History & Vision :

Laura Street Baptist Church began as a mission of First Baptist Church in Maryville on September 4, 1949. Sunday school was held for the first time the following week with three classes and an attendance of sixteen. Worship services were held on the first and third Sundays. In September of 1953 the mission was formerly organized into a church. The church has a rich heritage of pastoral leadership. C.E. Goodnight, Ralph Holland, Melvin Hill, Victor Bollinger, Clifford Rawley and Roger Goodwin. Paul McKim was called as pastor on September 4, 1983 and continues to shepherd our flock. In recent years Laura Street Baptist Church has experienced significant growth in its ministries. The church began dual Sunday morning worship services in 1986 and in 2001 the church moved its worship services to the new fellowship hall to accomodate even more attendees. Construction began April 2005 with the building campaign, "Mission Possible." With God we know all things are possible. The new building was built to the north of our existing structures and consist of a 600 seat auditorium with educational space in the basement. On March 18, 2007 we moved into the new space. We give God all the glory and thanks for our new facility. We continue finishing our new building and have begun remodeling the existing buildings to better equip us to reach even more people for Christ. Laura Street has a rich legacy of over 15 individuals who have entered the ministry after being a part of our congregation.

Laura Street has been the  host church for several church plants in the area.  The most recent is in Bedford IA. In the Fall of 2005 a home Bible study began meeting every other week which then grew to a weekly meeting on Sunday evenings. In January 2006 the group began meeting every Sunday morning for worship and Sunday School and shortly organized as Faith Baptist.