The First Baptist Church of Kansas City celebrates 170 years with a picnic open to the public

By Kathy Feist

The First Baptist Church of Kansas City is celebrating its 170th anniversary on Sunday, June 29. A 10 am sermon will be followed by a noon-time picnic on the church grounds located at Wornall and Red Bridge roads. The public is invited. 

“We are celebrating the past and determining the future,” says Reverend Dr. Dezo Schreiner, pastor of the church. 

First Baptist Church of Kansas City is the city’s oldest continuous running Protestant church. Schreiner hopes to keep it that way with the groundwork she is doing now. 

“We want to get people thinking about the year 2195. What’s the vision for the next 170 years? What are we leaving behind for future generations?”

“We are listening,” she says. 

Schreiner is pleased that the church has attracted an intercultural community.  

“It’s become a very motivated community that wants to get involved,” she says. “It’s a church for those who want to feel loved, who want to feel a part of a community.”

First Baptist is part of the American Baptist Churches, which is more liberal in its theology and acceptance of LGBTQ members, same sex marriages and women-ordained pastors.

The church recently rebranded as the “Beloved Community of the First Baptist Church of Kansas City.” According to the church’s website, “The Beloved Community” addition comes from Martin Luther King, Jr, who first coined the phrase to describe a diverse and loving community that he envisioned for society.

Schreiner became the full-time pastor in March when Rev. Stephen Jones retired. The two had shared the role since 2017. 

Schreiner, an enthusiastic 40-year-old woman who originates from Haiti, is ready for change. “Church as a community is about change,” she says. 

History

The First Baptist Church of Kansas City has seen many changes since it was founded in 1855. 

Johnston Lykins, an ordained American Baptist minister, founded the church along with his brother-in-law John Calvin McCoy, generally known as the “Father of Kansas City.” 

Lykins had arrived 24 years earlier in 1831 along with his father-in-law Isaac McCoy. They were authorized by the US government to relocate Native Americans from Ohio and Michigan to Kansas, which was designated Indian territory at the time. McCoy and Lykins chose a spot near the Missouri border. Because white people were not allowed to live on Indian territory, the location, now known as the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway, Kansas, enabled the men to live in Missouri. From there they became founders of what we now know as Kansas City. 

It was during his retirement years that Lykins, along with his second wife Mattie, brother-in-law John Calvin McCoy and others founded the United Baptist Church, soon to be renamed the First Baptist Church of Kansas City. Church members met in a meeting house often used by other church communities at 5th and Wyandotte. The congregation named Dr. Robert S. Thomas, the first president of William Jewell College, as their first pastor. 

The church soon moved into a building at 12th and Baltimore, now the location of the Muehlebach Hotel. Built along the cobblestone streets, the noise from wagons and other traffic made hearing difficult during the hot summer months when open windows were necessary. By 1905 the church was also dealing with a surge in membership. At 900 members, it was the largest church in the city. 

In 1909 the congregation decided it was time for a move. Like many churches at the time, they moved south, choosing the corner of Linwood Boulevard and Park Avenue for a larger church. Still wanting to maintain their presence on the west side, the congregation also purchased land at 13th and Broadway.The Westside Branch, as it was named, included two buildings: one that served as an early day care center for working mothers in the downtown area and the other, named the Harris Hotel, served lower income people. 

West Branch Harris Hotel 1909

West Branch Building

The cornerstone from the West Side Branch building sits near the south entrance of the church. Photo by Nicolette Vescovi

By 1924 the church had over 3000 members and about as many Sunday School students, who were being taught in four offsite buildings. A Business Men’s Bible Study boasted 3,700 members. Expansion was again necessary. Two buildings were added and later a connection building. At 45,000 square feet, the church now took up the entire block. 

The Westside Branch experienced enormous success initially, especially the nursery. But the lack of financial support during the Depression era followed by the role of government welfare programs during the Roosevelt administration, reduced the need for the ministry services. The two buildings were sold in the 1940s.

For a time, First Baptist Church of Kansas City was restricted to one location. By the 1960s, however, many in the community had moved south to the suburbs. In1962, the current church building at the northwest corner of Wornall and Red Bridge roads was erected. It was called the Branch Building by the church with the intention of maintaining both buildings: one an inner city base and the other a residential. The Red Bridge church attracted large attendance and by the 1970s had built two additions, including a daycare.  

To ease the burden of maintaining two church building, the basement at the Linwood location was rented out to Swope Health in 1968,  its first health center. By 1978, Swope Health Center founded its own location and the congregation made a difficult choice to sell the real estate. It was sold to the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, which continues to flourish at the location.

The Future

The First Baptist Church in its current location experienced a growth spurt in the 60s and 70s thanks to the post World War II baby boom and a mindset that embraced the traditional Sunday church routine. By the turn of the century, newer generations began to think differently about their Sunday mornings. Today only about 30 percent of adults in the United States attend regular church services. 

But there is hope. Studies show that there is a revival among the younger generation, especially young men. In Kansas City, that can be seen in the growth of young families that attend newly formed churches such as International House of Prayer, Kingdom City, Evangel, and even the traditional Resurrectionist United Methodist Church. A more modern approach, a new energy and a listening ear seem to be the winning factors among these highly attended congregations. 

Those factors are readily apparent in Pastor Schreiner as she navigates the next 170 year of the First Baptist Church of Kansas City.