Truth Baptist Church began as the calling of God on the heart of a young man and his family to see a new, Bible-believing church started for God’s glory. Erik Hastings was serving as a Youth Pastor on the staff of Millheim Baptist Church in Akron, Ohio, when the Lord placed the desire in his heart to return to his home state of Virginia to pioneer a new church plant. Pastor Hastings’ home church, Heritage Baptist in Woodbridge, Virginia, became the sending church for the Hastings family as they set out to begin this new work. Dr. Michael Edwards, the pastor at Heritage Baptist, was used of the Lord to start Heritage in 1981, and he was a great help to Pastor Hastings in launching Truth Baptist. After much prayer, fasting, and continually seeking God’s will, it became clear to the Hastings’ family that the Lord was leading them to plant Truth Baptist Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
Pastor Hastings, along with the help of a number of friends and family from Heritage, knocked on about 1,000 doors a week for the six weeks preceding the first service. After soul-winning, praying, advertising, and getting acquainted with potential church members from the community, Truth Baptist Church had their first service on Easter Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at the Cool Spring Elementary School in Mechanicsville. Eighty-nine people were in attendance on that first Sunday, with two men walking the aisle to receive Christ as their Savior during the invitation. Pastor Hastings chose I Corinthians 3:11 as his text for the first sermon. He entitled the message “Jesus is the foundation.“
From August 2007-April 2019 Truth Baptist met in a 7th Day Adventist building on Sundays in Mechanicsville. We met in the Laurel Meadow Elementary School on Lee Davis Road for our mid-week services during much of this time as well. The Lord has always been faithful and has always provided a place for us to meet. The Lord then opened doors that only He could open in late 2018 regarding a permanent home for Truth. On Easter Sunday 2019 (the day of our 13th anniversary) we began meeting in our new permanent home at 8319 Lee Davis Road. From the very first day forward, Jesus Christ has been the focal point of Truth Baptist Church, and the primary reason for her existence is to glorify God in all things.