Who We Are

On July 9, 2000, Pastor Karl Novak started Cicero Baptist Church in the home of Dr. and Mrs. J.B. Graham on Backstretch Path in Cicero, NY, with 8 members. By November of that year, the congregation had outgrown the living room of the house and moved to the Dance Arts Studio on Route 11.

During the year and a half that the church met at the dance studio, the congregation had to set up each Saturday night and then tear down and store the church's belongings each Sunday after services.

Then, on July 14, 2002, Cicero Baptist Church moved to its present location at Driver's Village, where the congregation no longer has to set up equipment each week.

In December 2004, the church purchased 15 acres on Mudmill Road where it plans to build its own facilities. Driveway construction is slated to start this summer (2006).

During its 6 years of existence, Cicero Baptist Church has baptized 60, licensed three lay ministers, conducted Vacation Bible School annually, hosted several area block parties, and sponsored mission trips to Little India in NYC, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Thailand and China. The congregation averages about 70.

Cicero Baptist Church has a family-friendly atmosphere and a contemporary worship style. Nursery is provided each Sunday for babies and toddlers through age 3. Sunday School/Bible Study is offered for all ages after the worship service. The majority of our congregation consists of young families with at least two children. Children are given hands-on opportunities and encouraged to develop leadership skills in the church.

On Thursday nights, during the Hour of Power, children are expected to remain with their parents where they learn to pray during prayer time from 7-7:30 p.m. Then from 7:30 -8 p.m., children attend Children in Action, a Bible/Missions study where they memorize Bible verses and learn about missionaries and cultures from around the world.

Every fourth Sunday of the month, Cicero Baptist Church hosts a fellowship meal at lunch after the morning worship service and Sunday School.

What We Believe

The Holy Bible was written by divinely inspired men and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It has God as its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter.

There is one and only one living and true God, infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal creator God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.

Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. By free choice man sinned against God, brought sin into the human race and fell from his original innocence.

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, sanctification and glorification.

The church of Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. The New Testament also speaks of the church as the body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

Evangelism is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church. Christians are to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort and by all other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.