Greater First Church-Baptist was organized on May 14, 2006 in Baton Rouge utilizing the facilities of the Ebenezer Baptist Church by our visionary Pastor Anthony Kelley and former members of Mount Zion First Baptist Church located in downtown Baton Rouge. In 2004 Pastor Kelley was called from Gary, Indiana, where he served for 13 years as Pastor and Teacher of the Van Buren Missionary Baptist Church, to fill the pastoral vacancy left by Dr. Theodore Judson (T.J) Jemison upon his retirement. After a year of fruitful service and significant growth, the Pastor and Trustee Board felt it was time to move in a new direction organizing Greater First Church-Baptist.

Since our humble beginnings, and commitment to developing and implementing a new direction in Christian Ministry that embraces community, cooperation, competence, and character as her garments, our budding legacy continues as seen when in less than three years after organization, purchased two buildings on our new church campus to include a Sanctuary and Fellowship and Activity Center which was later named in honor of the memory and outstanding contributions as Charter members and national education pioneers of excellence in the persons of Dr. Emmett W. Bashful and Dr. Huel D. Perkins. We continue to serve our community through benevolence; mission and evangelistic outreach; positive youth development activities and events including mentoring services; public safety; crime prevention; prison and criminal justice initiatives; and family preservation ministries as our church family continues to grow by God’s grace and mercy.