History of CBAP

The Conservative Baptists, one of the many Baptist groups all over the world, got its name at a time when the term “conservative” was used to describe those who accepted the historic views of Scripture’s inspiration and inerrancy, and Jesus Christ’s unique deity. The Conservative Baptist Foreign Missionary Society came to the Philippines in the 50’s and began as a church planting movement.

In the early 1950’s, there was also a group of Filipino Baptist laymen who used to meet regularly for prayer.  Their main burden was the evangelization of Laguna.  The laymen, Brothers Jose Galuego, Castro Quimba, Felonito Sacapaño, Luis Pantoja, Sr.(mayor of Sta. Maria), and Esteban Salcedo, claimed Laguna for Christ and the Lord sent laborers to His field in the person of the Conservative Baptist missionaries and Filipino Christian workers. In 1951, Rev. William Simons came with his family, although they did not engage in Church Planting until after 1954. At the same time, they started an outreach in the town of Sta. Maria, Laguna, which later became the first CB church in the Philippines.

The first joint effort of the missionaries and the four laymen was the work in Lumban, Laguna. In a period of four years, more CB missionaries and Filipino workers joined in the work, resulting in the organization of five churches on November 9, 1958 which formed the nucleus of what was then called Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Southern Luzon. These were the churches in Sta. Maria, Paete, Victoria, Sta. Cruz and Pagsanjan. Since then, the Lord has expanded the vision of His laborers to include the whole Philippines so that the name was changed and was organized as the Conservative Baptist Association of the Philippines (CBAP) on December 29, 1961.