Sevierville First Baptist Church Sevierville TN

Our Beliefs

Believing that God has spoken to us through His living Word – the Bible – as the testimony to His only Son, Jesus Christ, the following is an affirmation of those biblical truths on which we stand firm as one body:

SCRIPTURE – The Bible

The Bible is God’s Holy Word, divinely inspired without error and is the sole authority for life and faith.


(Deuteronomy 4:1-2; Psalm 119:105; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)

GOD

There is only one true and living God who is Creator of all things and reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
He is holy and perfect in all His ways and is worthy of worship, love and obedience. 


(Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 1:9-11)

GOD THE FATHER

God the Father reigns with sovereign wisdom, justice and unfailing love over all creation and history. He is the Father of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ and Father of all believers, who are those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

(1 Chronicles 29:10; John 3:16; Romans 8:14-15)

GOD THE SON

Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life as both totally God and totally man, died for our sin on a cross, was buried, arose bodily from the grave on the third day, and ascended into Heaven. He reigns and intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father and will return one day to judge the world and consummate His redemptive mission. He is Savior and Lord to all who put their faith in Him for salvation from sin. 


(Matthew 1:18-23; John 1:1-18, 29; Philippians 2:5-11)

GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who inspired the writing of the Scripture and enables people to understand it. He always exalts Christ. He convicts people of sin, calls them to the Savior and does the work of making them new creations in Christ. When a person comes to Christ in faith, the Holy Spirit baptizes them into the body of Christ. He makes believers holy, comforts them, and gives them spiritual gifts to serve and build up the church. He also empowers all believers to be witnesses of the saving power of Jesus Christ throughout the earth.

(John 14: 16-17;John 16: 7-14; Acts 1:8)

SIN AND MAN

God created man in His own image, both male and female. God and man had perfect fellowship until Satan tempted man, and man chose to disobey and rebel against God. Man’s rebellion and disobedience against God is called sin. All mankind is sinful by nature. Sin separates man from fellowship with God, because God is holy and hates sin. God judges sin and all sin must be punished, and the punishment for sin is death.


(Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 3; Romans 5:12; Psalm 99:9; Psalm 45:7; Romans 6:23) SALVATION AND ETERNAL SECURITY

Man is securely and eternally saved by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and His shed blood is the only remission of sin. A personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and eternal life in Heaven, and, apart from a personal faith, man is doomed to eternal damnation in hell.


(John 3: 15-16; 10: 27-29; 14:6; Romans 8:34-39; 10: 9-10; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Hebrews 9:22, 27-28) THE CHURCH, EVANGELISM AND MISSIONS

The church is all believers who have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, gathering together locally as bodies of baptized believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ. The church glorifies God by uniting to corporately worship God, encourage and edify one another, disciple believers toward maturity, minister to those in need, and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth through local, national and international missions. 


(Acts 2:41-47; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Ephesians 1: 22-23) BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER

There are two pictorial ordinances in the Lord Jesus’ church: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s perfect sacrificial Lamb, and anticipate His second coming.

(Matthew 3:13-17; 26: 26-30; 28: 19-20; Mark 1:9-11; 14: 22-26; Luke 3: 21-22; 22: 19-20; John 3: 23; Acts 2: 41-42; 8: 35-39; 16: 30-33; 20:7; Romans 6: 3-5; 1 Corinthians 10: 16, 21; 11: 23-29; Colossians 2:12)

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

Marriage is the first institution God created and ordained in human society. It is God’s plan for marriage to be a holy union of one biological man and one biological woman in an exclusive life-long covenant love relationship. Marriage reflects the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.


(Genesis 2: 15-25; Ephesians 5: 21-6:4; Psalm 127: 3-5)

 

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Our History

This historic church has been situated in three different states, Franklin, North Carolina and Tennessee. In 1789, George Washington was selected as the first President of the United States. In that same year, Richard Wood led an exceptional array of faithful pioneers to establish a Baptist church in a small settlement near the forks of the Little Pigeon River. This area, which later became Sevier County and Sevierville, was still a territory of North Carolina. The pioneers built a small log building as a place of worship and Rev. Wood ministered to them for 42 years until his death in 1831.

The Forks of the River Church used the original building until the early 1800’s when the building was destroyed by fire. Spencer Clack, an outstanding pioneer and leader in the establishment of the church gave a tract of land on Main Street near the old church cemetery. On this site, a second log building was erected and used as a place of worship and center of community activities until the late 1850’s.

The church became Sevierville Baptist Church and developed into a strong body of believers by the mid 1850’s. The church’s growth and development was brought to a sudden halt by the coming of the Civil War. Due to the pressing dangers of war, the members voted to disband on March 4, 1860. After seventy years, the little log church nestled in the forks of the Little Pigeon River was left for the perils of war. The church building was dismantled and used for firewood by the soldiers.

Fifteen years later, a few of the original congregation reunited and found that the old building had been completely demolished during the war. On April 5, 1876, the few remaining members of the congregation met in the Sevier County Court House for the purpose of reorganizing the church. They called Rev. W.M. Burnett as the first pastor after the reorganization. For the first few years the congregation met in the Nancy Academy and later shared the building of the Southern Methodist Church. Then, in the fall of 1878, the third building of the church was completed at a cost of $1,443.29. The white frame building was located on Main Street near the old cemetery.

Fruitful years followed and the need arose for a larger building to accommodate the overflow crowds. Under the guidance of Rev. R.E. Corum, the church voted on August 4, 1921 to move forward in a new building program. On March 5, 1924, the Building Committee decided to begin construction of a new sanctuary. The congregation was stunned when Rev. Corum died during the construction, but all members worked as one to carry on this work for the Lord. The building was dedicated debt free on September 29, 1940.

In 1955, the need for more Sunday school space arose and under the leadership of Rev. I.C. Frazier an educational building was completed at a cost of $1,000,000.00.

A major renovation of the sanctuary which began in 1984 was interrupted by a fire that severely damaged the interior of the building. The organ was rebuilt at a cost of $134,000.00. New carpet was installed, pews rebuilt, TV capabilities installed, and many other changes made to improve the facilities.

The church observed its Bicentennial in 1989 with a year-long celebration. The climax of the celebration was the dedication of a new Family Life/Education Building that was completed at a cost of $1,800,000.00. In recent years, the church has purchased over three million dollars’ worth of additional property around the original building. In September of 1998, the Church moved into a new, ten million dollar sanctuary and educational building.

First Baptist now has a membership of more than 4000 with an average of 1200 people meeting weekly for Sunday Life Groups. Rev. Dan Spencer is the 36th pastor to serve this historic church.