Our Story

The Good News Baptist Church started with Brother Donald Granstaff, in the early months of 1967. Before coming to St. Maarten, he served as a missionary on Anguilla with Bro. Freeman Goodge.

Shortly after arriving on St. Maarten, Brother Granstaff started services in a private home on French Saint Martin. He then wrote Brother Jim Van Hecke asking him if he could come and assist him. Brother Van Hecke accepted the invitation and arrived on St. Maarten on December, 1968 where he met Sisters Daisy Harrigan and Geraldine Hughes who were regulars at the church gatherings which were held in French Quarter at the Brook’s home. He helped with the “Open Air” services and with preaching. After six weeks Brother Grandstaff had to return to the USA and he was replaced by Brother Robert (Bob) Faile who came to St. Maarten in the summer of 1969.

Brother Van Hecke continued to assist with church services by song leading and preaching among other duties. He served as an assistant to Pastor Faile. In fact he was leading the assembly of believers that still gathered in French Quarter while Pastor Faile pastored in St. Peters. During 1970 Brother Gabriel St Rose was on St. Maarten and he mentioned that help was needed on Dominica and Brother Van Hecke followed him for a week of services; after which God impressed upon his heart to assist in Dominica, which ended his involvement in the work on St. Maarten.

During the years 1970/1971 Brother Hugh Pemberton was moved to make a piece of land available to the church for erecting a building. In order to facilitate the transfer of rights for the use of the land, The Good News Baptist Church Foundation was formed in 1971. The entire block of land including the portion on which the church building now stands and the portion on which the community center and the basketball court are located were all given to the church for its use.

In 1972 Pastor Allison Dacosta arrived on St. Maarten to assist in the work after graduating from Blue Water Bible College. By that time Pastor Faile had already left but was to return later on. Pastor Dacosta continued his toil at the Good News Baptist Church until November 1976, when along with some members of the assembly he started a new Ministry which later on became the Bible Baptist Church.

In the absence of a Pastor, services at the Good News Baptist were then overseen by an Advisory Board. During that time assistance came occasionally from Pastor Charles Hurlston.

Pastor Faile soon returned and resumed his ministry; he received assistance when Brother Benoit George and his wife who arrived on the island in December of 1978. Brother George assisted Pastor Faile for about 2 years. In the early 1980’s when Pastor Faile returned to the USA on furlough Pastor Cyril Gumbs served as pastor of the Church for about 1 year, until Pastor Faile returned to resuming his position.

In the meantime, the Haitian segment of the assembly multiplied exceedingly and Pastor Steven Emmanuel was assigned to serve as Pastor. After Pastor Bob Faile’s final departure, Pastor Emmanuel became pastor over both the English and Haitian congregation. In the late 1980’s a decision was taken by the Haitian congregation to move to a separate location.

The need soon arouse for a church on French Saint Martin; the Church then took a decision to purchase a piece of property in Concordia; after which construction quickly began. In completion of downstairs, under the leadership of Pastor Emmanuel, different ones, mainly Brothers Israel Abraham and Julian (Albert) Laurent went over and kept services. On completion of the main auditorium and shortly after dedication of the building a decision was taken for the church to have its own pastor in which pastor Steven Hughes became the Pastor of that Assembly in Concordia.

Pastor Emmanuel continued his service at the Good News Baptist Church, St. Peters; Dutch St. Maarten, and during his ministry Bro. Steven Hughes was ordained as minister of the gospel. In the early 1990’s Pastor Emmanuel resigned as pastor of the Good News Baptist Church. Pastor St. Clair Archibald was invited to Pastor the Church; Pastor Archibald served from the early 1990’s until 2003 and during his tenure Bro Calvin (Perry) Philips was ordained as minister of the gospel and also served as his assistant and Bro. Andrew David was also ordained and was accompanied by his family to minister in Africa in 2002. When Pastor Archibald left, the church was left without a Pastor.

Once again the advisory board took charge during the absence of a pastor and assistance was given by two Anguillan preachers, namely Cephas Webster and Roderick Webster. Pastor Roderick Webster was called to Pastor the Church early in 2004 and his tenure began April 1, 2004. After his arrival Pastor Webster explained the vision that God laid on his heart and worded it as follows:

During the years the need arose to have a conference that focused on building our church leaders and out of that need the Northeastern Caribbean Church Leadership Conference was born. The first session of the leadership conference took place in June 2006 and this conference quickly became an annual event.

In February of 2009, the congregation took a decision to demolish the former worship building. During the construction phase, which lasted 2 years and 8 months, services were held in the upper building referred to as the Fellowship Hall. To accommodate the congregation, two morning service were held; early morning service which started at 8:30 a.m. and the regular 11:00 a.m. service.

In October of 2011 the new worship building was completed and dedicated. Because of the preference for early morning service, Sunday morning service at the Good News Baptist Church St. Peters commences at 8:30 a.m. with an evening service at 7:00 p.m. Bible Study and Prayer meetings are held every Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m., and Youth Meeting Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

During 2012 the process was completed to convert the church from a Foundation to an Association by the Court of St. Maarten which placed the governing of the church on the members under the leadership of the pastor.

Among the many ministries our church is involved in, young preachers who express receiving the call of God are given the opportunity under the leadership of the pastor to develop and exhibit their calling. At the end of their training these preacher are given the opportunity to be responsible for the services for a period of four weeks.

During September 2013 construction began on the upstairs dormitory building which were completed in 2017.

After a decade of service God has further impressed upon the heart of pastor Webster the need to further carry out the vision that started way back from the inception of the foundation. In that document it was stated: “The purpose of the Foundation is: Promotion of education in the widest sense of the word”. With this in mind the vision is to start the educational side of it, beginning with Kindergarten and ending with Christian University.

During 2014 it became even clearer that our church needed to invest more in our youth and we decided that having a youth pastor would be an important investment. On April 12th, 2015 Bro. Trent Webster was ordained as a minister of the gospel and he also accepted the church’s offer to be our first youth pastor.

During the March 2015 the leaders of Faith Baptist Church met with our leaders and we agreed to work together going forward. and in the words of one of our Haitian brethren from First Baptist: “This is good because Good News is our mother church”.

Although the vision of a christian school was given to Pastor Webster previously, in the first quarter of 2016 the Lord made it clear that the time was right to start the ground work. A search committee was formed comprising of Sisters Shermel Grant, Patricia Lourens, Monique Rollings, Leona Marlin, as well as Brothers Carlyle Cadogan, Wilfred Illidge, Elfich Lourens, Simonet Barry, and Daniel Collins, chaired by Pastor Webster. All the legal work is now done, and we are praying and seeking property where the school may be started.

In 2017 St. Maarten was battered by one of the strongest storms ever, Hurricane Irma. After said storm the dormitories were put to good use to house persons that needed shelter. Our Pastor wes blessed to John Maxwell Certification, which was applauded by the church as a great accomplishment for a constantly busy person as he is.

As the work had continued to grow it became ever more evident that help was needed in the ministry and the church prayed for such help. The result of said prayer was the Lord sending Pastor Glenroy Whyte to serve as associate pastor. After much difficulty and delay, Pastor Whyte arrived on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018.