Church History
Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship was officially registered in August 1977. The first chartered members comprised mainly of zealous & energetic young, single adults who met in a rented double storey, terrace house in Jalan Puteri Jula Juli under the dynamic leadership of its founding pastor.
Then the church moved to a single detached bungalow house at Wareham Road. An unforgettable episode in our tenancy here happened during the monsoon season : despite a very heavy thunderstorm, some members braved the downpour and attended the Sunday morning worship. They had the memorable experience of warding (above knee-level) through the flood waters to get from the main road to the church premise. Several days, pictures in the newspaper showed assault boats from the SAF patrolling the flood waters in the Tanjong Katong area.
Thereafter in 1981, the church moved to another bungalow house at Lim Ah Woo Road which was only one bus-stop away from the previous place. This third premise was by far the most spacious. The 5-6 years here was the church’s most fruitful and challenging history. A bible college was started with three missionary lecturers and ten full time workers. The most outreach work and sporadic growth of the church occurred during this period. Through the leadership of Rev.Goh, the assistance of the full time workers, and also graduates from Maranatha Baptist Bible College (Watertown Wisconsin), 4 mission branches were started at Toa Payoh, Commonwealth and Ang Mo Kio, and one as far away as Kuala Lumpur. The church also started a deaf ministry.
With regrets and some fond memories, we moved next to Palm Drive, an older single-storey bungalow house in 1986. Here the church had her first crop of EBF babies. The membership has come to maturity. Our numbers grew as well despite the space constraint and constant mosquito problem. By now, we were really veteran pilgrims on earth.
Not long, in 1991, we had to move again. This time to a double-storey bungalow, with a land area of 10,000 square feet and 7 rooms at 118, Fidelio Street where we settled down for almost a decade. Here our children’s ministry exploded. The church is growing internally as God bless the married couples with children.
It is interesting to note that in all the past five moves, EBF has not left district 15. But the turning point of the church came in 2002, when we moved to a new district and location at 150 Macpherson Road – a more central location though. We trust with the Lord’s continued blessing and provision, our next move (the seventh) may be EBF’s final one.
