Our history
It started on a Sunday night in the East Lee Chapel.
Berkshire Hills Baptist Church began in May 1950 with a small group of believers in Lee who wanted more of the Word than they were getting anywhere else.
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:9
In May, 1950, a small group of Christian believers in Lee, Massachusetts, feeling the need for greater spiritual food and fellowship, and led separately by the Spirit of God, came together and started what was at first called the “Sunday Evening Gospel Hour”. Meetings were held every Sunday night for a year in the East Lee Chapel and God richly blessed this small ministry. Besides the Sunday evening services, a Children’s Bible Study Hour was held on a week-day afternoon, a Women’s Bible class was held one morning a week, and a prayer service one evening a week. Because of these varied activities the name of the group was changed to the “Gospel Fellowship”.
During May, 1951, the meeting place was changed to the Lee Grange Hall where the Sunday evening service was held and it was voted to organize an Independent Baptist Church and to have services start on October 7, 1951. One of the richest blessings enjoyed by the Fellowship was the weekday Prayer Meeting. Here, especially, the Lord seemed to be very near and to lead the Fellowship on to the organization of a church of believers with Jesus Christ as the Corner Stone. This brief history of the early beginnings of this Church is given so that in future years those who unite with the Church and carry on its work will know how God led and guided all the way.
How it happened
From a Sunday night meeting to a church.
- 01
May 1950
The Sunday Evening Gospel Hour
A small group of believers in Lee began meeting every Sunday night in the East Lee Chapel, feeling the need for greater spiritual food and fellowship.
- 02
1950–1951
The Gospel Fellowship
A Children’s Bible Study Hour, a Women’s Bible class and a weekday prayer service were added, and the group took a new name to match.
- 03
May 1951
The Lee Grange Hall
The meeting place moved, and the Fellowship voted to organize an Independent Baptist Church.
- 04
October 7, 1951
Services begin
The church was organized with Jesus Christ as the Corner Stone — and has been on Pleasant Street ever since.
Still here
The same Book, the same welcome.
Seventy-five years on, the names on the roll have changed. The preaching has not. Come and see for yourself on a Sunday morning — Sunday School at 10:00, Morning Worship at 11:00.
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How to have eternal life — guaranteed.
Not a program, not a membership, and not something you have to earn. This is the single most crucial decision you will make in your lifetime, laid out plainly and entirely from Scripture — what the Bible says about your guilt, about the Gospel, and about the promise God cannot lie about.
Read it now“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life. ” — 1 John 5:13