A Rumford church makes a move into a new space on Congress Street.
RUMFORD – The Rev. Joseph Roberts has started churches around the country, including one in central Maine, and has served as an international missionary in Jamaica for seven years.
Now he has established another church, in Rumford, the town he and his family have made their home for nearly three years.
The Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, first started in the Exchange Street chiropractic office of his wife, Angella, now has a home of its own on lower Congress Street.
So far, almost a dozen people attend the weekly Sunday services and Sunday school, and Bible study on Thursday nights.
He knows it’s small, but that doesn’t deter him from what he wants to do.
“I’d rather be slow and sure than rapid with very little stability,” he said Thursday afternoon as he was hammering away in the tiny office of the building. The one-story wood structure had served as the offices of the state’s adult probation office before it moved into the Tri-County Mental Health building just up the street.
Roberts is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Institute and Seminary in Ohio, and has a doctorate degree in theology from Florida Baptist College. He is also a member of the local Rotary International group and heads up the Moontide Water Festival Committee. Until recently he ran the River Valley Management Co. LLC. That business has now been turned over to his daughter, April Huston, and her mother-in-law, Michele.
Because the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church is part of the American Baptist Association, Roberts, as pastor, cannot earn money from other sources, he said.
The new church is more conservative than some, he said, and has its roots in the South, where the Missionary Baptist churches started in 1921, he said. Hundreds of such churches are located throughout most of the United States and on every continent, he said. In Maine, he started a Missionary Baptist Church in Dexter, which he then turned over to a new pastor. Another small Missionary Baptist Church is located in the tiny hamlet of Derby, located near Milo in eastern Maine.
In the South, he said, some of the churches have hundreds of members.
He’s starting small, but hopes to grow. He is tentatively planning to offer a vacation Bible school and youth program in the future, as well as an evangelistic outreach program by visiting pastors.
Right now, he works one-on-one through personal contact to build the church.
“This is our semi-permanent home until we grow out of it,” he said of the small, 30-seat room where services are held.
The Robertses came to Rumford about three years ago when their daughter, April Huston, and her husband, Jeremy, decided to return to Maine. Jeremy is originally from the area.
“Every church is an individual. We try to minister to the needs of those around us,” he said.
Sunday school begins at 10 a.m. for all ages, followed by worship services at 11 a.m., then a potluck lunch until 1:30 p.m., when Bible study begins. Another Bible study takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays.
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