Shoaff Park Baptist Church

Write a Review260-485-5091

The purpose of Shoaff Park Baptist Church is to glorify God through the preaching, teaching, and training of the believer in obedience to God's Word. The Church is primarily focused on three goals: Shoaff Park Baptist Church was the first of thirteen church planting efforts sponsored by Immanuel Baptist Church and its pastor, Reverend W. Thomas Younger. Shoaff Park, known then as St. Joe Baptist Church, held its first service Sunday, October 13, 1956, in the Bojrab Club House on Lahmeyer Road. Sidney Park, from Immanuel Baptist Church, directed the work until the first pastor, Reverend Earl Umbaugh was called. His ministry began March 1, 1957. The church was formally organized and adopted it constitution on April 3, 1957, with twenty-three charter members from a nucleus of eight families. The church was received into the Indiana Fellowship of Regular Baptist Churches in September of 1957. The three and a half acres of property were purchased in July of 1957. Construction began in October of 1958 and was completed in April of 1959. The building dedication was April 26, 1959. Over the next ten years, the Lord blessed the church with steady growth. An old farmhouse on the property was used for Sunday School until the church began construction of a new sanctuary and Sunday School facility in June 1966. The new auditorium was dedicated on January 22, 1967 with Dr. Paul Jackson, the National Representative of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches preaching. In 1972 the church added the Annex to provide additional space for continued growth. On October 9, 1995 the church made its final mortgage payment, allowing Shoaff Park Baptist Church to call its first full-time Assistant Pastor, John Perkey. The ministry of SPBC today includes Sunday School, Junior Church, Nursery, AWANA, Vacation Bible School, Shoaff Youth Team and Puppet Ministry, Nursing Home Ministry, Primetimers, Women in the Word, Men Committed to ministry, Kids for Missions, Adult and Children's Choirs, and a Home and Foreign Missions Program.