About Us

The story of a church on the move…

Over 136 years ago, the journey of ‘First Baptist Church’ began when a small group of Christians responded to God’s call to share the good news of Jesus with their local community.

Initially an outreach of Main Street Baptist Church, the group began meeting in a small building on Morrison St. in 1892. By 1911 the church had grown dramatically through the baptism of new believers and an active Sunday School program. By 1915 they had outgrown the building on Morrison St. and moved to a new location on Jepson St., where they stayed until 1960. During that time, the congregation responded to the community with its active youth and music ministries as well as by sharing their building – first as a makeshift emergency hospital during the Influenza epidemic of 1918 and then as a blood donor clinic from 1943-1945.

With the baby boom of the 1950’s, the church continued to grow and after prayerful thought and deliberation, decided to move out to the Cherrywood Acres subdivision – suburbia, its location for fifty years. Today as we look back upon our history we see a trail of those who have sought and responded to God’s leading.

Our history is still being written…after many years, we decided to sell our church building and once more, re-locate. Today we are tenants of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, where we hold our services at 11 am. We share in their facilities which has been a blessing to us.

Our postmodern society presents us with many changes: in family structures; multi-cultural diversity; and, technological advances. Despite these changes the longings of the human spirit have remained constant, a longing to know who we are and why we are here, a longing to be loved and to love, to experience grace and be forgiven, a longing to belong to community.

Today we continue, as God’s people, to listen for his voice amongst the many voices that compete for our attention. We long to live our lives obedient to His will and our desire is to share the good news of Jesus and God’s redeeming love with our friends, families and community.

Our Team

Julia Howard is the pastor for First Baptist Church Niagara Falls. She accepted the call to the church in August 2018 after serving in Nova Scotia for 10 years in three pastorates.

As Julia begins her ministry in Niagara Falls, she is seeking the vision God has for His church and His people. Ministry for her is healing the broken, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide in day-to-day living, and experience the joy we find in serving the Lord by being His hands and His feet.

Julia is committed to maintaining and expanding the missional groundwork and is looking outward to the people around us and how we can minister to a hurting world which needs the love of Jesus Christ.

Julia is a graduate of McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario.

She is the mother of three grown children and six grandchildren.

“Luke 4:18 New International Version (NIV)
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

Picture of Carrie

Carrie Bosco is our minister of worship. Trained in piano and voice, she uses her creativity and musical talents to encourage others to participate in a variety of ways. She sees worshiping God as a collective experience in which we all participate. Carrie is always interested in broadening our musical experience and has introduced many new instruments to us. Carrie also uses her gifts and those of others to enhance worship through visual arts.