First Baptist Church in Norwich was founded in 1800 on the Old High Street at the top of the hill on Norwich’s west side and at its current West Main Street location since 1880. “The whole West Side has been reconstructed and most of the old High Street is gone. I always imagined it sitting up where the RLC Insurance Company is. Part of the reason that the church split in 1840 and some members left to form Central Baptist was because people got tired of walking up the hill to go to church. It was built high on the hill because the people liked the idea from Scripture of a ‘city on a hill’ imagery,” said the Rev. Cal Lord in an email.

Lord, who was pastor at First Baptist Church from June 1985 to March 2011, said the church “didn’t keep great attendance records back in the day,” but that attendance was high under the Rev. Percy Kilmister (1929-1943) and the Rev. Walter Loomis (1944-1951).

“Things dipped a little in the 1950s but then there was a boom in the 1960s under the pastorate of the Rev. Walter Schoepfer (1957-1967),” who was well loved and “averaged close to 170 people per week... but that includes the summer figures which were much lower because people left the city for vacation.

“The average attendance during the year was probably closer to 190 with many Sundays over 200 people. The attendance began to fall off in the 1960s as the neighborhood changed. It continued right into the 1980s. The year before I started we were averaging about 45 -50 people on a Sunday. Times were good while I was there and a lot of things fell into place. West Main Street was widened and the church became very visible. We grew steadily.

“As we celebrated our 200th anniversary in 2000, we were averaging over 120 people per week. That dipped a little in the next decade and my last year (2011) we were averaging close to 100 people per week.”

Lord added, “The pandemic has been hard on churches. The church is all about people being together, worshipping God, serving God and encouraging each other in the faith. When that doesn’t happen, churches suffer.

“Two churches in Norwich either closed or merged with another church during the pandemic. Others are still suffering like First Baptist.

He added that online church services was a stopgap measure.

“There are lots of good television preachers,” he said. “None of us are as good as the people who do that full time. If people were looking for a good sermon, we will almost always lose out. What people want is a connection. The thing the local church has to offer is close relationships and personal friendships.

“When the building is closed and activities are limited, you lose the most crucial ingredient in what helps build a fervent faith. Worshipping, working and serving God together is what makes the church a special place to be.”

The Rev. Cal Lord is currently the pastor at Central Baptist Church in Westerly.