About Us

Our History

Organized October 19, 1991 — a Sovereign Grace, Landmark, Independent, Missionary Baptist church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Who We Are

A New Testament church in Louisville

Providence Baptist Church was organized on October 19, 1991, sent out by our mother church, Bryan Station Baptist Church of Lexington (the date is recorded in Bryan Station’s list of churches she has organized). From the beginning we have been a local, independent, self-governing congregation — Sovereign Grace in doctrine, Landmark in our understanding of the church, and Missionary in practice — with the Bible as our only rule of faith and practice and the Lord Jesus Christ as our Head and Founder. You can read the marks of a New Testament church that we hold on our What We Believe page.

Much of our story is written in the work the Lord has allowed us to share in: Bible conferences with faithful men of like precious faith, literature sent to Europe and Latin America, and fellowship with churches from Nigeria to the Philippines. The milestones below are drawn from our own archives and photo albums.

Bryan Station Baptist Church, Lexington, Kentucky
An early meeting house of Bryan Station Baptist Church, Lexington, Kentucky (organized 1786). Photo courtesy of Bryan Station Baptist Church.
Our Mother Church

Bryan Station Baptist Church

Providence was organized on October 19, 1991 under the authority of Bryan Station Baptist Church of Lexington, Kentucky — our mother church. As Baptists have always done, a new congregation was sent out by an existing New Testament church.

Bryan Station was itself organized in 1786 in the Bluegrass. It traces its authority through the “Traveling Church” — the congregation of Spotsylvania Baptist Church, Virginia, that crossed the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky in September 1781 under Elder Lewis Craig — and back through the Separate Baptists of New England.

We are thankful to stand in that line of churches, and we still count Bryan Station a sister church of like faith.

Milestones

Through the Years

October 19, 1991

Providence Baptist Church is organized

On October 19, 1991 a company of believers in Louisville, Kentucky covenant together as Providence Baptist Church, organized under the authority of our mother church, Bryan Station Baptist Church of Lexington — a Sovereign Grace, Landmark, Independent, Missionary Baptist church, holding the Bible as its only rule of faith and practice and Jesus Christ as its Head and Founder.

2009 – 2010

Fellowship reaches West Africa

Our photo gallery preserves the ordination of Bro. Kenneth Imah at Calvary Baptist Church (2009) and a later visit to the church in Calabar, Nigeria (2010).

September 2011

The first archived Annual Bible Conference

Visiting preachers join us each fall for a weekend of preaching. The 2011 conference is the earliest in our audio archive; messages from every year since are available on our Bible Conference Archives page.

2012

Romania and the European Baptist Literature Fund

Bro. Long travels to Bosca, Romania, preaching at the Bible conference there and encouraging a printing ministry that puts sound Baptist literature into Romanian hands. Our website's European Baptist page grew out of this work.

May 29 – June 2, 2014

Fuga Island, Philippines

Bro. Long visits New Berea Baptist Church on Fuga Island and its pastor, Bro. Emmanuel “Manney” Adonay — traveling by van, fishing boat, and carabao cart, and walking three hours to the Arinya mission point to preach. Fifty-five photos from the trip are in our slideshow.

2016

Spring Special Meeting and a return to Romania

A special meeting in May brings Bro. Tom Ross, Bro. Larry Lafferty, and Bro. Nathan Long to the pulpit; later that year Bro. Long preaches at the Romanian Bible Conference, interpreted by Bro. Raul Enyedi.

2018

Cuba

A mission trip to Cuba yields preaching in Spanish and a growing library of Spanish-language Baptist literature, now gathered on our Cuba & Spanish Material page. The Annual Bible Conference continues that September.

Today

Preaching the Word, reaching the world

We still gather every Sunday and Wednesday at 12800 Castle Road. Our pastor, Bro. Kenneth Long, continues to preach Christ; our children's Little Soldiers for Christ send offerings to missionaries around the world; and hundreds of messages are freely available in our archives.

Help Us Tell the Story

Do you have memories or photos from Providence’s early years?

We would love to add them to this page. Bring them by on a Sunday, or send us an email.