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Although we are a young church (31
years old), we are proud of our Church History. Birch Street
Baptist Church
was started in 1975 as the New Testament Baptist Church by Rev. Dennis
Eagle. He had been ordained and sent out of Baptist Temple of
Springfield, MO where Dr. W. E. Dowell was pastoring. He was supported
briefly by the Wisconsin Baptist Bible Fellowship, which has been
instrumental in helping to start churches all over the state of Wisconsin.
The Church had a very humble
beginning in the Union Town Hall just west of Eau Claire. They met in the Town Hall
for about a year and a half, when the Lord opened the door for them to
meet in the Seventh Day Adventist building in Eau Claire.
In August of 1976 the New Testament Baptist
Church was
organized and incorporated as a Church. Rev. Eagle resigned from the
church in June of 1977 as the Lord was calling him elsewhere.
In July of 1977 the church called Rev.
Timothy Hallett, Sr. unanimously as their pastor. Pastor Hallett, Sr. had
started and previously pastored the Bible
Baptist Church
in Belvidere, IL. They saw a high attendance there
of 304 with the average at about 280.
Pastor Hallett, Sr. was used greatly of the Lord at NTBC. He led
the church to purchase 4.25 acres of land which has the parsonage as well
as the two buildings that are now our auditorium and Sunday School
classrooms. In June of 1986 the Lord provided a house in which our church
met and still uses on a weekly basis.
The Church met in the Seventh Day
Adventist building for a total of two years. In 1979 the Church made the
decision to meet at the YMCA of Eau Claire and continued there for about
three years.
 From 1982 to 1996 the New Testament Baptist
Church met at the
Knights of Columbus building. During this time the church saw a high
attendance of only 121 with the average at about 55. This was a very
difficult and trying time in not only the lives of Pastor Hallett, Sr.
and his family but also in the lives of the Church family. In 1996 the New Testament
Baptist Church
changed its name to Birch Street Baptist
Church when they moved to the
new location at 3120 Birch
St. in Eau
Claire. For over 19 years people thought that
our church did not exist as we did not have our own building. But people
make up the church, not the building.
Once into the new building our church
exploded with growth and we saw a high of 158 and our average attendance
increase greatly. Within 3 years of being in our own building, we decided
it was time to build again as we out-grew our facilities. In 1999 we
started to build again but were not able to get into our current
auditorium until March of 2003. After getting into our new building we
saw our attendance once again increase.
On February 24th, 2006,
God saw fit to call Rev. Timothy Hallett, Sr. to be home with HIM after
serving faithfully here at BSBC for the past 28 ½ years. It will be a day
greatly remembered in the history of our church as Pastor Hallett, Sr.,
now affectionately known as Preacher Hallett, was the only Pastor many of
our members have ever known. He was able to lead many souls to the Lord
and through his testimony many have come to the Lord in salvation even
after his death. God had used him in a great and mighty way and only
eternity will show the number of souls that will be added to his account.
On April 2nd, 2006 the Birch Street Baptist
Church called Rev.
Tim Hallett, Jr. as their new and only third Pastor in their history.
Since becoming pastor, we have seen many new members added to the church
membership. To God be the glory!
Please come and join us as we continue
to win souls for Christ and become a part of our church history as well
as our Church Family.
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