Brief History
In 1969, Rev. Earl Umbaugh was scouting cities in Ohio for places that he felt needed churches. He contacted three couples to see if they would be interested in starting a church on the south side of Springfield. October 1969, these familes began to meet for prayer on Tuesday evenings in homes. One of the men had been a friend of Joe Stowell since they were freshmen at Cedarville College and knew that Joe was soon to graduate from Dallas Theological Senimary. He wrote Joe and asked if he would be interested in being their pastor. When word got out that Joe Stowell was considering coming, more and more began to attend the prayer services. By February 1970, the small group had enough money to buy Joe Stowell a ticket to fly up from Dallas to candidate. About twenty people were at a home gathering where it was agreed to call Joe as the pastor after his graduation from Dallas Theological Seminary in June.
On the first Sunday in April 1970, the infant Southgate Baptist Church held its first service in Perrin Woods school cafeteria. Jim Greer brought the message that first Sunday to a group of about forty people. Other guest speakers came for the next eight weeks until Joe and Marty Stowell pulled their camper onto a church family's front lawn in June. In the spring of 1971, Pastor Stowell, a charter member, and Al Monroe wrote the church constitution and Southgate became official. There were over one hundred in attendance by then and the group had to move into the school gymnasium. In less than a year, attendance had reached two hundred and plans were made to break ground for their own building. Expecting growth based on the current numbers, a building was planned to seat four hundred. The first Sunday in the new facility saw four hundred sixty crammed into the pews.
