05/10/10

There had been several families in Bountiful who were members of First Baptist Church in Salt Lake City agitating for a church in Bountiful.  These families did not regularly attend the Salt Lake church, but were very persistent in their request for an extension church.

Dr. Fenwick T. Fowler, pastor of Salt Lake First, had the development of an extension church in mind when Warren Vinz was hired as Associate Minister in 1957.  Part of his job description was to spend half time organizing a congregation in Bountiful around this core group of people.  Dr. Fowler's position was that these people in Bountiful were of no help to the church in Salt Lake so why not start one in Bountiful. 

Had the Bountiful people been active in the Salt Lake church he would have never supported an extension church.  This was a consistent position of his.  He believed it important to have a large and powerful congregation in Salt Lake City to counter the heavy Mormon influence.  He saw First church as a Protestant temple.  For this reason he never encouraged active members living in the peripheral areas of the valley to support extension churches since this would take away from the "Temple".   

This position was true not only in regards to the Bountiful situation, but also of Cottonwood Heights as well.  Accepting those terms, Warren Vinz set about to build a congregation.

Before starting the church in Bountiful, Dr. Fowler felt it important to gain approval, if possible, from the Community Church to keep faith with comity agreements among Protestant churches. They were the dominant protestant church in Bountiful. 

Since American Baptists were similar in theology and polity to UCC, concerns were raised by the Community Church as to the need for another church so similar in make-up in the community.

They struggled to find some rationale to justify another church so similar to the Community Church.  Finally, it came. Baptists believed in immersion. This agreement gave ecumenical legitimacy to starting another "liberal" Protestant church in Bountiful.

The American Baptist Convention, in the starting of "New Frontiers Churches", provided little or no support for new churches, other than loans with favorable terms.  This made the task of beginning a new church very difficult by comparison to some others who would construct a total facility, sanctuary and education wing.  This meant that the church not only announced its presence, it had an important means of providing a program immediately.  

Bountiful First Baptist was born.

pastors invitational celebration

Joan stewart:  part 1    Part 2 

paul aiken:    part 1    part 2 

kent ikeda:    part 1    part 2 

kent ikeda:    part 3 

ellis keck:    part 1    part 2   

ellis keck:    part 3 

frank brougher:    part 1    part 2 

frank brougher:    part 3