Messiah Missionary Baptist Church

                             

 

 

 

Messiah Baptist Church was founded and organized by the late Rev. Dr. Elijah N. Pope.  Dr. Pope was a member of Convent Avenue Baptist Church, and in December 1960 he received his license to preach and became an Associate Pastor at Convent.  He later became an Associate Minister at Upper Room Baptist Church, where the late Rev. C.J. Chambers was pastor.  He enrolled in the Baptist Ministers’ Training Union, which he attended for two years.  Realizing his need for more education, he took night courses at NYC Community College, majoring in Social Science and graduated in 1965.

 

Being guided by God, Dr. Pope got the urge to find and pastor his own church for the people in his community.  After searching around for an edifice, he finally was attracted to an available Jewish synagogue and purchased the building located at 866 Sutter Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn, NY.  Dr. Pope named the church, “Messiah”, which means a “Savior of the World”.   Rev. Chambers ordained him into the Eastern Baptist Association.

 

Along with fifteen (15) loyal friends on opening Sunday, April 4, 1965 Messiah Baptist Church was off to a glorious start.  The late Dr. Sandy F. Ray, eminent pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, preached the dedicational sermon and twenty-five (25) members were added to the Messiah Baptist Church membership roll.  The church continued to grow in membership. Within a short span of five years, at its fifth anniversary, Messiah Baptist Church liquidated all of its debts and celebrated the mortgage burning ceremony on that glorious day.  The pastor, Rev. Dr. Elijah N. Pope, led the membership in paying off the new equipment, remodel of the church, houses, and land totaling approximately $250,000.

 

Dr. Pope worked tirelessly for the up building of God’s kingdom.  He opened the doors to the public seven (7) days per week for residences in the community.  The church had clothing drives, free breakfast and dinner programs, surplus food program, a day care center, a missionary circle that visited the sick, the hospitals, jails and prisons. Our church was used for mass community rallies, voter registration drives, job information rallies, drug education, health fairs and AA meetings.  We were featured on radio programs for our morning Sunday worship service.

 

Starting in the late sixties, the East New York/Brownsville communities became infested with a great deal of drug activities, vandalism of the church, its property, buildings in the neighborhood, murders, muggings, and the burning of buildings.  People abdicated their home churches, businesses and neighborhood programs moved away.  Our church became the beacon of light and hope for those who were left in the neighborhood and Dr. Pope became involved in community outreach.  On many occasions, beds were put up in our dining room in emergency cases, such as: evictions, fire victims, and those who had nowhere to live.  Dr. Pope helped people in the community find better housing/apartments, jobs, and assisted young people to get into better schools. 

 

Messiah takes pride in many of its youths who have gone on to professional careers as:  lawyers, judges, teachers, nurses, social workers, business administrators and the list continues.

 

Messiah Baptist Church was the strongest advocate who supported the homeowners when the East Brooklyn Churches wanted to take away their homes, which also had our church slated for demolition.  Our late pastor, Rev. Dr. Elijah Pope openly supported the organization, “Save Our Homes” and received the support of other ministers in our community.  Through their efforts, our church and many homes in the neighborhood were saved from demolition.

 

Under Dr. Pope’s leadership until his transition on March 17, 2003, Messiah had many outstanding leaders worship with us

 --  Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.; Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Sr. and his wife; Rev. Dr. Bill Jones of Bethany Baptist; Rev. Dr. Garner Taylor of Concord Baptist; Governor Mario Cuomo;  Mayors Edward I. Koch and Rudolph Giuliani; late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm; Congressmen Ed Towns, Charles Rangel, Charles Schumer; Council members Pricilla Wooten, Charles Barron; Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, late Actor Ossie Davis , various Commanding Officers of the 75th Precinct, among many other outstanding leaders.

 

In fifty (50) years, Messiah has gone through joyous, difficult and sad times, but with God’s grace and mercy, Messiah Baptist Church family has endured many trials and obstacles.  Since his transition from this earthly life, Dr. Pope continued to support his church.  Proceeds from the sale of his residence were used for church renovations and to have working capital for the church.  For God said, “On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”   With God’s grace and mercy, Messiah Baptist Church continues to stand on the solid rock.

 

For the first time in its history, Messiah selected a pastor, Rev. Steve Collins pastored September 2004 thru Feb. 2011.  The church was under spiritual leadership of Dr. Nathaniel Waterman, Overseer from March 2011 thru September 2012.  On November 17, 2013, Rev. Eric Moore took over as pastor of Messiah BC. thru November 2014.  Our present pastor, Rev. Dr. Julius Sloane began his tenure on December 14, 2014.