The History of Capital Baptist Church

It all started when…

After Mrs. Pearl Cooley, a member at Springfield moved to Salem, she wrote the Baptist Convention Office, located at that time in Portland, inquiring about Southern Baptist work in the Salem area. About the same time, Mr. Ben Swinford met with individuals from the Portland Office in Dallas, Oregon with the same inquiry. As a result, Roland P. Hood placed a notice in the Salem newspaper asking those interested in beginning a Southern Baptist work in the Salem area to meet at the Senator Hotel, which stood at 515 Court ST NE.

Ten people attended that first meeting held on Sunday night, March 25, 1950. After a time of devotion and discussion, they arranged to meet again on April 2 at the Seventh Day Adventist building. Capital Baptist Church was the result of those meetings, and was officially organized on September 9, 1950, with thirty-three charter members.

The first pastor of the church was Richard Hunt who began on January 1, 1951. The first Deacons of Capital included J. Carey Moore, Orley Hammons and W. J. Bishop. All had been ordained before becoming members at Capital.

James Frost became pastor on August 1, 1952. During his ministry property was purchased and the first building was constructed. The first service in the new building was held on May 3, 1953. Sunday School averaged over one hundred for the first time in November 1953. Capital held its first ordination service for Deacons John Medford, Wayne Daniels and Tom Burton on May 5, 1954.

Marvin Jones became pastor on August 1, 1956. During his ministry the church attained the highest average attendance of its first ten years. In the fall of 1956 letters were granted to 45 people for the purpose of constituting two new churches, one was Corvallis Baptist Church, which became Grant Avenue Baptist Church. James Frost Senator Hotel, 515 Court SE NE Marion County Bldg.

W. A. Crow became pastor on May 5, 1957 but served only ten months before returning to California. He was succeeded by Roy Shahan who became pastor on June 1, 1958. His ministry provided a period of readjustment. Weldon Ferry became pastor September 11, 1961. He served 13 months and resigned to begin a work in Salem that later became Royal Oaks Baptist Church with charter members coming from Capital.

A. Wade Thomas became pastor on April 21, 1963. Purchase of property, expansion of facilities and programs, and general growth in all phases of the work increased under his leadership.

On June 1, 1970, Dr. Chester Smith became pastor. Financial notes were paid off and growth in the local community was strengthened. Upon Dr. Smith’s retirement, E.M. (Buddy) Camp served as pastor for ten months.

Carlton Butler began his ministry at Capital on March 21, 1970 and served until his retirement in September 1993. During his 17 plus years of ministry, there was spiritual growth and harmony in the church family. Major portions of the church plant were refurbished, the landscaping was improved, and a softball field was constructed. Capital also purchased a van and began a bus ministry.

In June 1978 Capital voted to establish a mission work in south Salem to be called the Southern Hills Baptist Chapel with Wayne Glazener as pastor. The mission constituted as a church in September 1979, with charter members coming from Capital. This work today is Skyline Baptist Church.

In December 1993 a call was extended to John E. Lipton. He preached his first sermon on the first Sunday of January 1994.

By 1996 Capital found it necessary to rent space from the Salem/Keizer School District at Washington Elementary to provide enough room for Sunday School classes to meet. A Long-Range Planning Committee was formed to find a solution to this space problem.

Capital members approved the Long-Range Planning Committee’s recommendation to build a new Worship Center on February 16, 1997. Actual work began in May 1998, with an official Ground Breaking and Dedication Day on May 3, 1998. Volunteers from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Northwest Builders and many others assisted during the years of construction. The dedication of the new worship center and Capital’s 50th Anniversary were jointly celebrated on September 17, 2000. The final inspection of the new facility could not be made until every A.W. Thomas Chester Smith John Lipton Marvin Jones Roy Shahan Carlton Butler aspect of the facility was completed, including parking lots, landscaping and detail work, which wasn’t completed until March 2, 2002.

Long before that final inspection, however, a Remodeling Committee was formed to oversee the remodel of the old sanctuary building into educational space. A Remodeling Committee was formed at the April 2001 business meeting and a budget of $30,000 was approved in July of that year. Work began shortly thereafter.

The church plant now consisted of three buildings: The Worship Center, the Educational Building, and the Annex. The front half of the Annex provided chapel/ classroom space used by Mision Bautista Hispana. The other half of the building served Capital’s Youth. A new covered walkway was approved in June 2002 and constructed that summer.

