 The Raymond Baptist Church finds its humble beginnings as the Raymond Community Bible Club. Its first pastor was Ivor Sellevoog. In the spring of 1950, the group began making plans to be incorporated as the Evangelical Community Church of Raymond, which was later finalized under the leadership of new pastor Robert Draper. With great enthusiasm, the church’s first Sunday School program was started in September of 1950.
John Johnson came to serve as pastor of this young congregation from 1951 to 1954. Later, Jack Cavanaugh was called to be pastor, serving until 1957. By 1955 the members voted to become a part of the Conservative Baptist Churches of America, and at this time the church was incorporated as the Raymond Baptist Church.
Rev. Gerald Bradley took over the pastorate until Rev. Howard Russell came.
In September of 1962, Richard Johnson began his 19 years of service as pastor. In 1964, land was purc hased for the
construction of a church building. In 1965, the foundation was poured and capped as use for worship services. In 1967, the sanctuary was completed. Reverend Johnson served until September of 1981. Reverend Roy Glave came to serve as pastor in 1982 until March of 1986. In 1984, Mike Chouinard was hired on a part-time basis as Associate Pastor. In March of 1986, Reverend Glave faced serious health concerns and retired. Mike then served as interim pastor until January of 1987, at which time he was voted to be the pastor. He was ordained in 1992.
On August 31, 2003, after 17 years as Pastor, Mike Chouinard gave his last sermon as Pastor
and retired from the ministry to take a position in the Raymond school system, as he felt that God was leading him to work with the youth in the community. Mike and his family remain active members of our church family participating in several other ministries.
Following Mike Chouinard’s retirement as pastor, our church was blessed to have one of our deacons, Reverend Kent Threlfall, serve as interim pastor from 2003 to 2005. Kent enabled the church to transition from a long time pastorate, and prepare for a new chapter in its life.
 In March of 2004 we moved into our new church building on the RBC campus. We now use all three buildings for various meeting rooms, Sunday School classes, Youth Group meetings and functions. Since then the sanctuary seating has been expanded, a basement level has been finished and can serve over 200 for a meal. The former church building has been restructured to accommodate our Youth Ministries and community groups, and a newly remodeled office building has been added.
In October 2005, we welcomed Reverend Dr. Kevin McBride as our new pastor. Pastor McBride graduated from Boston University with a major in Aerospace Engineering, and holds his Masters and Doctorate degrees from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. He grew up in New York and then moved to Boston where he met his wife, Diane. He was Senior Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Portland, ME prior to coming to RBC and has been in the Pastorate for over 25 years and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals.
As we celebrate over fifty years as a church, we rejoice at the changes in the church and surrounding community, and continue to look for ways to reach out to the community. We continue in our passion to make the church indispensable to the life our communities and world in the name of Jesus Christ.
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