Celebrate Fayetteville: Exploring the Greater Fayetteville Region

SNYDER
MEMORIAL
BAPTIST CHURCH
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Above: Front entrance to main sanctuary.
Right: Mission Trip to Mathare Slum in
Nairobi, Kenya.
“Hearts United in Loving God, Sharing
Christ, and Serving Others” accurately describes
the church based at 701 Westmont Drive.
Considering that twenty-five percent of its
annual income goes towards missions, it
is easy to understand how the church is
able to serve not only the world through
its robust missions program, but also
the Fayetteville and Cumberland County
community by giving back through
numerous ministries.
Born out of a vision from members
of First Baptist Church in downtown
Fayetteville to plant a church in northwest
Fayetteville, “The Church on the Hill”
started as the New Northwest Baptist
Church. The first church service was
held on Sunday, August 21, 1949, at Westlawn
School. Over 180 people attended Sunday
School that day and 200 came for worship. Mrs.
Joel Snyder, the widow of Dr. Joel Snyder who
pastored First Baptist Church for twenty-eight
years and for whom the new church was named,
urged church members while searching for a
piece of land to look for ACRES! Mrs. Snyder
said, “This won’t be any ordinary church.”
Decades later, that statement still
rings true for Snyder Memorial Baptist
Church which has planted three other
churches in Fayetteville, including
Village Baptist Church, Aaron Lake
Baptist Church and the Korean Baptist
Church, and started over ninety-seven
ministries to meet various needs. In its
first sixty-two years, Snyder members
gave $15.6 million to mission causes
and $77.2 million overall. To date, 216
members have gone on 458 mission
trips to 39 countries.
Youth, as well as adults, have taken
mission trips. Youth have gone to
Kenya, South Africa, Ukraine, Trinidad
and Haiti. Domestic mission trips have
taken the youth to Oklahoma, New York
City, Kentucky, New Jersey, Mississippi,
Washington and San Antonio. Adults
have been on missions to Kosovo,
South Africa, Honduras, England,
Kenya, Czech Republic, Armenia, Cuba,
Guatemala, Europe, Haiti, Moldova
and Myanmar. Nationally, adults have
traveled to help those in need in Florida,
Mississippi, North Carolina, New Orleans,
Kentucky and Washington.
His Little Ones Ministry, partnering with
pastors and missionaries to reach children
with the gospel and love of Jesus, is currently
in eighty-one countries and forty languages,
with approximately 150,000 books in print
throughout the world. His Little Ones
Ministry has started a ministry for critically ill
children and their families called His Shining
Stars with the book I Am With You Always.
C E L E B R A T E F A Y E T T E V I L L E : E x p l o r i n g t h e G r e a t e r F a y e t t e v i l l e R e g i o n
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