Emmanuel Baptist Church (EBC) was founded on the 11th of January 1976 and it was officially organized in June 1976 with 24 charter members. Emmanuel was signed to be a military church. The first interim pastor was Michael Fahey and there were altogether 15 founding members. Emmanuel grew rapidly and already in September of the same year the amount of members had grown to 50. Of these 42 were received by letter and 8 were received by baptism (EBC letter 1976, church history 2001). In the following passages I will look more deeply into the beginning of Emmanuel. Why was it founded in 1976? Who were the founders and how did the process go? Why did the church become a military Southern Baptist Church? How did the church start it´s program and where did it meet?

It is interesting to know, why Emmanuel Baptist Church was founded. The first European Baptist Convention letter from the year 1976 answers this question: "Four families felt the need of a second Protestant Church in the area, the AfCent Chapel being the only other one in a radius of at least 100 miles. As the Lord began to open doors, it became evident that it was to become a Southern Baptist Mission. Under the Lord´s guidance and with the sponsorship of the Jurbise, Belgian church, services began on January 11, 1976." (EBC letter 1976)

So the basic need for the church rose, when there were not enough international churches in the area. In Brunssum there has been a AfCent NATO-base since 1969 with lots of international people. Therefore a need for the second international protestant church was obvious. Because of the connection for the military base, Emmanuel was also founded as a military – versus missionary – church (EBC letter 1976). But why did the need of a second international church come so suddenly in 1975? To this question it is difficult to find an answer without talking with the individuals, who were the founders of the church. The EBC letters from the first years don´t give a clear answer to this question. However it lists the individuals, who were the leaders of the church: Roger and Jo Ann Campbell, Tony and Ardyce Vandaen Berg, Ed and Yvonne Brown and Michael and Dessie Belle Fahey. (EBC letter 1976).

However, the church history written in 2000 gives a little bit different view of the beginning of the church. According to it: "The church began as a mission in January 1976 through the generous effort of the International Baptist Church of Jurbise, Belgium" (Church history 2000).

For the full History download EBC-History.pdf