First Baptist attend Quest Camp at the Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin, where the Bible verse for the week has included John 1:5, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it." Five youth from First Baptist attended the Regional Youth Event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2022 with the theme "My Story, God's Glory," where they listened to Rev. Jesus Garcia speak about his experience as a pastor in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria and two youth made a formal commitment to follow Jesus. Youth Sunday, when the youth take over the whole service, has become a regular highlight; on Father's Day in 2022 seventeen youth stayed overnight Saturday to prepare, leading prayers, singing songs, reading scripture, performing a campfire skit about their dads, and ending with a benediction built around a poem about God making a father. They have also led volleyball tournaments, Bible verse reciting competitions, and youth fundraisers featuring mohinga, chicken and rice, Thai tea, matcha, savory crepes, and papaya salad.
Adult Sunday School, Devotions, and Bible Study
Adult Sunday School classes meet at 11:45 a.m. between the English and Karen services. The devotions written by Pastor Sheila Ahlbrand, released regularly in 2021 and continued afterward, are short reflections on scripture and the season, ranging from a meditation on the first day of September and God as a teacher to reflections on tubing down a peaceful river as a picture of God's grace. Wednesday evenings in the Fireside Room have hosted a Lenten series of Bible studies; the 2023 series was "The Days of Love and Lent," looking at the last week of Jesus' life through the eyes of love and matching events of Holy Week with the characteristics of love listed in 1 Corinthians 13. The 2024 Lenten series focused on the fruits of the Spirit through the life of Jesus in the week before his death on the cross. A Lenten program on different kinds of fasting ran in 2023 with weekly themes of fasting from complaining, distraction, judgment, worry, noise, and feasting on gratitude, attention, kindness, prayer, listening, and love.
Karen Bible study and prayer continue on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m., and KBC USA Bible study happens on Saturday over Zoom, with prayer on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Karen church leaders lead the first two Sundays of each month, the youth lead another Sunday, the women's group leads one Sunday, and when there is a fifth Sunday, Sunday School leads that week's service. In December the congregation distributes communion to homebound members, and throughout the year Pastor Saul visits the homebound and sick and leads prayer services for members celebrating home blessings, birthdays, and hard times.
Worship Across the Year
The liturgical year carries the congregation through Holy Week. Palm Sunday opens with the children walking down the church aisles waving palm branches and singing "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest." The Karen choir and First Burma Christ Church often provide special music. Maundy Thursday is observed with a quiet service of scripture readings and hymns; halfway through, members from elders to young children come forward to wash each other's feet as Jesus did. Easter Sunday invites the Karen Choir, First Burma Christ Church, and the Karen Sunday School children to sing, with the young girls performing a tambourine ribbon dance and the Karen youth performing an interpretive dance to "How He Loves" by Crowder, portraying the life of Jesus from birth through death and resurrection.
Other regular rhythms shape the year. Advent is marked by lighting candles of hope, peace, joy, and love in weekly devotions that remind the congregation that Christ is always coming into a sleeping heart. An old-fashioned hymn sing, where members are asked to submit three favorite hymns, has been a summer tradition. A Care Ministry Team hosts a Fall Festival and a summer Elders' Picnic at Keller Park in Maplewood for elders and their friends and family. Stewardship is anchored by the theme "We Give Because We're Grateful," and the congregation has returned to the practice of pledging so the church can budget its resources wisely. Special offerings support the Karen ministry and a hospitality closet that distributes personal hygiene and cleaning items to people in need.
Building Partners Who Share the House
The 19th-century sanctuary is home to several other ministries and organizations that share the building. Hope Community Church, which began in 1996 as fourteen people meeting in the living room of founding pastor Steve Treichler, has worshipped at First Baptist as Hope Lowertown since 2017, gathering at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday mornings before the 10:30 English service. Hope has planted eight congregations since 2005 and contributes to the building by repairing windows in the Fireside Room and updating the main floor restrooms. Waterlily Montessori School, which began in the building in its inaugural year and was preparing for its fifth year of operation, occupies the lower level; the school hosts Montessori Training Center of Minnesota student teachers and serves an intergenerational community of families with cultural potlucks, classroom materials bought on first walkabouts, and fresh juice prepared together.
Main Idea Alcoholics Anonymous meets downstairs under the sanctuary three times a day, five days a week. The group has been a partner of First Baptist through the pandemic, when they were advised by police not to give money to people asking for help on church property; the church maintains a hospitality closet with personal hygiene and cleaning items, and a pastor or deacon can help connect people with what they need. The Family Place, a day center for families without permanent housing, became a tenant in early 2005 and has since been succeeded by Project Home, which provides similar services and shares space with Waterlily Montessori. Together these partnerships give the building a daily rhythm from early morning recovery meetings through Sunday's three worship services.
Care for Creation
Pastor Sheila Ahlbrand wrote an eight-week summer series titled "Ways to Care for God's Creation," inviting the congregation to plant flowers to attract pollinators, use reusable bags, dry clothes outside, conserve water, buy less and shop secondhand, eat less meat, recycle and compost with the church's blue, green, and black bins, and find alternatives to single-use items. The series grounds environmental stewardship in Christian discipleship. The Care Ministry Team, in addition to its festivals and picnics, has coordinated with Eh Hey Hser and others to purchase fans, insect repellent, itch medication, and sunscreen for Karen families living in crowded apartments during hot summers. Christmas stewardship has been marked by gratitude: members wrote on a painted tree in the hallway, sharing what they were thankful for, including being welcomed into the church with open arms.
A Safe and Welcoming Church
First Baptist Church has written a Safety and Security Statement to make sure that the welcome it offers is matched by a sense of safety. The church believes that all people should feel safe and welcome, that the community is brought together by the Spirit of Christ, and that everyone has a part to play in creating a healthy environment. Members are asked to tell someone they trust if they see something that makes them uncomfortable, and to let a pastor or deacon know if someone is asking for help so the hospitality closet can be offered in place of money. Designated members monitor the Ninth Street entrance and the narthex during worship, and children should be supervised in the sanctuary or a classroom rather than the narthex during services. Members who have agreed to be available to help with safety concerns are known to the rest of the congregation.
Visiting First Baptist
The church's office entrance is open Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with flexible hours on Friday. The phone is (651) 222-0718 and the email is office@firstbaptiststpaul.org. The mailing address is 499 Wacouta Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55101. Sunday worship begins at 10:30 a.m. in English, continues at 12:30 p.m. in Karen, and at 3:00 p.m. First Burma Christ Church gathers in Burmese. The livestream is available on the church's Facebook page, and a sermon archive lives on the church's YouTube channel. Recorded music from Sunday School, KFC, the Karen choir, and First Burma Christ Church fills the sanctuary throughout the morning. Whether one comes for the building itself, with its stained glass, organ, and carved black walnut arches, or for the friendship, the prayers, or the chance to be part of a congregation that has welcomed refugees, immigrants, and longtime neighbors for nearly two centuries, First Baptist Church of St. Paul opens its doors as a place where two cultures and three worship traditions work together as one.