The First Baptist Church of Hammond is a fundamental Independent Baptist church in Hammond, Indiana. It is the largest church in the state of Indiana, and in 2007 was the 20th largest in the United States.[1] Though founded in 1887, under Jack Hyles' leadership from 1959–2001 it became one of the megachurches in the United States and during the 1970s had the highest Sunday school attendance of any church in the world.[2] In 1990, the church had a weekly attendance of 20,000.[3] It also operates Hyles-Anderson College, a non-accredited institution, and two K-12 schools, called City Baptist Schools (for children of the bus route of the church) and Hammond Baptist Schools (for children of the members of the church). Jack Schaap, Hyles' son-in-law, succeeded as pastor after Hyles' death in 2001.
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First Baptist Church was founded in November 1887 by Allen Hill of Jennings County, Indiana. Its first meeting was on November 14, 1887 with 12 members on the 28th. However, it originally met in the Morton House Hotel which stood on what is currently the 100 block of Willow Court. Allen Hill's pastorate was short lived at approximately 4 months.
By April 1888, B.P. Hewitt became the church's permanent pastor and Allen Hill went on to start several other churches. Needing more room, Hewitt moved the church's meeting place to the Hohman Opera House at the corner of State and Hohman. In 1889, the church erected its own structure for $2,358 when Marcus Towle, Hammond's first mayor and member of FBC, donated land on Sibley Street to the church.
Subsequently, on January 3, 1901 Pastor E.T. Carter proposed a new building, and the first service was held on April 14, 1901. On November 27 of that same year, Pastor Carter announced his resignation for a job at the Central Baptist Orphanage in Michigan.
During the early and mid 1970s the church's Sunday school used carnival-like entertainment along with free transportation by a fleet of over 200 buses to attract thousands of people from the Chicago Southland and northern Indiana. In 1975 weekly attendance was at 14,000, with a peak of over 30,000 in March of that year. Time magazine described the church's claim of having the "world's largest Sunday school" as "rock solid for the U.S., if not the world."[2]
In July 2006, the Church Report magazine named First Baptist number 24 on its list of the 50 most influential churches in the United States.[1]
First Baptist Church has several outreach ministries, including Prepare Now Resources, Hyles-Anderson College, Fundamental Baptist Missions International, Hammond Baptist Schools, City Baptist Schools, Chicago Baptist Academy, Memory Lane Cemetery, Christian Womanhood Magazine, First Baptist Church Little League, Nursing Home Ministry, Sailor Ministry, Truck Driver's Ministry, Bus Ministry, Blind Ministry, Pathfinder Ministry (Educable Slow), Homeless Ministry, Rescue Mission, Public School Ministry, Inner City Chapel Ministry, and Deaf Ministry. The church also has several services in Spanish and some Asian languages.
First Baptist Church also hosts three national conferences. The first Pastors' School invites pastors, assistant pastors, Christian leaders, school administrators, and Christian laymen to a week of training and learning. Its Youth Conference is held in mid-July and is for the youth and teenagers of Christian churches nationally. The final conference of the year, held every October, is the Christian Womenhood Spectacular for Christian women of all ages.
Every Memorial Day, the church and Hyles-Anderson College students and officials honor veterans of a particular conflict at Memorial Park. In 2008, the group honored those who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and in 2009, veterans of the Korean War were honored.[4]
In pastor Jack Schaap's book on Marriage, titled Divine Intimacy (published by Hyles Publications, 2005), Schaap teaches that, "When a person acts out by his life actions that lie about the truth of the Bible, God gets very upset. Nothing symbolizes more of what God has with the believer like the romantic, intimate, physical intimacies between a husband and wife. The wife receives her husbands body. Ephesians 5:23 says that the husband is Christ in the home. When a wife receives her husband's body, she is saying, 'I just want to remind you, Christ, that I am receiving You'."[5] Additionally, "The person who deeply loves Christ understands that when He receives Christ as Saviour, it is a spiritual intercourse. A person receives the body of Christ. A Christian is the female gender in the spiritual realm, and God is the male gender of the spiritual realm. When a person receives Christ as Saviour, he is receiving Christ as a lover."[5][6]
Jack Schaap departed from Hyles' King James-only position by holding up his Bible and stating "This King James Bible is not inspired". He clarified his new position in a 2009 sermon entitled "What Did God Preserve?" by stating, "the King James Bible was neither inspired nor preserved" [7] Schaap's departure from the church's previously-held beliefs caused a stir amongst older church members who felt Schaap deceived them in order to take over the pastorate. [8]
On December 8, 1997 Christianity Today reported that Hyles and his church, the First Baptist Church of Hammond, were being sued for "for negligence in connection with alleged sexual assaults on a mentally disabled church member over a six-year period"[9] The lawyer for the woman, Vernon Petri, "says Hyles is a defendant because he failed to protect the woman", such that "controls have to be set to be sure things are conducted appropriately."[9] However, Christianity Today pointed out that no criminal charges were ever filed in the case. Also, Hyles denied the allegations that either he or his church were negligent in the care of the woman in an October 12 advertisement in the Hammond Times.[9]
According to the lawyer, "a church program instructor led her to a room and served as a lookout while two to three males raped her."[10] The women developed a "serious" infection and doctors "found, embedded in her, a plastic object."[10] "The "civil suit filed in Lake Superior Court in Gary claims the Chicago woman was "induced by agents" of the church in 1991 to ride a bus to attend Sunday."[10]
| Pastors of the First Baptist Church of Hammond | |
|---|---|
| Allen Hill | November 1887 - March 1888 |
| B.P. Hewitt | April 1888 - May 1893 |
| Simon W. Phelps | August 1893 - October 1900 |
| Edward T. Carter | November 1900 - December 1901 |
| William H. Jones | January 1902 - October 1907 |
| J.E. Sharp | January 1908 - April 1911 |
| Floyd H. Adams | August 1911 - December 1918 |
| R.O. Licklider | January 1911 - August 1921 |
| J. Clark Oranger | November 21 - March 1927 |
| J.M. Horton | August 1927 - September 1941 |
| Theodore Leonard Lewis | October 1941 - August 1944 |
| F. Russell Purdy | October 1944 - June 1947 |
| Owen L. Miller | October 1947 - November 1958 |
| Jack Frasure Hyles | August 1959 - February 2001 |
| Jack Schaap | March 2001–present |