Our Vision
Is to magnify the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts and minds of everyone who attends. It is our desire that through this ministry believers will increase and abound in their love for Christ and each other.
Our Mission
To Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
Our History
In 1790 the Shaftsbury Baptist Association recognized that Baptist brethren were meeting at the house of Brother Elisha Barnes at New Canaan. On September 17, 1793 the first recorded minutes of Flat Brook Baptists began. A Meeting held in the house of Ebenezer Roe in Canaan with 8 in attendance: Elisha Barnes, Lois Barnes, Lydia Jenks, Hannah Ketchem, Rebekah Pomeroy, Joseph Reynolds, Hannah Roe, Daniel Rowley. It was agreed to build a meeting house at Hatch's Corner (3/4 mile north of the current location).
On November 8, 1793 the church was regularly constituted and admitted to the Shaftsbury Association in 1794. A few years later, construction was begun on a building, located about 1,000 feet south of the Beebeville school house, on the west side of what is now highway route 22, near the intersection of Dean Hill road. Then on May 13, 1797, the First meeting was held at the new church building. They adopted the name "First Baptist Church of Canaan."
In 1821, the Shaftsbury Association recorded the name change to Flat Brook Baptist Church. 92 members attending. Licentrate Ira Hall, deacons Samuel Curtis, J. Johnson, and J. Douglas. Then in 1831 the church joined with the Stephentown Baptist Association. In March of 1838 a committee was appointed to obtain a new site for the church and on August 17, 1838 a purchased was made of the current property (48 rods) from Chester Belding in plans to move the building. The committee appointed to move the meeting house to its new site. So the building was taken down and reconstructed.
In 1846 it was officially given the name "Flat Brook Baptist Church." Winter meetings were often held in local homes. The building was unheated so people had to carry their foot stoves to Sunday meetings. At the close of the century in 1898, the sanctuary was raise one foot and a basement was added. The roof and foundations were repaired, and a chimney and stoves were installed. The carriage sheds which had blown down were also rebuilt. In 1956, the Hammond organ was dedicated. Ten years later in 1966, a 10x40 two story addion was added to the back of the building and modern plumbing was installed.
Our Story
Bro. Erickson was leading the Youth Group at Bible Baptist Church of Ghent, N.Y., the Lord laid upon his heart an overwhelming sense for the need for revival. As a result in February of 2012, he began preaching a series of sermons on revival. The Spirit of God was evident in those messages. After one of those messages, ten to fifteen teenagers were kneeling with him praying asking God for revival. One of the messages he preached involved referring to the fact that there had once been a revival in our area. Bro. Erickson preached about how the great Evangelist Charles G. Finney held revivals across New York State and even had a Revival meeting in the New Lebanon area of Columbia County.
As he was preaching that night, about twenty miles away from New Lebanon, but in the same county, God was moving in our hearts! He proclaimed strongly that night, that God could still bring a revival again to this area, but he had no idea what that meant and how God was going to do it. Little did anyone know it would happen in exactly one year from that night.
Revival. What is a revival? When we think of reviving someone, we think of bringing a person back to life. That is essentially what revival is. It is to bring back to life that which has died. As Bro. Erickson was preaching about the need for revival in our area, he was unaware that there was a Baptist Church that had just died. Flat Brook Baptist Church had just become inactive. It closed it's doors. It was dead.
On January 5, 2013 after God's clear providential leading Bro. Erickson met with the members of Flat Brook seeking the possibility of reopening the Church. After a presentation and some discussion the membership, they voted to allow him to reopen the church. At the meeting that Saturday, he was introduced to a man who was a member of the church and who did the snowplowing for the church. His name was Gary Finney. His father Arthur and grandfather Edwin Finney grew up in the church. In all the business of the day he didn't think anything of it. However, sometime later, Bro. Erickson was told by the Deacon of the Church that they were relatives of Evangelist Charles Finney.
As Pastor Erickson began preparing for the Grand Re-opening he was looking through his Classic note Bible at a messages that he had preached before just to get some ideas. If your unfamiliar with the Classic note Bible, every other page is a blank sheet, design for sermon outlines and notes. As he was running through the pages he came upon a sermon he had preached one year prior. It was February 25, 2012 and the sermon title was “Revive Us Again.” Immediately he thought back to that night when he was on his knees with several teenagers praying for revival. He had preached about how God could bring revival again to this area, like He did when Finney was preaching in New Lebanon. Canaan was only five miles from New Lebanon and there was a church that had died. God was going to answer that pray that he had prayed with those teens. God was going to bring back to life a dead church.
As the sun rose on that cold winter morn, Sunday, February 24, 2013, we really did not know what to expect. Prior to the church closing, there was only four to five people that had attended the services. That first Sunday we did not have Sunday school just a morning service which was to start at 11 o'clock. About 10:45 a car pulled in, then another, then another and another!
After it was all said and done, fifty-one people showed up for Church that day. The Lord blessed in a great way the message, “Lord, Do it Again.” And praise the Lord, He did do it again, He brought revival to a small country church that had died! God brought Flat Brook Baptist Church back to life and it is through this Church that revival can now happen again in the Canaan, New Lebanon area and beyond!
