Features Overview

dr. powell, Innagural pastor

To most in the Northwest, Temple Baptist Church and Dr. Robert L. Powell are practically synonymous terms.  He pastored Temple from its founding in 1934 until he retired in 1962.  Without question, Dr. Powell was the prime mover of Regular Baptists in the earliest days.  Temple Baptist Church had taken a separatist position from the days of its founding when there were no Regular Baptist churches in the Northwest.  In the Church Directory Issue of the December 1940 Baptist Bulletin, we notice that Temple Baptist Church was the only church listed in fellowship with the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches in Washington, Oregon or Idaho. 

The Temple Baptist Church of Tacoma was born January 18, 1934, when a group of people met together for a day of prayer, praying for God’s leading of His perfect will for their lives as a group.  A strong group of men, women and children met at the Masonic Temple in the Gothic Auditorium on Sunday morning, January 21, 1934, for services.  From the very beginning a fully graded Sunday school, morning and evening worship services were held under the leadership of Dr. Powell.  There were two hundred thirty-seven charter members.

There was once ten Sunday school bus routes, a daily radio program, a weekly paper (Temple Tidings which went into every state in the union), and a regular visitation program.

Temple Baptist Church has been a fountainhead of branch churches over the years.  Many of the surrounding churches, as well as churches throughout the Northwest, were started with some influence from Temple Baptist Church.

In June 1968 Pastor Charles U. Wagner came to the Temple Baptist Church. In 1974 the Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary (LABS) relocated to the facilities of Temple Baptist Church for one year.  LABS was renamed Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary and Dr. Wagner was named the new President of the Seminary.

                                                                                      -A History of Northwest Regular Baptists

90 years later pastor Tony Jaime becomes the 10th pastor at Temple Baptist Church (TBC) and his connection to the legacy of TBC is remarkable. In 1988, as an ungradate student at The Master’s College, pastor Jaime spent several evenings studying in The Powell Library which was once called Los Angeles Baptist College. In 2010 pastor Jaime attended The Master’s Seminary which has a connection to Northwest Baptist Seminary through Los Angeles Baptist College and Dr. Wagner. Pastor Jaime and his children have also enjoyed the spectacular music ministry at The Master’s University (TMU) from the leadership of Dr. Plew. The recently retired Dean of Music at TMU was a former minister of music and youth at Temple Baptist Church from 1972-1979 before leaving for Los Angeles Baptist College, now The Master’s University.

Original temple baptist building

Our original building and names sake was in the Masonic Temple Building.  The Landmark Convention Center (historically known as the Masonic Temple Building, the Temple Theater, Helig's Theater, and John Hamrick's Temple Theater) in Tacoma, Washington, United States was located at 47 St. Helens Avenue. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Weyerhaeuser Mansion & Northwest Baptist seminary

“The Northwest Baptist Seminary was both an old school and a new school.  It was old in that until the summer of 1974 it was known as the Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary, and was located in Newhall, California, having been founded in Los Angeles in 1927.”

It was new when Temple Baptist Church, Tacoma, Washington, voted to invite the Seminary to relocate in the facilities of their church in the winter of 1973.  It had been a dream of the late Dr. R.L. Powell that the massive four-story, Temple Baptist Church be used for a school.  He always felt that he had been “thrown a curveball” when the local city officials would not allow the building at Temple to be used for the Tacoma Baptist Day Schools without at least a twenty-thousand-dollar renovation.  What a day of rejoicing it was when the Board of the Seminary voted to relocate in Tacoma.  Dr. Charles U. Wagner was named as President and Dr. Hermann Austel as Dean.

Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary “originated in the classrooms of Calvary Baptist Church and was launched in September 1927.  Subsequent relocation have included:  1933-1941 Whittier Blvd. Los Angeles, Ca.  1941-1961 South St. Louis & 6th Streets Los Angles, Ca.  and 1961-1974 to Newhall, Ca. (continues to be the home of The Master’s University).

In 1974-1975 the seminary was renamed Northwest Baptist Seminary at Temple Baptist Church for one year in Tacoma, Wa.  In 1975 in a stroke of good fortune, Northwest Baptist Seminary purchase the Weyerhaeuser Mansion for $250,000 from the nuns, said Leroy Goertzen, Tacoma campus administrator.

Former Temple Baptist Church pastor Dr. Wagner was also the first president of Northwest Baptist Seminary.  The school operated as Northwest Baptist Seminary and merged with Corban University in Salem, Oregon in 2010. 

Dr. Powell’s legacy continues at The Master’s University as the first building, The Powell Library was named and dedicated after our faithful founding pastor.

-A History of Northwest Regular Baptists