About Us
Knowing Christ and Making Him Known
At First Baptist, we pursue the Glory of God through worship, giving, missions and discipleship.
We strive to serve Jesus Christ and each other, in order to magnify His name.
At the heart of everything we do is the understanding that we must love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, and to treat our neighbors as we wish to be treated ourselves.
Our Story
Since 1867, First Baptist Church has been a place for members of the Brownsdale area to come together and worship as part of a loving community with like-minded congregants.
We are an autonomous baptist church that is in fellowship with the Minnesota and General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. We are a church of devoted disciples seeking to grow in Christ-likeness as we seek to share the gospel in our community and around the world.
We’re always happy to see you!
Our Pastor
Pastor Ben has served here at First Baptist since July 2018. Having grown up in a Christian home, he felt God's call to full-time ministry during High School. He graduated from Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, IA in 2011. At FBBC he met his wife, Mariah, who is a Brownsdale native. After graduating from FBBC with BA in Pastoral Studies, Ben needed to go into secular work in Ankeny to support their growing family. In June of 2017, Ben and Mariah moved to Brownsdale with their oldest children. After joining the membership of First Baptist Church, he was able to serve as a deacon before the Lord providentially led to Ben's being called as pastor. Ben and Mariah have welcomed 4 more children to their family after moving to Brownsdale (twin boys and another 2 daughters).
Ben serves on the board of a local pro-life family center (Rachel's Hope). He also serves as a Pastor-trustee for Minn Regular Baptist Camp (Bass Lake), and on the Council of Seven of the Minn Assoc of Regular Baptist Churches (MARBC).
Our Beliefs
The Word of God, in its entirety, is the basis and the foundation of this church and is summarized in the following:
1. Scripture - We believe that the Bible, sixty-six books in the Old and New Testaments, is the inerrant Word of God, verbally inspired in all parts, sufficient as our only infallible and authoritative rule of faith and life. The Scriptures shall be interpreted according to their normal grammatical-historical meaning.
II Tim. 3:16-17; II Pet. 1:19-21, Psa. 119:160; Prov. 30:5-6.
2. The One True God - We believe in the one true God. He is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, distinct but without division of nature, essence, or being, and each having a distinct ministry in God’s relation to His creation and people.
Gen. 1:1; Ex. 15:11, Psa. 83:18; Matt. 28:19; John 10:30; 15:26.
3. Jesus Christ - We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the second person of the Triune God, the eternal Word, and only begotten Son. Without any change in His Divine Person, He became man by miracle of the virgin birth and continues forever as both true God and true man, one with two natures. As the perfect Lamb of God, He gave Himself in death on the cross, bearing there the sin of the world and suffering its full penalty of divine wrath in our stead. He arose bodily from the grave on the third day. He ascended into Heaven, there to appear before the face of God the Father as our Advocate and Intercessor.
John 1:1-14; 3:16; Matt. 1:18-25; Gal. 4:4-5; Phil. 2:6-10; I Cor. 15:3-7; Heb. 4:14-16; I John 2:1-2.
4. The Holy Spirit - We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune God and that He is equal in power and eternality with The Father and The Son. He is the agent in revelation and redemption. It is the Holy Spirit Who regenerates, forming a union with Christ that cannot be broken. He indwells, sanctifies and seals believers unto the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit also instructs and fills believers who daily surrender to Him, empowering them for service. We also believe that the Holy Spirit still, on occasion, performs miracles through believers to fulfill God’s will in accordance with the teachings of scripture.
John 14:16-17, 26; 16:7-14; I Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13-14; Rom. 8:26-30; I Cor. 12:4-11; 13:8-10.
5. Gender Identity - We believe that the Bible clearly establishes human gender biologically, and that those genders are fixed, binary categories of male and female. We further believe that seeking to confuse, alter, or otherwise change these God-given genders (developed in the womb prior to birth) is a violation of God’s design.
Gen. 1:26-27; 5:12; Mark 10:6; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Eph. 5:2-5; 1 Thess 4:3-8.
6. Marriage - We believe that the Bible defines marriage as one man and one woman joined together by God. We further believe that sexual intimacy within marriage (as the Bible defines marriage) is a wonderful gift of God designed to be enjoyed. We believe any sexual intimacy outside of marriage is condemned in the Bible as a perversion of God’s created order. The perversion of God’s design for sexual intimacy includes, but may not be limited to, voluntary acts of adultery, polygamy, heterosexual sex for any unmarried person, homosexuality, lesbianism, bi-sexuality, incest, bestiality, pedophilia, and pornography.
