Who We Are

The Pleasant Street Free Baptist Church of Springvale, Maine has been around since August 29, 1829, when it was founded as the "Free Will Baptist Church in Sanford." (Springvale is a village within Sanford.) Our worship and service home has been located on Pleasant Street since at least 1867 and probably since 1834.

When the Particular (Calvinist) and many Free Will Baptist churches united as the United Baptist Convention of Maine, we were part of that movement, dropping the word "will" from our name. We have remained firmly committed to the statement of our founders that: "We do jointly agree to take the Scriptures of Truth for our only guide and rule and the New Testament our only book of discipline and to be wholly governed by that, and we do furthermore agree to watch over one another for good and to love one another as brothers and sisters, hoping that it will be for the good of our souls and the glory of God and for the benefit of others all around."

Over the years we have maintained a solid evangelical stance and matured in our understanding of God's grace to us in Jesus Christ. We have been deeply involved in foreign and home mission support and have connected with various organizations that have helped us broaden our work with youth. We were actively involved in Christian Endeavor in its hay day and our very active youth group has gone on mission trips through M-fuge - a ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention but open to other groups. We are currently involved in changing our denominational affiliation as we have become increasingly concerned with the American Baptist Churches' (which we joined in 1903 when it was first formed) inability to hold to sound doctrine and practice. After a long and careful study and a unanimous vote at a our annual meeting, we have begun the process of uniting with the New England Baptist Convention of the Southern Baptist Convention.

You are invited to come and worship with us, find out more about us, and share with us our walk with Christ.