Faith Baptist Church was established as a result of a group of dedicated believers in Christ seeking out God’s will for their lives as they felt led to begin a new work. The group sought refuge and healing among the members of Mount Enterprise Baptist Church as they prayed, studied the Bible and worshiped together. Their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ at Mount Enterprise were gracious in encouraging, helping, and ministering to the group as they sought direction from the Lord.
On October 24, 2014, a total of 84 believers met and voted to start a new church in Quitman; voting to name the new church Faith Baptist Church. In December of 2014, space was leased in the Dogwood Villa Shopping Center located in central Quitman. Many volunteers began transforming the former Gorman’s Pizza into a sanctuary where worship services could be held. The church also leased additional space in the shopping center to create areas for Sunday School classes and Bible study.
After transforming retail space into worship space, members of Faith Baptist Church met for the first time away from Mount Enterprise in February 2015. As time went on, the church purchased the entire facility as well as the present-day Student Center which is located across the street from the main campus between the Quitman Police Department and The Dollar General Store.
The newly formed congregation called Mike McClure, a deacon at Green Acres Baptist Church, as their interim pastor. Under McClure’s leadership the church continued to grow. He served for 14 months until a full-time pastor was called.
In June 2015, Quitman native Jarrod Yeager was called to serve as part-time Student Minister, and Worship Leader. Yeager became a full-time staff minister in August 2016.
Eventually, on May 29, 2016 , the pulpit search committee consisting of: Vonnie DeFreese, Fred Denney, Bill Folmar, Frances Keith, and Kenneth Williams, presented Mike Midkiff as a pastoral candidate to the membership. Midkiff was officially called by a unanimous church vote to become the first pastor of Faith Baptist Church. Bro. Mike came to Quitman from East Texas Baptist University where he served as the Director of Public Relations.
Faith Baptist has been blessed by God since the very beginning. The church membership has moved from its start of 84 to just over 250 members. The Bible teaching ministry called Sunday School has a class for all age groups. Other ministries of the church challenge the members to move “Outside the Walls” of the church to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and minister in His name.
As worship attendance reached eighty percent capacity in the existing worship facility, members of the church building committee began to look into various options for building a larger worship area. The space and opportunity to build this new worship facility came when Jay and Jan Gorman made a decision in July of 2018 to close the former Tea Room Restaurant that had been located in the church owned facility. As with all things, God worked this out in His perfect timing.
The church hired Jason Jennings Architects of Tyler and JPJ Construction of Quitman to design and transform the former Tea Room space into a larger worship facility. On the fifth anniversary of the church, two new deacons were ordained and a ground-breaking ceremony was held to begin renovation and new construction.
On Easter Sunday 2019, the first worship service was held in the new sanctuary with 297 in attendance. The following Sunday, a dedication service was held with 216 in attendance. The occupancy capacity of the new worship space is 280 with additional seating available in a forty-seat overflow room.
Faith Baptist Church works cooperatively with the Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptist of Texas Convention, and Smith Baptist Association to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church also works alongside other Christian churches and ministries in the Quitman/Wood County area to share the good news and minister to the community.
