Middle Street Baptist Church sits on the corner of Middle Street and Court Street in the heart of downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where it has served the seacoast community for well over a century. The congregation calls itself a family of women, men, and children who want to know God and follow Jesus, and the building on Court Street reflects that focus on people rather than stone. A small parking lot behind the church, reached by a driveway off Middle Street, welcomes visitors every week, and the front doors facing Court Street are open on Sunday mornings.
A Covenant Written in 1840
The church's roots in Portsmouth go back at least to the nineteenth century. Its Statement of Faith is adapted from the New Hampshire Confession of Faith of 1833 and from the Middle Street Baptist Church Statement of Faith of 1840, and its Church Covenant was adopted in May 1840. That covenant is still used by the congregation today. Members promise to walk together in brotherly love, to exercise Christian care and watchfulness over one another, to faithfully warn, rebuke, and admonish one another, to continue assembling together, to pray for themselves and others, to share one another's joys and sorrows, and to seek a faithful evangelical ministry.
In matters of belief the church aligns with historic, orthodox Christianity, assenting to the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. From its own Statement of Faith the church teaches that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the wholly inspired, true, authoritative, powerful, and beautiful word of God and the only rule of faith and practice. It affirms one living and true God who eternally exists as three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in divine perfection. It confesses the goodness of God's original creation, the fall of humanity into sin, and God's plan of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who became fully human and fully divine, lived a sinless life, suffered death in our place, rose on the third day, and offers eternal redemption to all who repent and believe.
The church also teaches that justification is by faith in the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer, that the Holy Spirit progressively sanctifies Christians through attention to the Word, self-examination, prayer, and watchfulness, and that nothing can finally separate true believers from the love of God. Christian baptism, by immersion of a believer in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is understood as the testimony of faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Christ, and the Lord's table is open to all who have professed faith in Christ. The church looks for the second coming of Christ, a general resurrection, a day of final judgment, and the promised new heaven and new earth.
Sunday Mornings: Hymns, Organ, and the Occasional Bluegrass Band
Weekly worship gathers in the sanctuary at 10:00 am on Sundays, with many members arriving around 9:45 to settle in. Services usually run sixty-five to seventy minutes and weave together three or four congregational songs, prayer, and a sermon that aims to help the church understand the Bible and learn to live by it. The congregation describes itself as appreciative of the thoughtful, robust tradition of many hymns and historic prayers while maintaining a relaxed spirit. The motto on the welcome page says it well: traditional, but not stuffy.
Music is led by a combination of piano, guitar, drums, and organ. Some weeks the sound leans contemporary; others it leans traditional. On occasion several members lead worship with a bluegrass-style band. After every service the church heads downstairs to connect with one another over coffee and light snacks. Worship is also livestreamed, with audio of recent sermons available through a podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and recordings archived online.
Pastors Chris and David
Pastor Chris has served the church family since 2014. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he is a graduate of Davidson College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Jaime, are the parents of Elliot, Joanna, and Judson. He is often found on skis in the winter or on a bike in the summer, and he counts milk chocolate, salt and vinegar potato chips, and strong coffee among his favorites.
Pastor David, the Associate Pastor, joined the staff officially in January 2025. A New England native, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from the University of New England and a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Jen, were wed in 2018, and their daughter, Gracie, was born in the spring of 2020. Pastor David describes himself as an imperfect follower of Jesus who seeks to become more like him, and he welcomes office visits or a coffee at the visitor's favorite café. Music Director Tamara Rozek leads the congregation's musical life alongside other volunteers.
Junior Church and the Nursery: A Family Worshiping Together
Children of all ages are part of the church family and welcome during every part of the worship service. The church keeps activity bags in the sanctuary for children, and several times each month a church leader spends dedicated time with the children in a children's story. The first Sunday of every month is set aside as a family Sunday, when the entire congregation, from the youngest to the oldest, worships together.
On the second, third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of the month, Junior Church is offered for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. Trained volunteer teachers lead experiential lessons designed to help children learn about God's love through Jesus in tangible, interactive, and fun ways. Parents can pick children up from the Junior Church classroom on the second floor at 11:15. A staffed nursery is available each Sunday for the youngest children, overseen by trained, background-checked volunteer caretakers. Parents can drop children off before the service begins or midway through, after the kids are dismissed for Junior Church, and pick them up on the main floor directly after the service.
Safety is taken seriously. When parents check their children in, the church collects a cell phone number so that a caretaker can reach them quickly during the service if needed. Every volunteer who works with children undergoes a federal and state background check. The children's spaces are carefully located in secure areas of the building with access to multiple emergency exits, and ongoing safety training is provided for caretakers and teachers.
