About Us
A Gospel church in Brant Lake since 1831.
Horicon Baptist Church exists to see God glorified and disciples multiplied through the power of the Gospel.
God Glorified
We gladly affirm the biblical truth that everything God does is for His glory, but the climactic display of God’s glory is His unimaginable grace shown in the gospel, wherein Jesus sheds His blood to purchase a people for Himself. This “people” is the Church, which means that the local Church stands as a visible testimony to the infinite grace and glory of God.
For this reason, Horicon Baptist Church exists firstly and primarily to see God glorified; we only want to be a part of the Church that Jesus is building, so we hope and pray that the day Horicon Baptist Church ceases to fundamentally exist for God’s glory is the day Horicon Baptist Church ceases to exist at all!
Disciples Multiplied
Since the apex of God’s glory is visually testified through the local Church, and since man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, we are ferociously committed to seeing the church be a place where disciples make disciples!
The church exists so that we may build up one another in love and faith. We believe that loving and healthy congregations are not peripheral to God’s plan of redemption, rather, they are absolutely crucial. Indeed, the great commission to “make disciples of all the nations” cannot be fulfilled without the local church, since it is within the context of the local church that discipleship primarily takes place.
Through the Power of the Gospel
Declaring the Gospel
The gospel is all we have as a Church. The good news that God the Son—the second person of the Trinity—took humanity upon himself as the God-man to live a perfect and sinless life and to die on the cross as a substitute for sinners, and to then be resurrected three days later to make a way for sinners to be reconciled to God is our greatest hope! We bank everything on this message as a people, and we believe that the greatest good we could perform to a lost and dying world is to declare this gospel.
This consists of words and unambiguous claims: “God is righteous and holy.” “We are broken and sinful, and thus deserve His wrath.” “God pours His wrath out on Christ at Calvary to atone for the sins of all those who would be united to Him by faith.” God builds His Church by this gospel, and if we thus hope to glorify Him and multiply disciples, we must declare this message, and we do so gladly!
Displaying the Gospel
The grace that we receive through the gospel has a backbone! It doesn’t simply come into our hearts and lie dormant, satisfied to leave our lives the way they were when we were slaves to sin, rather, it stirs us up to love and good works that reflect the gospel! We display the gospel in our words and deeds and attitudes towards one another (that is, the Church), and towards our neighbors and communities.
This does not mean that we are preaching the Gospel with our lives, but rather the glorious truth of the gospel we proclaim compels us to live in a way that accords with our proclamation, so we long to see God glorified and disciples multiplied particularly when we not only declare the gospel, but also display the gospel.
Constituted in 1831
This church was constituted in 1831. A number of people connected with the churches of Bolton and Chester living in the vicinity of Brant Lake met in a school house on the 2nd of November 1831. After mature deliberation they entered into covenant relations with each other as a church of Christ, adopted articles of faith and practice, and invited the church of the Lake George Association to send delegates to a council of recognition.
A branch of the church was sustained at Mill Brook for several years. The membership of Horicon Church was scattered over a large territory and was brought together in one place only on some special occasions; the church had no house of worship in 1876. In 1899 a meeting house was built free of debt.
In 1931 the church celebrated its 100th anniversary. In 1963, the Horicon Baptist Church withdrew from the Lake George Association becoming an independent church, and a constitution and set of by-laws were drawn up by the deacons and the pastor.
Horicon Baptist Church continues to look forward to its future, reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing them added to His church.
We can’t wait to meet you
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