In 2005 with these major construction projects complete, the church began asking what was next. A Long-Range Planning Committee was formed in January 2005 to assess needs and set goals that would move Capital into the future. The Committee presented their proposed goals to the congregation at an Unveiling Banquet on June 12, 2005. Their first recommendation was for Capital to find and call an Associate Pastor. At the July 2005 business meeting, the Long-Range Planning Committee made a motion to form a Search Committee. After two years of work, the Search Committee presented Stephen W. Peters as a candidate for the position of Associate Pastor. He preached at a special worship service and banquet on June 3, 2007, at which time Capital voted to extend a call. He accepted and began his ministry at Capital in August 2007 and served until July 2015 when he accepted a call to serve as Pastor of North Addison Baptist Church in Spokane, Washington.

In the fall of 2008 Capital voted to sponsor a new work in Mill City, with Rich Cole serving as the bi-vocational pastor. Mill City Baptist Mission voted to incorporate and constitute as Mill City Baptist Church on June 20, 2012. In 2009 Capital voted to sponsor Comunidad Cristiana Renuevo. Led by Pastor Boris Alfaro, they continue to use Capital’s facilities throughout the week, and hold their worship service on Sunday afternoons.

In 2013 Capital agreed to act as a sponsor for Keiny Aisek and his ministry to the Micronesian community, especially among the Chuukese people in Salem and Tigard.

After Steve Peter’s departure in 2015, a Ministry Research Team (MRT) was formed to study what Capital most needed to maintain a healthy, growing ministry. The MRT presented their recommendations to the church at the April 2016 business meeting, and as a result of their research and recommendations, a new Associate Pastor Search Committee was formed in January 2017.

To finance the Worship Center, financial notes had been issued in 1998 and 2000 through the Church Finance Plan. In the intervening years, Capital made weekly mortgage payments in excess of $1100. Due to the faithfulness of the church family, two 20-year financial notes were paid off early. A mortgage-shredding celebration was held in June 2017 as the largest of the two notes was paid off, and then another in September 2017 as Capital ended its indebtedness.

Capital extended a call to Thomas McCarty on August 19, 2018, and he served as Associate Pastor to Young Adults and Young Families from September 2018 until January 2020.

On August 30, 2019, a burglary and arson fire destroyed the building completed in 1953 and remodeled as the Education Building in 2001. At the time of the fire the L-shaped building contained the offices, fellowship hall, kitchen, library, and education space. First under the direction of the Trustees, beginning in the fall of 2019, and then the Building Committee elected May 13, 2020, during a Zoom business meeting. Eventually a settlement was reached with the insurance company and a bid accepted from Duncan Construction; construction began in June 2021.

During this same time the Covid Pandemic began. Capital’s last event on campus for more than 2 months was a Church Council meeting on March 12, 2020; the last Sunday service was held March 8. On March 13 the Governor closed all non-essential businesses, including churches. When it became apparent that the closures would last for some time, Capital began Zoom Sunday School meetings. The first was held on May 10. When the governor made concessions for ten or less, some Sunday School classes began physically gathering again in late June, but each class made the decision whether or not to meet in person based on the comfort level of class members. Worship services with a limited capacity of 45 began in July. Limits were raised slightly in January, but it was Easter, April 4, 2021, more than a year after the pandemic began before anything resembling a normal service was held on campus and June before masks were no longer required for those who had been vaccinated.

The construction of the new Butler Education Building was heavily impacted by the pandemic with shipping delays and material substitutions due to unavailable materials. But by March 2022 the building was near enough completion that the church offices were moved into the new Ed Building. By then Duncan Construction no longer had a daily presence on the property, so having the offices in the new building made it easier to provide access to subcontractors completing finish-work. The official occupancy permit was received in late April.

The dedication of the new building was held on Sunday, May 1, 2022, with 116 in attendance at the worship service and ribbon cutting. Carlton and Fran Butler ceremonially cut the ribbon for the building named in Carlton’s honor.

With Capital’s building project complete and the trauma of the previous three years behind us, Thomas McCarty and after 29 years of dedicated service, John Lipton officially announced he would retire as of January 1, 2023 at the September 2022 Council meeting. His retirement was announced to the congregation the following Sunday.

In preparation, a Transition Team was formed in October 2023 and then a month later a Pastor Search Committee was elected.

These two entities, working with Rob Walker from the Northwest Baptist Convention, began the search for a new pastor. They invited Dan Busse to speak at Capital in view of a call on October 8, 2023. At the special-called business meeting that followed the service, Capital extended a call and it was accepted. Dan Busse began his tenure as Capital’s Pastor on November 1, 2023. His family joined him in Salem in January 2024.

Dan Busee resigned in June 2025 having accepted a call to Calvary Baptist Church in Bastop, TX centrally located near where his four college-age children would be attending school.

Shortly thereafter, Rob Pengra was chosen to serve as Capital interim. Under Rob’s guidance at a special-called business meeting on February 22, 2026, Capital elected a new Pastor Search Committee. That process is ongoing.