Liberty Baptist Church was founded on June 4, 1982 by Rev. Kieth Stoller as a home mission of Trinity Baptist Church of Findlay, OH, and supported by Bible Baptist Church of Ft. Wayne, IN. Financial support was provided through churches within the Ohio Baptist Bible Fellowship for 2 ½ years.
While the first church service was held in a tent at the Horace Mann School in Van Wert, OH, the first charter service was held in the Horace Mann School gym. 50 people were in attendance and signed the church’s charter.
Liberty Baptist Church called their second pastor, Gordon Parsley, in February of 1985. While Pastor Parsley worked hard to fix some of the looming financial problems of the church, ultimately he announced his resignation in September 1985. The church considered disbanding at this time, but fortunately, church trustees, deacons, and pastors of supporting churches helped to reorganize the church and keep it afloat.
Liberty Baptist called their third pastor, Mike Donald, in January of 1985. The church was still meeting at the storefront location, and while they were struggling financially, they were thankfully debt free. Pastor Donald worked a full time construction job with no salary from the church for over a year, and managed to grow attendance from 16 to 70 people between 1986 and 1989.
Liberty Baptist Church called their fourth pastor, Jim C. Burns, in October of 1995. During Pastor Burns’ tenure, he has added a multitude of new ministries to the church including: a Basic Biblical Discipleship program, a Faith Promise Missions Giving program, a daily local radio outreach ministry, Faith Bible Institute, an addiction outreach, and many others.
In June of 2003, the church trustees voted to purchase 8.5 acres on John Brown Road in Van Wert for a future church building project and began a building fund campaign.
Later that year, plans to build a 23,000 square foot metal church building on the newly purchased property were formulated. At the time, the church had $30,000 in their building fund, and bids for the building were between 2 and 3 million dollars. Liberty Baptist chose to wait on the God’s timing, and prayed for what to do next.
Thankfully, God answered Liberty Baptist’s prayers, and in May 2007, the Horace Mann Elementary School closed its doors, allowing for a huge opportunity for the church. Citizen’s National Bank of Van Wert was the only bank in town that was willing to take a risk to loan the church the needed funds to purchase and remodel the school building. By November of that year, the congregation voted unanimously to bid on the Horace Mann School property. Liberty Baptist managed to win the bid, and began remodeling the building.
While the church began meeting in the new building in 2008, it took nearly 3 years to complete the remodel project due to the recession and mostly volunteer labor. On September 10, 2010, the Van Wert County Chamber of Commerce came to the dedication service to participate in a ribbon cutting. Liberty Baptist hosted Dr. Bob Jones III, the President of Bob Jones University at the time, to speak at the service, and approximately 200 people were in attendance.
On September 18, 2022, Liberty Baptist Church made their last payment on the property and became debt free! God has blessed Liberty Baptist with so much, and we look forward to what He has for us in the future.
