Photo courtesy Ben Fogletto/The Press of Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.—Located in the casino-rich environment of Atlantic City, Chelsea Baptist Church calls itself “The Lighthouse in Atlantic City.” “Our main purpose is to just try to accomplish what our Lord told us to do,” says Andrew Avila, who leads the church’s Spanish worship services, “and that is go and preach the gospel.” The church celebrated 115 years of ministry Jan. 11.
Tom Weer arrived at Chelsea Baptist Church in 1981 to serve as assistant pastor. In 1986 he left that ministry to pastor a church in Virginia and then Florida. But in 2010, he was called back to Chelsea Baptist as pastor. He follows in the footsteps of 10 men who served as pastor, including David Otis Fuller. Fuller was pastor from 1929 to 1934, then was editor of the Baptist Bulletin from 1935 to 1938.
Since its inception, Chelsea Baptist Church has been a prominent part of Atlantic City—perhaps in part because the Gothic-style building, built in 1911, is reminiscent of a castle, but also because its first pastor, Thomas Cross, was respected in the community. Cross served from 1911 to 1929. Today when people visit Chelsea Baptist Church, they will see on top of the building a sign saying, “Christ Died for Our Sins,” given to the church by Thomas English Muffins Co.; listen to a newly renovated pipe organ that was donated by John Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia; and see stained-glass windows in the walls and flying buttresses near the ceiling of the 1,200-seat auditorium. Visitors may even choose to sit in a pew marked with a plaque reading, “Warren Gamaliel Harding / 1865–1923 / 29th president of the United States / Occupied this pew / Sept. 11, 1921 / May 12, 1922.” Indeed, President Harding, a Baptist, visited the church on two occasions in 1921 and 1922.
Photo courtesy Ben Fogletto/The Press of Atlantic City
It is by God’s grace that Chelsea Baptist Church, situated on Atlantic Avenue in front of the Tropicana Casino and Resort Hotel, has ministered for 115 years. “We have people show up at the door here who have lost all their money, have no way to get home, and come to us for a bus ticket or some sort of help,” Bill Gibson, a longtime member and chair of the deacon board, told the Press of Atlantic City. The newspaper featured the church on the front page of its Jan. 11 edition in its article “A.C.’s Chelsea Baptist keeps message alive for 115 years.”
“Whatever people are doing, we’re not here to tell them that they’re any worse than what we’ve done,” Weer says, “but that there’s a solution.” Weer wants Chelsea Baptist Church to impact its city. “Just seeing peoples’ hearts change should make a difference in the way they live, [in] the things they want to do.”
At its anniversary service, the church was honored to have the mayor of Atlantic City, Don Guardian, in attendance.
“We are continuing to be a lighthouse for God here in Atlantic City,” Weer says, “as those that come to Atlantic City, whether to gamble or shop, can read our sign on top of our church.”
