The History of
Friendship
Baptist Church

December 1934

Friendship Baptist Church
is organized by 35 Lansing, Michigan residents under the direction of
Reverend Matthew Toomey.
Inez Wright becomes first candidate for baptism.

June 1935

Reverend O.C. Thomas
becomes the first pastor.

1938

Friendship purchases property at 925 West Main Street and erects a church building for $4,100.
Reverend Liston Stone becomes pastor. Under his leadership, the Church, liquidated its debt and experienced membership growth.
Upon his death, November 5, 1948,
Reverend Richard Taylor becomes
interim pastor.

October 1949

Reverend C. Gladstone Scott becomes pastor. Under his leadership, membership grew, the building fund grew from $5,000 to $90,000 and the property next door to the Church was purchased.

1956

The old frame church building is razed
and a new stone edifice is built at
925 West Main Street.

March 1957

New church building is dedicated.

January 1962

Reverend Scott resigns to become
pastor of a Detroit church.
Reverend Richard Taylor serves
as interim.

August 1962

Reverend Ferdinand Fritz becomes new pastor. In April 1964, during his tenure,
the church mortgage is liquidated.
He serves that year until
Reverend David Whittington
is named interim pastor.

November 1964

Reverend E.C. Hawkins becomes pastor.
Under his leadership, the church finances grew from $8,000 to $45,000. Friendship purchased 14.9 acres of land at 2912 Pleasant Grove Road at a cost of $70,000. His tenure ends in 1981 and
Reverend William Steed serves
as interim pastor.

December 1980

The land mortgage for the property at
2912 Pleasant Grove Road
is liquidated and burned.

July 1982

Reverend Lester D. Stone is installed as the new pastor. Under his leadership, Friendship experiences strong growth in ministries, membership, community leadership and finances.

February 1991

Friendship purchases additional property adjacent to 2912 Pleasant Grove Road, increasing land to more than 15 acres.

1993

A new fundraising campaign is launched to build a new Church building.

June 1996

Friendship gives in excess of $10,000 to fund college scholarships for young members.

1999

The "Achieving the Dream" building fund campaign is launched to raise $3.5 million to build a new Church home. Architect firm, Hobbs and Black Associates,
is hired to design the new building.

February 2001

The 925 West Main Street church building and property is sold to General Motors.

April 2002

The congregation authorizes the trustee board to negotiate and contract with Wieland Davco to build the new church building. In May 2002, the groundbreaking ceremony is held at 2912 Pleasant Grove.

July 2002

Friendship secures a loan from Independent Bank to help finance the new 37,000 square foot facility. The new church building features a sanctuary that seats 700, a fellowship hall that seats 250, 12 classrooms, an administrative wing, a pipe organ chamber, a choir rehearsal room and plenty of parking. The estimated cost of the entire building project is $5 million.

March 2003

Friendship publishes "In Our Tradition: African American Family Recipes Celebrating Our Traditions" as a fundraiser for the building fund. The cookbook featured recipes from Friendship's members.
All 10,000 copies published were sold.

June 2003

Friendship Baptist Church moves from
925 West Main Street to
2912 Pleasant Grove Road.
Members walked the path from one property to the other to celebrate!

2010

Upon the death of Pastor Lester Stone on March 31, 2010, Friendship named Reverend Dr. Clyde D. Carnegie as pastor.

2014

Friendship went through a period of upheaval. The Church building was closed and the congregation worshiped
in the property's garage from
June until October.
The unrest resulted in the congregation dividing into two separate churches.
The congregation that remained at
2912 Pleasant Grove Road retained the name of Friendship Baptist Church.

April 2016

Friendship hosted the
2016 Spring Session of the Chain Lake District Missionary Baptist Association, accommodating worship, training and workshops for the member churches representing cities throughout lower central and west Michigan.

June 2016

Friendship joined the
Building Children and Family Initiatives (BCFI) of Lansing to host the 2016
Children Defense Fund Freedom School.
The Freedom School was conducted
June 15 to July 29 serving 50 students,
grades K-8 and 10 staff.

December 2016

During the Summer of 2016,
Friendship launched a campaign to raise funds to install a cross in the sanctuary above the choir stand.
The three month campaign resulted in the installation and dedication of the
10 x 4 foot cherry wood cross mounted
in time for the Church's
82nd anniversary celebration.

March 2020

In March 2020, Friendship joined the world in the global shut-down due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Federal and state stay-at-home orders resulted in Friendship's Sunday School and Sunday Worship moving to teleconference format. The congregation would worship in this manner
for two years.

April 2022

On Easter Sunday, April 4, 2022,
Friendship resumed face-to-face worship service and Sunday School under guidelines developed for member safety by the re-entry committee. Members continued to have the choice of worshiping and joining Sunday School and other Church activities
by phone and online.

September 2022

The Friendship Forever Fund is established as a permanent endowment fund with the Capital Region Community Foundation. The fund provides permanent investment in the mission and vision of Friendship Baptist Church to ensure its ministries forever.

May 2023

On May 11, 2023,
Friendship lost its beloved Pastor,
The Reverend Dr. Clyde D. Carnegie.
He was honored as Friendship's first
Pastor Emeritus,
The Reverend James Douglas, senior associate minister was named Interim Pastor and the Reverend Samuel Johnson, was named senior associate minister.

December 2024

On December 8, 2024, Friendship celebrated its 90th Anniversary with worship service led by the Reverend Dr. Remonia Chapman, of Hartman Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit.
To honor the anniversary, Friendship members fully-endowed the Friendship Forever Fund contributing gifts that brought the fund's invested total to $51,457.43!

June 2025

On June 1, 2025,
Friendship welcomed
Reverend Matthew Alexander
as its ninth Pastor.