Who We Are

Emmanuel Baptist Church began in 1898 and has ever since been loving people and building on a legacy of 109 years of witness for Christ in Toledo. Ours is a landmark ministry that has been faithful and fruitful over decades of change and challenge in Northwest Ohio.

 

This church has stood and fought for the fundamental truths of historic Christianity, the person and work of Christ, the inerrancy of the Bible, and the regenerate nature of the church. Emmanuel Baptist separated itself from the theological liberalism of the Northern Baptist Convention in 1929 and joined itself to the emerging General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. Emmanuel believes that all truth is God's truth.

 

As a church marked by historic faith, Emmanuel is committed to showing the power of God to each generation. We are not redefining Christianity, but relaying it authentically and realistically within the context of our day and culture.

 

Emmanuel Baptist Church is a Word-driven church. We are committed theologically and methodologically to the inerrancy, sufficiency, and complete authority of the Holy Scripture. We believe that the Bible is the final authority in matters of faith and practice. We are not looking for God's Word in further words of knowledge or church traditions because we believe that the Bible contains the Word of God in all its totality. Therefore, the Bible through the Spirit of God, drives, defines, and develops all that we see to do. There is not a context of our ministry where the teaching of the Word of God is not central to all that is going on.

 

Our pastoral staff is committed to expository preaching Sunday by Sunday. The driving power of our services is a verse by verse study of a biblical passage that allows God to speak through the text of the Bible into our lives. With the Protestant reformers, we believe that when the Bible speaks, God speaks.

 

Emmanuel Baptist is also a church that loves to engage in thoughtful and heartfelt worship of the Triune God. We recognize with the divines of old that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Therefore, we seek to glorify God through His Son, the Lord Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

We do that through singing, preaching, praying, loving, observing the Lord's Table, and holy living. A wonderful music program that involves choirs, orchestra, ensembles, and dramatic musicals guides our worship.

 

Our worship is a marriage between doxology and theology. This worship engages the mind, stirs the heart, and sanctifies the soul. We enjoy worship that balances reverence with exuberance, quietness with a joyful noise, and historic hymns with contemporary choruses.

Holistic Ministry

Emmanuel Baptist Church is a church that desires to minister to all. We have no particular profile but simply desire to minister to those God brings our way. We desire to present every man complete in Christ Jesus. Consequently, we have a variety of discipling ministries that reaches out to people of all ages. Emmanuel Baptist desires to leave no believer behind.

 

The community of Christians at Emmanuel is not content to go to heaven alone. We are an assembly of saints committed to the Great Commission. Emmanuel is a missions minded church. Almost 20 percent of our budget and 100% of the ABF offerings go towards supporting missions, both locally and globally. We presently support 43 missionaries ministering in over 20 countries as well as several mission agencies and 4 colleges. A missionary house is available for our own missionaries. Please feel free to learn about our missionaries on our missions page.

 

On a local level, we seek to reach our neighbors through authentic Christian living, the preaching of the Word, a visitation team, Groceries for Life, our presence on the University of Toledo through CBF, Home Plate at Fifth Third Field, and our support of the local Pregnancy Center.

 

Emmanuel Baptist is devoted to making an eternal investment in world evangelism both at home and abroad.