About

Palm Sunday 1964

Palm Sunday 1964

Stelton Story

The First Day Baptist Society of Piscataway (the original name) was organized by six men:
Hugh Dunn, John Smalley, Nicholas Bonham, Edmund Dunham, John Drake and John Randolph

Sometime in the spring of 1689, these six men formed this Baptist Church, with the assistance of Rev. Thomas Killingworth, who had organized the Middletown Baptist Church the preceding year.  Of the six members, three were lay-preachers:  John Drake, Hugh Dunn and Edmund Dunham. John Drake was chosen to be the first pastor and was ordained with Rev. Killingsworth officiating. Rev. John Drake served as the founder pastor for fifty years.  

In 1707, five churches united to form the Philadelphia Association, the first Baptist association in America. These five churches were: First Baptist Church Piscataway, NJ (Now called Stelton Baptist Church); Pennepak Baptist Church, PA; First Baptist Church Middletown, NJ (Now called Old First Church); Cohansey Baptist Church, NJ; and Welch Tract Baptist Church, DE.

Pastors of these churches had previously held annual "general meetings" to discuss the spiritual conditions of their churches and to consult about Christian doctrine and discipline. It seemed desirable to form a permanent organization, with "messengers" from each church meeting at an annual convention. This was to be a consulting and advisory body only, to discuss the needs of the various churches. The first convention was held from July 27th to July 30th, 1707.

Before the 200 year mark six churches were planted:

  1. Piscataway Town Baptist Church ( Now called Abundant Life Christian Center)

  2. Scotch Plains Baptist Church

  3. Morristown Baptist Church

  4. New Brunswick Baptist Church

  5. Plainfield First Baptist Church

  6. First Baptist Church of Metuchen.

The 27th pastor is Rev. Dr. Louis M. Ao.  He has served since 2012 to present. Under his pastoral leadership, spiritual growth is highly emphasized by preaching spirit filled sermons and conducting a Saturday night age group bible study along with corporate prayer, and pot luck dinner.  Other highlights include conducting an annual weekend of Revival services by inviting special guest speaker(s), conducting Vacation Bible School in the summer, and holding a combined Good Friday and Christmas service with the sisters church who meets in the church building, namely, Iglesia Baustista de Edison, Sola Scriptura Church (Indonesian) and One Heart Korean Church. When Pastor Ao was called to join this church as its senior pastor in February 2012, only around fifteen members were attending the church.  By God’s grace today the church has been revitalized & now over fifty people call Stelton Baptist their home church. It is a multi-cultural church representative of our diverse community.

We reach out to our community by teaching English as a Second Language, offering an After School program for the neighborhood children, host the Certificate in Christian Ministry and leadership program from New York Theological Seminary, and provide food to the community through our Food Pantry ministry in collaboration with Feeding Hands held every second Saturday of the month.

A Praise and Worship Team was started by Pastor Ao’s family and in 2013 Hertzler Awuy was called to be the Music and Youth minister of SBC.  This has been a great help in the development of the Praise Team and the organization of a regular Youth bible study and fellowship on Saturdays. Hertzler stepped down from this position on January 2021 to focus on his growing family. In the month of June 2016 Rev. Jay Park was ordained by American Churches of New Jersey at SBC.  He is serving in the church as Minister of Spiritual Formation. Rev. Dr. Victor Cadette served as the Minister of Education and Evangelism from 2018 to 2020. 

In the area of repairs and upgrades, through a combined effort of resident churches, Stelton was able to upgrade the church building with a new sound system, an overhead video system, air conditioning units for the summer months, conversion of the heating system to natural gas, and an LED electronic sign.  In addition, resident churches worked together to plant trees and flowers around the cemetery and church building to improve the curbside appeal to the property; repairs to the sidewalk were made; new audio/video/lighting was setup and implemented for livestreaming during the covid pandemic to cater to church members who are not able to attend in person. The Pastor’s family donated new curtains to improve the look of Walker Hall and the Sunday school rooms.  Mr. Santosh Raiborde family donated the power point projector and Mr. Rahul Bhattacharya family donated the new fans in the Walker Hall.

The church web site is improved weekly, Sunday services are broadcasted live and available for playback. Past sermons are available as podcasts. SBC’s Facebook page is also updated regularly with pictures and announcements of church events.

We give God the glory for all the great things He has done through the leadership of all the pastors and members at Stelton Baptist Church. We pray that God will continue to use this historical church for years to come for God’s kingdom.

List of all the Pastors that have served:

  1. John Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . 1689 - 1739

  2. Benjamin Stelle  . . . . . . . . .1739 - 1759   

  3. Isaac Stelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759 - 1781   

  4. Reune Runyon . . . . . . . . . 1783 - 1811

  5. James McLaughlin  . . . . . . 1812 - 1817

  6. Daniel Dodge . . . . . . . . . . 1818 - 1832

  7. Daniel Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . 1833 - 1849

  8. Henry V. Jones . . . . . . . . . .1850 – 1856

  9. Christian J. Page . . . . . . . . .1856 - 1867

  10. James F. Brown . . . . . . . . . .1868 - 1878

  11. John W. Sarles . . . . . . . . . . 1879 - 1895

  12. William T. Dorward . . . . . .1896 - 1910

  13. Sutliff V. Robinson . . . . . . .1911 - 1917

  14. Laban H. Chamberlin . . . . .1918 - 1928

  15. Paul Conrad . . . . . . . . . . . .1928 - 1930

  16. Bertram Crocker . . . . . . . . .1931 - 1932

  17. Frederick McNair . . . . . . . . 1933 - 1936  

  18. Robert O. Seely . . . . . . . . . 1940 - 1950

  19. Lloyd A. Williams . . . . . . . . 1950 - 1961

  20. Wade Stewart . . . . . . . . . . . . 1962 - 1966

  21. James Eldridge . . . . . . . . . . . 1967 - 1973

  22. David M. Brown  . . . . . . . . . 1974 - 1978

  23. Richard P. Cook . . . . . . . . . . 1980 - 1988

  24. Michael E. Riley . . . . . . . . . 1990 - 1998

  25. Kathleen Tice . . . . . . . . . . . .1999 - 2010

  26. Tamara Davis . . . . . . . . . . . .  2010 - 2011

  27. Louis M. Ao . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2012 – Present