Eliot Baptist Church

In the spring of 1983 several families living in southern Maine and members of Dover Baptist Church in neighboring New Hampshire attended a routine Sunday morning service where Rev. Stan Rockafellow, with the Conservative Baptist Home Missions Society, was the guest speaker.  The Rockafellow’s were completing the establishment of their fourth new church in NH and were waiting for God to lead them to their next project.  During the service that day God was calling southern Maine families to the exciting work of starting a new church.

On May 24^th several families met with Stan and Donna Rockafellow.  From that day on God has continued to open doors and bless us as we serve Him.  Housing was quickly located for the Rockafellow family and a meeting place became available in the Eliot Grange Hall.  With the help of the Conservative Baptist Home Missions Society, a plan was implemented to become self-supporting in 3 years. On Sept 4, 1983 Eliot Baptist officially opened its doors with 84 people in attendance.  The families God sent had many gifts and the church immediately began ministering as God provided the workers.  A constitution was written, accepted and approved by the church body on Jan 6, 1985.

In 1987 we purchased our present property on Route 236.  That same year our congregation asked Pastor Stan to remain as our Pastor and he accepted.  We broke ground on Sept 9, 1987 and held our first service in our new building on Oct 16, 1988.  Our finances continue to be blessed by the Lord.  An expansion of the sanctuary, fellowship hall and additional classrooms was completed in the spring of 1995. In the fall of 2001 we completed a foyer expansion with a welcome center, two offices, a cry room, restrooms, a new classroom and storage space. Outgrowing our facility once again, 2007 saw the addition of parking and lighting, completion of a new gym connected to the original building by an expanded foyer including a new office and welcome center.  The sanctuary was doubled in size.  Below the foyer are additional classrooms and above it a large Youth Center.  A major kitchen renovation was completed last fall.

Pastor Stan Rockafellow has remained as our Senior Pastor and in May of 2000 his youngest son Nathan joined our fellowship as Pastor of Student Ministries.  In July of 2001 Pastor Joel Beers joined us as  Pastor of Outreach.  Lelia LaPlante became Director of Women’s Ministries in the summer of 2006.  This summer we welcomed Yves Perodin as an intern Pastor.  Yves and his family came to us from Michigan. On October 27, 2010, Jon Priddy joined us as our Assistant Youth Pastor. God has blessed us with a wonderful team of pastors that collectively shephard us as they each use their unique gifts and abilities.