Teenagers: A Bimonthly Rhythm
Middle and high school students are invited to join the worship service on Sunday mornings and often serve in meaningful ways. In addition, the student youth group meets roughly twice a month on Sundays for more structured time together. Those gatherings include an intentional activity, shared food, and a Bible lesson aimed at helping students grow in a deeper relationship with Jesus. The youth ministry is rooted in the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3: that students would be rooted and established in love and grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
The Seacoast Community Lunch on Wednesdays
Every Wednesday from 12:00 to 1:00 pm, the lower level of the church building fills with neighbors for the Seacoast Community Lunch, a free, indoor, seated hot meal open to anyone who comes through the door. The lunch is a long-standing local ministry that the church hosts and supports. Along with take-out options, the meal offers a place to sit, eat, and find community in the middle of the week.
Supporting Neighbors Across the Seacoast
Beyond the Wednesday lunch, Middle Street Baptist takes seriously its call to serve its city and the surrounding region. The church is proud to support and pray for a wide circle of local ministries and organizations. Camp Sentinel offers summer camps for children in a welcoming environment for Christian relationship building and spiritual renewal. Crossroads House provides emergency and transitional shelter to homeless men, women, and children along with tools and guidance to return to permanent housing. Gather NH, formerly the Seacoast Family Food Pantry, runs a central pantry market, mobile distribution, prepared meals, and nutrition education. Haven works on community action and organizing to aid victims of domestic and sexual violence. Murrow Indian Children's Home provides a safe, nurturing environment, spiritual foundation, and cultural experiences to Native American children in crisis. Operation Blessing fights poverty in Portsmouth with physical aid, transitional assistance, and spiritual care on the Seacoast. The Salvation Army, located at the same Court Street address as the church, offers hot meals, physical goods, and spiritual care. Seacoast Birthright offers unconditional love, hope, nonjudgmental support, and resources for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies.
Around the World: International Mission Partnerships
The church also supports a number of missionaries and mission organizations further afield. Individual missionaries include Bill and Ann Clemmer, Mercy Gonzalez-Barnes, Cory and Amy Havlicek, and Tim and Patti Long, each serving in their own contexts and connected to broader mission networks. The church partners with Church World Service, One Great Hour of Sharing, and ABC International Ministries, supporting relief, refugee, and global mission work through these longstanding cooperative bodies.
A Small Part of a Big Body: The American Baptist Connection
Middle Street Baptist is one of roughly five thousand churches that make up the American Baptist Churches USA, a family of congregations that traces its lineage back to the 1600s and was originally created as a support network for overseas Christian missionaries. Within the ABC-USA the church belongs to the American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire, the regional expression of the denomination, and within that to the Southeast Association.
The church explains that, like other Baptist congregations, it is independently governed under a congregational polity. The highest authority in the church's life rests with the congregation itself; there is no bishop, and the denomination has no formal authority over the church. Still, the church values its voluntary associations with other congregations. It believes that pooling resources allows for more effective service, that churches can better encourage and support one another, and that mutual accountability helps every congregation stay on track.
Growing Deeper: Spiritual Formation
The church curates an extensive list of resources for anyone who wants to grow in prayer, Bible study, and spiritual practice. Recommended books include Adele Calhoun's Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline, Dallas Willard's The Spirit of the Disciplines, and Mark Buchanan's The Rest of God, along with Gordon Fee and Doug Stuart's How to Read the Bible For All It's Worth, Richard Foster's Prayer, and Paul Miller's A Praying Life. For daily prayer, the church points to Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community, the Book of Common Prayer, and Every Moment Holy by Douglas Kaine McKelvey. For visual learners, The Bible Project offers video tours of books, themes, and characters of Scripture, and The Chosen offers a contemporary retelling of the life of Jesus. Parents can also find recommended children's music, books, and bulletins, along with links to The Gospel Project, the church's children's curriculum.
Where and When to Find Them
The building stands at 18 Court Street, at the intersection of Middle Street and Court Street in downtown Portsmouth. Visitors may park in the lot behind the building, reached by the driveway off Middle Street, or simply walk in through the Court Street doors on Sunday morning. Worship is at 10:00 am. There is no dress code beyond wearing whatever makes a guest comfortable; some attenders wear dresses, coats, and ties, others wear jeans and hoodies. The Seacoast Community Lunch is served downstairs every Wednesday from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. The church office can be reached at (603) 436-2337 or hello@middle.st, and the congregation can also be found on Facebook and Instagram under the names Middle Street Baptist Church and @middlestreetnh.