History of Friendship Baptist Church

It was October, 1987.  A Bible Study was meeting at the home of Paul Gillen in Sturbridge.  The Gillens were a transplanted Southern Baptist family desiring a church where their family could worship.  The Gillens made contact with Rev. C. Richard Risas, the then Director of Missions for the Massachusetts Baptist Association. In response,  Rev. Risas contacted the West Millbury Baptist Church, subsequently Grace Baptist Church, and offered them the opportunity to sponsor a mission church in the Sturbridge area.

Grace Baptist Church accepted the challenge, but had to delay the sponsorship for six weeks.  In the interim, Rev. Risas and his wife, Lila began a Bible Study meeting on Wednesday nights at the Gillen’s home.  Soon other families began to come.  The desire to become a church, meeting for worship on the Lord’s Day and a desire to grow moved the group to seek a larger meeting house.  Mrs. Vickie Gillen noticed an unused chapel just outside Sturbridge in the Town of Brimfield.  It had been the site of the East Brimfield Congregational Church and was under lease by the Seventh Day Adventists Church.  Rev. Risas made arrangements with the building’s trustees and the Seventh Day Adventists Church to secure the use of the building.  A lease was secured through the Massachusetts Baptist Association.

During this same time period, the Dunnell family of Holland was seeking a place of worship and they had become part of the Bible Study group held by the Gillens.  They had been praying for a Bible preaching and teaching church in the area and for the use of the unused chapel building.  Although they were not of Southern Baptist roots, their interest was for a soul winning, evangelistic, Bible centered church that would offer to them and others the opportunity of Spiritual growth and fellowship.  To them, the Bible Study and the formation of the mission church was an answer to prayer.

During the winter of 1987, the mission of Grace Baptist Church began to hold worship services in the chapel led by various pastors supplied by Grace.  At the same time, a search was being made to find a bi-vocational pastor who could minister and bring spiritual leadership to the mission.  In the months to come, various persons supplied the pulpit from the Baptist Convention of New England until Rev. Andrew Maddocks was called as Interim Pastor.  Rev. Maddocks service as Interim Pastor until April, 1988 when he was led to leave to another area.  The pulpit was again open and preachers willingly came to preach who were training at the Southern Baptist Convention Chaplains School in Middleton, RI. 

In May, 1988, the parent church, Grace Baptist Church, and the mission agreed to call Rev. Robert H. Wellner, Sr. who was finishing his Master of Theology Degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary as its bi-vocational pastor.  Rev. Wellner and his wife Susan arrived in Massachusetts on June 4, 1988 and assumed the pastoral duties of the mission on June 6, 1988.

Under the guidance and leadership of Rev. Robert H. Wellner and with God’s blessings, Friendship Baptist Mission constituted on May 21, 1988 to become a Southern Baptist Church known as Friendship Baptist Church.

God continued to bless Friendship Baptist Church and has led the church to start two mission churches of their own, Cornerstone Baptist Fellowship in Palmer, MA., and Lighthouse Baptist Church in Ware, MA. Over the years, Friendship has worked on various mission projects and purchased land on Route 20 in Brimfield with the vision of erecting a new building.   As God continued to bless, Bible studies were started in Ludlow and Easthampton.

Friendship Baptist Church is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ as the Head of the church, belief that salvation is through belief in Jesus Christ alone and that the Bible is the infallible inerrant Word of God.  We are grateful to the Lord for all that He has allowed Friendship Baptist Church to do, but most of all for the joy and privilege of being an influence in our community for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.