Who We Are
Immanuel Baptist Church is a Christian community that strives to experience and express God’s unconditional love.
We believe that our ability to live into this vision begins with relationships – with God, with one another, and with the community around us.
At IBC, you will not find perfect people or a perfect church, but you will find people who seek to worship, learn, serve, give, and care actively with and for one another, our Frankfort community, and the “ends of the earth.”
Baptist Distinctives
Our historic Baptist principles
Partners
Who we support
History
Our story
Leadership
Meet our staff
Mission
Our mission is to live like Jesus Christ by unconditionally loving all people, compassionately serving God’s world, openly discussing issues of faith, and intentionally inviting others to grow with us as followers of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Values
At Immanuel Baptist Church, we value Love, Inclusion, Relationships, Learning, Service, and Justice.
Love
We believe that loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves is our most important task. Embodying the unconditional love of Christ is our first priority. Everything else we do is an extension of this desire to love God and all those created in God’s image. Matthew 22:34-40
Inclusion
Because we believe that God’s love is fully inclusive, we welcome and accept all people – no exceptions based on race, socioeconomic class, nationality, sexuality, gender identity, ability, age, political ideology, or any other qualifier. We celebrate God’s ability and desire to work through people of all backgrounds, so we seek to intentionally appoint a diverse group of lay and pastoral leaders to guide the church. Galatians 3:28
Relationships
Our relationships with one another are of paramount importance at IBC. We seek to build a community of trust and concern for all who enter into fellowship with this congregation, getting to know and care for each other beyond the surface level. People of all ages can find a place to belong and to be known here, and we believe this is one of the greatest gifts we have to offer. 1 Corinthians 13
Learning
We acknowledge that we do not know everything there is to know about our faith. As a church body, we seek to embrace our doubts and encourage questions so that we can grow deeper in our understanding of God and God’s calling for our congregation. Through Sunday School, worship, and other Bible study opportunities, we challenge one another to ask questions, discuss difficult topics, and become stronger and more faithful through our learning together. Hebrews 10:24-25; Proverbs 27:17
Service
We seek to put our faith into action through service to our community and the wider world around us. We hope that we are known in Frankfort as a church that cares and responds to support the needs around us. We also provide financial resources to missionaries, mission organizations, and other service partners. Acts 2:42-47
Justice
God’s unconditional love calls us to act with compassion and courage to create a more just world. We participate in God’s justice by speaking out, standing up, and joining hands to fight injustice and inequality, and to be good stewards of the love God has entrusted to us. This is one more way that we love God and others in the way of Jesus. Micah 6:8
Bible Freedom
The Bible is foundational to us as Christian believers. We believe that every Christian has the right and freedom to interpret scripture under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Church Freedom
Baptist churches are free to structure themselves however they feel God is leading them to do so. This means we are not beholden to any denomination, bishopric, etc., as we determine membership, leadership, doctrine, and practice.
Religious Freedom
Baptists have long supported the separation of church and state. Religious freedom is an important constitutional protection that allows all people and houses of worship to practice their faith without coercion by any government entity.
Soul Freedom
Each person is responsible for their own relationship with God. We believe that God offers every individual the freedom to give their life and heart to God and that no church, creed, denomination, or clergy can maintain that relationship for us.
Baptist Distinctives
We are a Baptist church.
One of the great things about Baptists is that there all kinds. While we find ourselves on the more progressive end of the spectrum, we hold to historic Baptist principles.
Baptist Distinctives
We are a Baptist church.
One of the great things about Baptists is that there all kinds. While we find ourselves on the more progressive end of the spectrum, we hold to historic Baptist principles.
Bible Freedom
The Bible is foundational to us as Christian believers. We believe that every Christian has the right and freedom to interpret scripture under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Church Freedom
Baptist churches are free to structure themselves however they feel God is leading them to do so. This means we are not beholden to any denomination, bishopric, etc., as we determine membership, leadership, doctrine, and practice.
Religious Freedom
Baptists have long supported the separation of church and state. Religious freedom is an important constitutional protection that allows all people and houses of worship to practice their faith without coercion by any government entity.
Soul Freedom
Each person is responsible for their own relationship with God. We believe that God offers every individual the freedom to give their life and heart to God and that no church, creed, denomination, or clergy can maintain that relationship for us.
Partners
We support and affiliate with the following Baptist bodies:
And the following local/state organizations:
- Frankfort Ministerial Association
- Frankfort Social Ministries
- Kentucky Council of Churches
- Kentucky Refugee Ministries
- The Resource Office for Social Ministries
History
Immanuel Baptist Church began with a vision, a modest plan, and a leap of faith.
In 1961, members of First Baptist Church in downtown Frankfort saw a need for a Baptist church in west Frankfort, an area largely rural at the time but poised for growth.
Thus the vision for what would become Louisville Road Mission.
It was a humble beginning, with 85 charter members, a number of whom signed personal bank notes with which to subscribe an operating budget, meeting in temporary space in the carriage house of the Berry Hill estate.
The first meeting, under the name Baptist Chapel, took place on Sept. 3, 1961, with an interim pastor, Dr. C.R. Daley, editor of The Western Recorder, newspaper of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. At a Wednesday business meeting 11 days later, the congregation chose a new name: Immanuel Baptist Church — Immanuel meaning “God With Us.” One month later, Immanuel was constituted as an independent Southern Baptist Church.
Soon afterward, work began on a permanent, multi-use building at our current location on Collins Lane.
The land was donated by charter member Clyde E. Reed. The first service in the new building took place on Dec. 20, 1961 with the Youth Sunday School Department presenting a Christmas program.
Ground for the current sanctuary was broken in 1968 and for the children’s education building in 1985.
Immanuel has long recognized the gifts and call of women for ministry and church leadership. Thus Rev. Dr. Emily Holladay was called in 2023 as the sixth senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. The church has ordained women as deacons since 1985 and ordained a woman to ministry in 2005. Immanuel adopted a “Congregational Statement on Women in Ministry” in 2000 and withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention two years later. Immanuel currently is a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation.
Dr. Holladay succeeded Dr. Charles Queen, who served as senior pastor from 2002 until his retirement in 2023.
Others who have served as pastor were Rev. Albert Gisler (1962-65), Rev. Malcolm Lunceford (1966-91), Dr. Greg Brooks (1993-96), and Dr. Mike Greer (1997-2001).
Through the years since its founding — through name changes, leadership rotations and denominational realignment — Immanuel Baptist Church has remained faithful to the mission and vision of its founding fathers and mothers. We have supported — and continue to support — missions and missionaries at home and abroad, to demonstrate God’s unconditional love in multiple countries, other states, and communities around Kentucky.