Church History

Greenwood Forest Baptist Church is a vibrant congregation focused on being an inclusive community of faith. Throughout our church history, we have always been striving to be better and to fully realize this vision. Since the beginning, our commitment to this identity and the mission of God has always expanded. 

Our church began in March 1962 when a church mission started meeting in the band room of Cary Elementary School. The congregation built its first home in May 1964 on the corner of Maynard and Kildaire Farm Roads. The congregation built and dedicated the current sanctuary in December 1978.

Under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Luther Brewer, the church took concrete steps toward what it meant to be an inclusive community of faith. In 1969, Greenwood Forest began ordaining women to its diaconate, a rare occurrence in a Baptist church at the time. The church opened a children’s center in the 1960s that was deliberately integrated, bucking Southern trends that sought to cling to segregation. In the 1980s, the church rallied around refugees of the Vietnam War, helping them resettle and build a new life after the bloody conflict. After fundamentalists completed their takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Greenwood Forest helped found the Alliance of Baptists, an inclusive Baptist denomination that welcomed the leadership and ordination of women and LGBTQ people. 

After Rev. Brewer retired, Greenwood Forest welcomed multiple pastors, including most recently Rev. Lauren Efird, the first woman to fill the role of Senior Pastor. Under Rev. Efird’s leadership, Greenwood Forest has struggled with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fight against the deportation of one of our church members, advocated for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in Baptist life, and continued to embrace our legacy and what it means to be an inclusive community of faith.

Currently, Greenwood Forest is in the process of repurposing its property to address community needs for affordable housing and early childhood education. Find out more here!

For more on the church’s history, please consult the Church Archives in the Media Center!