Gen. 1:26-27, 2:24, 19:5, 13; Lev. 18:1-30; Matt. 19:4-6; Eph. 5:31; Heb. 13:4; Rom. 1:26-29; 1 Cor. 5:1; 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10
7. Humanity - We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the race fell and thereby incurred not only physical death, but also spiritual death, which is separation from God. Man is born with a sinful nature and becomes a willful sinner with the first expression of personal choice and is totally unable to regain his former position. Man is, therefore, under just condemnation to eternal ruin in a literal hell, without defense or excuse before God.
Gen. 1:26; 3:1-24; Eccl. 7:20; John 3:18-19; Rom. 1:20; 3:10-23; 5:12; Eph. 2:1-6, 12.
8. Salvation - We believe that salvation is wholly of God by grace based on the redemption of Jesus Christ, the merit of His shed blood, and not based on human merit or works. God’s gift of salvation flows from His eternal plan and good pleasure. While man is responsible to repent and believe, it is God who graciously works to bring about our voluntary obedience to the gospel without coercion and in a manner beyond our comprehension.
John 1:12; Acts 5:31: 11:18; 13:48; 16:20-33
9. The Gospel - We believe that the Gospel needs to be proclaimed throughout the world. It involves the recognition that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. It also involves the acknowledgment that He died for one’s own sin and rose from the dead. It requires placing one’s trust in Christ (His Person) and His work (death and resurrection) for the forgiveness of sin and everlasting life. This is the Good News that is the remedy for the bad news of the fallen condition of each member of the human race.
Matt. 28:18-20; Heb. 11:6; John 6:28-29; John 3:36; 8:24; 20:31, I Cor. 15:3-4; John 3:14-16.
10. The Church - We believe all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, which is the church. All members of this spiritual body should assemble and identify themselves in local churches.
I Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:21; 4:11-16; 5:25-27; II Cor. 11:2; Heb. 10:25.
11. The Ordinances - We believe that Believer’s baptism is the immersion in water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to show faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, picturing our death to sin and resurrection to a new life. Baptism is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. In the Lord’s Supper, the death of Christ is remembered by partaking of the bread and the “fruit of the vine”, preceded by prayer. The Lord’s Supper is observed only by true followers of Christ (“close” communion).
Rom. 6:3-4; Matt. 28:19-20;Acts 2:41; Matt. 26:26-30; I Cor. 11:23-30.
12. Separation of Church and State - God established both the church and the civil government, and He gave each its own distinct sphere of operation. The government’s purposes are outlined in Romans 13:1–7 and the church’s purposes in Matthew 28:19 and 20. Neither should control the other, nor should there be an alliance between the two. Christians in a free society can properly influence government toward righteousness, which is not the same as a denomination controlling the government.
Matt 22:15–22; Acts 5:17–29
13. The Rapture of the Saints and the Tribulation - We believe that the blessed hope of the believer is the personal, pre-tribulational, premillennial return of Christ to rapture the church, His body. God’s righteous judgments will then be poured out on an unbelieving world during the Tribulation, the last half of which is the Great Tribulation. The climax of this fearful era will be the physical return of Christ to the earth in great glory.
Titus 2:13; I Thess. 4:13-18; Jude 14,15; Rev. 19:11-16.
14. The Second Coming and the Millennium - We believe that the return of Christ to earth to establish His reign for one thousand years is the concluding event of the Great Tribulation. Israel will be saved and restored as a nation. Satan will be bound, and the curse will be partially lifted from the physical creation. Christ’s reign will be characterized by harmony, justice, peace, righteousness and long life. We believe that after the final judgments, there will be a new heaven and new earth. Saints will enjoy eternal, conscious, joyous fellowship with God and with one another.
Rev. 19:11-16; Isa. 65:17-25; Ezek. 37:21-28; Rev. 20:1-3; Ezek. 36:33-38.
15. The Judgment of Satan and the Lost - We believe that Satan will be released after the one-thousand-year reign of Christ, and that he will deceive the nations of the earth and lead them to a final rebellion against God and His people. This will lead to Satan’s final defeat and judgment, resulting in the casting of him and his forces into the lake of fire to be tormented forever. At the Great White Throne Judgment, the physical bodies and the souls of unbelievers will be reunited, and they will be judged. The lost will be cast into eternal, conscious punishment.
Rev. 20:7-15; Matt. 25:41.
You can find our full Statement of Faith here.