Our History

Pastor Charles Smith and family lived in Tacoma, Washington, where he pastored the First Missionary Baptist Church of Tacoma. The Don Potter family, members of the First MBC of Tacoma, moved to Cashmere in 1968. Pastor Smith suggested that one of the fourteen preachers in the church at Tacoma should come over to Cashmere and begin a new church with the Potter family. However, the Lord began to lay Cashmere on his heart, so in 1969, Pastor Smith and his family left Tacoma and came to Cashmere as a missionary, sent out from the First MBC with the charge to begin a church in the Cashmere area, as directed by the Lord. Pastor Smith didn’t know what the future would hold, or how he would provide for his family – but he knew that if God was in it, they would be taken care of.

The young mission began meeting in the Smith and Potter homes weekly. Their first official meeting place was the Mission Creek Community Hall. They began calling themselves the Mission Creek Baptist Mission, and held their first official business meeting on January 17, 1971. While meeting in this hall, the mission began to make plans to organize into a church.

After moving to the American Legion Hall in Cashmere, the church held special services on March 26-27, 1971, to officially organize into a New Testament Church. After a time of fellowship and preaching on Friday evening, the church held the organizational service on Saturday, the 27th. With about 75 people present, the church was named the Vale of Cashmere Missionary Baptist Church, with ten charter members going into the organization. God blessed and the church grew in number and spirit.

In the spring of 1998, Pastor Charles Smith retired from the Pastorate of Mid-Valley, after nearly thirty years of faithful ministry in the Cashmere area. He and his loving wife, Mabel, remained members of the church. In May of 1998, the church called Brian Ross to be the new pastor of Mid-Valley and in June of 1998, he, his wife Sarah, and their four children moved up to Cashmere to begin his pastorate here. In July of 2002, Pastor Charlie went to be with the Lord. We are thankful for their service and leadership throughout the years.

With humility and gentleness and under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Pastor Brian changed some of the old, long held Missionary Baptist traditions that did not comply with the Gospel of Christ. He brought about a new elder led form of government, and revised the doctrinal statement. He dropped the “Missionary” from the name of the church. He made these changes without the loss of one member and in the most loving and gentle way, using God’s word as his guide. Under his leadership, the portable was added for additional Sunday School classroom space. After serving faithfully for 15 years, Pastor Brian resigned as pastor in 2013.

After a 10 month search for God’s man to lead Mid-Valley, Travis Connick became the 3rd pastor of Mid-Valley Baptist Church in 2014. Pastor Travis served with diligence in his time at MVBC. He began work on updating the church constitution, overseeing the addition of a new sign, adding deacons and elders, and upgrading some of the facilities, all the while teaching from a Gospel centered, Christ honoring perspective. Pastor Travis resigned in June of 2017 to return to his home church, Trail Community Fellowship in Oregon. He currently serves as associate pastor there and is in the process of becoming the lead pastor.