People from throughout the area descended on the church to hear live music, enjoy smoked meat with all the fixins’ and hear the gospel.
Back in the 1940s, while founding pastor Keith Hamm was lying in a hospital bed in Japan during World War II, God laid the Cambridge community on his heart. Previously, he had preached a revival in the Cambridge area while studying at Oklahoma Baptist University, and several people from Cambridge were saved during the revival.
After leaving the hospital in Japan, Hamm was sent to an Army hospital in El Paso, Texas. While on a leave, he met N.J. Westmoreland, the first executive director of what is now Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists, at Airlane Baptist Church in Wichita. He told Westmoreland he was going to start a church in Cambridge when he was discharged from the Army.
Hamm left the Army in July 1946 and immediately headed to Cambridge where he led a revival starting either on the third or fourth Wednesday night in July.
The revival lasted 26 days beginning with an attendance of 14 and reaching a high of 92. There was no television or air conditioning and gasoline was rationed, Hamm recalled. Cambridge Baptist Church grew out of that revival. It organized as a church Oct. 11, 1946, and until recently was part of the KNCSB.
The church’s current pastor is Justin Bates, who grew up in the church. He has served as pastor since 2009.
