Since the early 1960’s Bethel Baptist Church has been a member of the North American Baptist Conference (NABC), a theologically conservative group of Baptist churches united for the purpose of planting churches and sending missionaries to the four corners of the earth. The mission fields in which the NABC is involved include Brazil, Cameroon, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, and Russia. Bethel is a member of a regional association of NABC churches from Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. This region is the Great Lakes Association. The following is a brief history and description, taken from NABC website. More information is available at: www.nabconference.org.

In 1843, Rev. Konrad Fleischmann founded the first North American Baptist church in Philadelphia, PA. This German immigrant dreamed of reaching people, especially other immigrants, with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He knew his one church could only do so much. So in 1865, a small group of German-speaking churches met in Wilmot, Ontario and formed the North American Baptist Conference.

The North American Baptist Conference is a family of over 400 churches with more than 74,000 worship service attenders in the United States and Canada. North American Baptists are a diverse group of believers representing many cultures and languages. You’ll find us worshiping in small rural churches, large auditoriums, schools, storefronts, and homes.

Each of our local churches chose to be part of the North American Baptist Conference because they wanted to be part of a larger church family focused on making disciples. That voluntary decision to cooperate with others is a very important witness to our unity in Christ. Much of that cooperation can be seen locally through 13 NAB Regions. Regions are an important ministry of our Conference, allowing many of our churches to network, maximize resources, and partner on important initiatives.