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About
Kelham Baptist Church
Kelham Baptist Church began
in December of 1913 in the Bath subdivision on the east side of Oklahoma City. We celebrated 100 years of preaching the gospel in 2013. This year will mark 111 years.
Sarah (Kelham) Bath, wife of real estate developer Vincent Bath, saw the need for a Sunday School
for her neighborhood children, and that became the Kelham Avenue Baptist Church. She began a Sunday School in her home about 1911 to reach children in the neighborhood of Kelham Avenue and NE 13th in Oklahoma City. This church grew from that small Sunday School outreach.
Photo source:
Gumm, John. [Photograph 2012.201.B0971.0026], photograph, February 5, 1959; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1294512/m1/1/?q=kelham: accessed June 10, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.
Photo source: Kelham Baptist Church archives, Anson Justice files.
In
1955, the church moved
from Kelham Avenue to NE 36th and Staton Drive, taking in Park Estates Baptst Church,
a mission of First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City. Several years
before the church moved, it spent almost $250,000 (in 1954 dollars a little over $2.9 million in 2023 dollars) to renovate the facilities because Pastor Anson Justice believed a
church of some kind proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ would be there. That location is the current home of Avery Chapel, AME.
Edited Photo source:
Jacoby, Ray. Kelham Avenue Baptist Church, photograph, June 13, 1957; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1587189/): accessed December 28, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society
VBS Group Photo, 1957: Pastor David C. Hall is on the left.
Photo credit:
Jacoby, Ray. Kelham Avenue Baptist Church, photograph, June 13, 1957; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1587363/m1/1/?q=Kelham: accessed June 10, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.
In
the late 1960s, Kelham moved to the northwest
side of Oklahoma City, merging with Utah Avenue Baptist Church. The buildings the church had constructed
on NE 36th and Staton Drive were sold and currently house two different Baptist churches, Greater Mount Carmel Baptist Church and Followers of Christ Baptist Church.
Kelham Baptist Church is a place you can call home. Our music is
traditional (we sing hymns from hymnbooks not because we are old-fashioned but because hymns powerfully emphasize historic truths of our faith and remind us of the truths those who have gone before us have learned and celebrated). The community of God's people singing is a powerful testimony and great encouragement. Our preaching is expositional (we
explain the Bible and apply its teachings to our lives today). Our church family is warm and welcoming.
We unapologetically are Baptist in the historic Baptist tradition of free churches, and we have not nor will we ever drop Baptist from our name, as some churches have, in an attempt to appeal to modern culture.
You can join our drive-in church service on Sunday mornings by parking in our parking lot and tuning your radio to 1610 AM.
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