Our Story

The First Baptist Church of Cowpens began in 1878, two years before the town of Cowpens was chartered. On August 13, 1878, a group of 14 people met in the depot of the Atlanta and Charlotte Railroad. The group was led by Rev. J. H. Yarborough of Forest City, North Carolina. Initially, the congregation met beneath brush arbors until 1879. Mrs. Elizabeth C. Wilkins donated the lot on which a one-room frame building was erected and used for 26 years. Baptisms were administered in Cowpens Creek, two miles away. A memorial marker indicates the site on Santee Street near the junction of Lake Street and Johnson Road. On March 6, 1904, construction of a new church building began. Additional educational rooms were added in March 1939. In 1955, the church tore down the old structure and built a new sanctuary and educational building, completed in 1956. An additional educational annex was completed in 1978, and a gymnasium was built in 2012. 

On December 26, 2020, the church caught fire and was consumed. In December 2022, the current church facilities were completed. God used this as a turning point in the life of First Baptist Cowpens, and a new and revitalized work has begun in His church. Since this turning point, FB Cowpens has continued to see growth and direction for the future, emphasizing being a church that loves God and people.

God is doing amazing things in our church, and we are a church that honors our past but has our eyes on the future. We are a church that will move, flow, change, and grow however God leads us. We know that God has a plan for us to make him known, and we will follow after him with everything we have.

God has prepared things for us to do, so...let's do them!