The members and guests who packed the pews of Central Baptist Church last Sunday, weren’t simply commemorating a milestone date. They gathered because exactly 180 years earlier, 23 free and enslaved African Americans stepped into the Liberty Engine House with nothing but their faith, their courage and a determination to build something slavery could not silence.
On this anniversary morning, the descendants of their faith stood in the sanctuary as living proof that those founders’ prayers did not fall on deaf ears.
“Bound by chains of an unjust social system, they walked through those doors and did something bold — something resistant, something divinely ordained,” said Rev. Dr. Robert C. Scott, Central’s 13th pastor and guest preacher for the celebration. “They established a church.”
Founded in 1846 as Second African Baptist Church, Central’s story is inseparable from the larger struggle for Black freedom. Among the original 23 was Harriet Robinson Scott — wife of Dred Scott — whose fight for freedom would reshape the nation’s legal and moral consciousness.
“That same Harriet Scott … whose pastor, Rev. John Anderson, was right here helping enslaved and free people file Freedom Suits,” said Scott, who is not related to Dred or Harriet. “Because Central Baptist Church has never just been a church. It has always been a movement.”
The church was renamed Central Baptist Church in 1885 and is the second oldest Black church in St. Louis, preceded only by First African Baptist Church.
Scott spoke as someone shaped by the church he once led.
“I would not be who I am and I would not be where I am had it not been for 17 years as the lead servant here,” he said, noting his tenure stands among the longest in the church’s history. “I would not be who I am as a pastor and a preacher — but more importantly as a person, husband and father.”
Before Scott preached, Rev. Dr. Gwendolyn Packnett of Westside Missionary Baptist Church offered a historical reflection, tracing Central’s role beyond the pulpit.
“Her pastors have been more than preachers,” she said. “They have been activists, educators, organizers and prophetic voices who stood in the gap for God’s people.”
Under the leadership of her late husband, Rev. Dr. Ronald B. Packnett, Central became a hub for social justice work, including his role leading the St. Louis delegation to the Million Man March in 1995.
“You leave an indelible mark on every visitor who walks through these doors,” Packnett said. “Before the world ever coined the word influencer, Central was shaping the conscience of a nation.”
Packnett said that legacy continues under current pastor Rev. Dr. Anthony L. Riley, who has led the church since 2019.
“He carries on the tradition of greatness that would make the ancestors proud,” she said.
Central’s longevity has not come without trial.
A devastating electrical fire in 1971 destroyed the sanctuary, wiping out decades of history. Gone. A structure that sheltered the prayers of thousands. Gone. Countless sermons of 11 pastors. In 2007, a storm tore away the roof. Each time, the congregation rebuilt.
“The devil thought that was the end for Central Baptist Church,” Scott said. “But God did not let the devil write the final chapter.”
For Riley, the anniversary is both celebration and responsibility.
“All year long we have been celebrating what God has done to and through Central Baptist Church,” he said. “I might not have been here all 180 years, but if it had not been for the Lord on my side …”
Anniversary committee co-chairs L’Erin Wagner and Deacon Robert Henson echoed that forward-looking message.
“While today is a time to look back with gratitude, it is also a time to look forward with hope,” Henson said.
Scott’s sermon — “There Is Nothing Like the Church,” drawn from Psalm 138 — returned to the audacity of the church’s beginnings.
“Just 23 people,” he said. “Not 230. Not 2,300. Just 23.”
They could not vote. They could not testify in court. They faced constant harassment. But they could gather.
“And they gathered in the name of Jesus on March 22, 1846 — exactly 180 years ago today — and that’s exactly what they did,” Scott said.
From that act grew a church that would anchor Black life through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement.
Even as he celebrated the past, Scott warned of new challenges.
“We are witnessing the systemic disconnection of a generation from its spiritual roots,” he said. “This is not a social problem. This is a spiritual emergency.”
He urged Central to remain rooted in the spirit of its founding.
“Central was made by complicated folk — enslaved and free people at the same time,” he said. “Don’t you dare become the church that turned away people the founders would have welcomed with open arms.”
Every time Central gathers, he said, it stands as evidence of endurance.
“God is a providing keeper and a keeping provider,” Scott said. “God has been faithful — and God’s faithfulness will carry Central to another 180 years.”