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The initial work that later became Maranatha Baptist Church started in 1990 under an old oak tree in a mobile home park near Poplar Grove. The pleas of a woman for someone come and tell her neighbors about Jesus were finally answered and a ministry started. The first years of Maranatha Baptist Church were focused on the children of the area. The ministry soon grew beyond the walls of a trailer and van. Local churches assisted in the mission work with Vacation Bible School and a bus ministry. By God’s grace the church grew. Later, the church added youth and collegiate ministries as an outreach to the surrounding communities.
Maranatha Baptist Church, SBC
was constituted in December 1996
with a total of 24 charter members.
The church stepped out in faith and purchased 6 acres of land to locate their future ministry and continued building the ministry through the transition of pastors.
In 2006, Maranatha called Pastor Schoen as Senior Pastor to bring the church back to refocusing on reaching the lost. We are meeting on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, and the church has begun to see new growth.
In 2007, Maranatha Baptist church was blessed with the addition of Jeremiah Griffin as Minister of Music. Mr. Griffin with his wife, Tancy Griffin, bring a unique blend of modern praise, traditional hymns, and southern gospel music to the Worship service.
During 2008 the church continued to grow by God sending people who wanted to serve Him as He has gifted them. As the community began to fall upon harder financial times, the church continued to see growth in giving for missions and the building project. 2008 saw the dream of having our own building for the Lord's work continue to take shape as a new building committee was formed and stepped up to lead the church in that direction.
January 2009 the church took steps to financially prepare for the building project. One of the major points of faith was stepping up and calling a vote unanimously by the church that we do what it takes to build. With the plans laid out, finances in order and bids coming back in from local contractors, Maranatha is finally ready to build.
Today, there is only a few last steps that stand in the way of building. Please make these a continued matter of prayer as we are sure to face more opposition as we do the Lord's work
- Building Permit: there were some issues with the zoning and the Village annexing the county land.
- Water and Sewer: the municipal water was brought to the edge of the property in late 2008, the sewer faces a harder challenge of either a septic field or waiting for the village to bring sewer to the property
- Concrete and Blacktop: originally the plan was to gravel in 2010 and blacktop sometime in 2011/2012 this was initially acceptable but now has faced some opposition.
- Finances: With the added costs due to what the Village is now requiring the church faces a shortfall in the funds needed to build.
Please, pray for us. The Lord will provide. We continue to faithfully to be about His work in Poplar Grove and the surrounding community, building or not.