Church at Addis

The Church at Addis is a Southern Baptist Church located in Addis, Louisiana. This rapidly-growing church is noted for the practice of "First Century Christianity". The Church is voluntarily affiliated with the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge.
The Church at Addis relies on the Holy Bible as its infallible guide for faith and practice. The Church accepts the Southern Baptist Convention Articles of Faith (1963) as a summary of that guide to faith and practice.
The Church has grown from 12 members in 2009 to more than 600 members in 2016 and believed to be the fastest growing church in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana and one of the fastest growing Baptist churches in Louisiana.
History
In November of 1957, the Northside Baptist Church of Plaquemine sponsored a tent revival in the Addis area. It was led by Reverend Moody Adams. There were initially twenty-seven members. The Addis Mission was organized at that time.
Reverend Dean Davison, pastor of Northside Church, preached and acted as pastor temporarily. Reverend Jesse Garrison was called as pastor in January 1958. There were thirty-two charter members. The Mission borrowed five thousand dollars from the Louisiana Baptist Foundation in November 1958. The Mission bought ten acres of land on the east side of Louisiana Highway One, a house, and two acres of batture from Dr. Fred J. Rhinehart on December 31, 1958.
The Addis Mission was renamed the New Hope Baptist Church of Addis in 1960.
Reverend Garrison resigned in 1960, so the New Hope Baptist Church called Reverend Ray E. Prager as interim pastor in February 1961.
The New Hope Baptist Church changed its name to the First Baptist Church of Addis in 1963.
The property purchased in 1968 was in excess of the church's needs so the church retained 3.69 acres with a municipal address of 6781 LA Hwy. 1 South, Addis, LA 70710 and sold the rest in 1964.

A red brick sanctuary with seating for eighty persons was constructed in 1965 for $19,641.90
An activities building to the rear of the red brick sanctuary was completed in 1986. A service of dedication was held on June 1, 1986 with Reverend Frank B. Stagg officiating. Reverend Ray Praeger gave the charge to the church.
Reverend Thomas Shepard was called as associate pastor in June 2009. He was called as senior pastor in July 2010, after the retirement of Pastor Franklin B. Stagg. At the time of his calling as associate pastor, membership had declined to about twelve mostly elderly active members.
In February 2017, the Church is constructing a new building for youth activities to the rear of the multi-purpose building.
Prison ministry
Pastor Earnest Swanson directs some men of the Church who practice prison ministry.
Nicaragua mission
The Church maintains a mission to Nicaragua. This is a Christian school in the midst of secular schools, teaching a Christian world view. It is located in Condega, Esteli Department. It currently has seventy-six students and is growing.
Internet ministry
Sermons are videotaped and uploaded to the Church at Addis YouTube Channel from which they may be accessed and viewed by anyone in the world who has Internet access.
The great flood of August 2016
South Louisiana experienced a historic extreme rainfall on August 11-13, 2016, which resulted in extensive flooding of tens of thousands of homes which had never flooded before. However, West Baton Rouge Parish, the location of the Church at Addis, did not flood, although all of the surrounding parishes did experience significant flooding.
The Church at Addis temporarily became a humanitarian distribution center to provide food and other supplies to provide relief to flood victims. The chairs were removed from the sanctuary. Numerous eighteen-wheel trucks arrived from Tennessee, Alabama, the Carolinas, and elsewhere to deliver donations of food and other supplies to the church, which were distributed to needy flood victims. There was so much food and other supplies that it became necessary to obtain a warehouse at Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, Louisiana to store it.
The Church's efforts to provide relief to flood victims has been recognized and honored by Glenn Beck and by Samaritan's Purse. The Church was awarded the annual West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce Award on February 7, 2017 for Outstanding Community Service in 2016.
The future
Plans are being made to demolish the outgrown red brick, eighty seat former sanctuary building and to construct a one thousand seat sanctuary in its place to provide for future growth of this community of faith. The existing multi-use building would then be converted to an education building.

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