CHURCH HISTORY
The Free Will Baptist Church of Odessa was incorporated on February 12, 1855, as an independent church. Having purchased land, the members constructed a Greek-revival-style church building in 1856 and continued to worship at that location for nearly 160 years. In 1911, Freewill Baptist denomination merged with what was then the Northern Baptist Convention. Consequently, the Odessa church joined the Chemung River Baptist Association and the New York Baptist State Convention in 1913, changing its name to the Odessa Baptist Church. Throughout the 20th century the Odessa Baptist Church continued to faithfully serve the Lord in the Village of Odessa. Generations of believers worshipped and served here.
In 2006, rising heating and maintenance costs for the original building, along with ongoing issues with handicap access, restrooms, and parking, the church decided to construct a new, single-level church building. A local farmer sold us over 4 acres of land between Route 224 and Fowler Place in December of 2011, which we dedicated on October 7, 2012. The original church buildings and parsonage were sold with the last service conducted on June 28, 2015. During construction of the new building the congregation met at the American Legion Hall Post #676. We met there each Sunday for over three and a half years.
Construction of the new building began in the fall of 2017, with framing continuing through the fall and winter to create an enclosed shell of 5,000 square feet. On February 10, 2018, regular Saturday morning workdays began with members of the congregation volunteering work on the interior of the church building. Those workdays continued throughout 2018 and on into 2019. On Christmas Eve in 2018, we worshiped in our new church building for the first time, though it was not yet completed. On Sunday, March 24, 2019, we had our first regular worship service in the new building. We dedicated our new building to the Lord on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019. We also added a concert pavilion, covered BBQ pit, fire pit, children’s playground, and children’s garden area to the outside. In 2022, we began constructing of the annex on the south side of our building, which offers additional meeting space, classroom space, a nursery and a small restroom.
Now mostly completed, the new facility houses weekly Sunday Morning Worship and Children's Church ministries, Sunday School, Bible Studies, and music rehearsals, as well as monthly fellowship celebrations, free community holiday dinners, Vacation Bible School in the summer, group meetings and family events. Outside, children from the congregation and surrounding neighborhood enjoy the playground outside. The congregation’s children also love learning about growing flowers and vegetables in our Children’s Garden and roasting hotdogs and s’mores at our seasonal bonfires.. We also host free community concerts and BBQs during the summer and fall, with donations collected during such events given to community groups and services.
WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE BELIEVE
We are not an activist congregation, but we are an active congregation. We understand that the culture will seek to influence our church life agenda with "new" ideas, standards, and priorities that the church will be told are essential to the church's future. And while these standards and priorities will likely need to be engaged by the church, we strive to maintain a church agenda that is led by the Holy Spirit. We seek Biblical priorities that follow God's leading. Whether it is in our worship service or the music we offer, the Bible studies or Sunday School programs we maintain, mission activities (inside and outside of ABC) or community engagement, our facilities or our outreach activities, our desire is to be faithful to God and His leading in our lives.
ODESSA BAPTIST CHURCH PURPOSE STATEMENT
The purpose of this church shall be the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. It shall seek to attain this through the public worship of God, the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The purpose shall also be to inspire consistent Christian living by its members, personal evangelism, missionary endeavor, and Christian education.
ODESSA BAPTIST CHURCH COVENANT
Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we do now in the presence of God and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another, as one body in Christ.
We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines, to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel throughout all nations. We also engage to maintain as far as possible family and secret devotion; to teach our children the Christian truths; to seek salvation of our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, exemplary in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our Savior. We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love and to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy of speech; to be slow to take offense but always ready to reconciliation, and to be mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay. We moreover engaged that when we remove from this place, we will as soon as possible unite with some other church where we carry out the spirit of the covenant and principles of God's Word.
