The first Baptist churches in Malaysia were the result of the initiative of Baptist immigrants from Swatow, China. A key person during those early days was Mrs. Oh Hock Teck who helped establish the first Baptist church in Alor Setar, Kedah in 1938 and later Penang Baptist Church in 1953. In a short few years, her son, Dr. Oh Lock Heng, would become instrumental in helping establish Georgetown Baptist Church.

Bobby and Dorothy Evans said, “It is meaningful … for present day Malaysian Baptist to remember that the first Baptist people to reach Malaya were Asians, not Westerners.” (Great Things He Has Done—A Century of Malaysian Baptist, p24, 2003).

Nonetheless, the missionaries of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention have been important players in the advancement of the gospel in Malaysia and influential in establishing Baptist distinctives in teaching, polity and ministry. Georgetown’s first pastor was a FMB missionary.

The precursor to Georgetown Baptist was the English Youth Fellowship in the Penang Baptist Church—started by Martha Strother in 1954. As more English-educated people joined the meetings, it developed into an English-language worship service.

By 1956, a move was made to establish Georgetown Baptist Church because the group felt that "…the existence of an English–speaking church will further the propagation of the gospel more rapidly and effectively among the English-speaking people of Penang." (Church Business Meeting 1956).

In October, that year, the English-language congregation was organised into Georgetown Baptist Church with 28 charter members. It continued to meet at 35, Anson Road which then was also housing: the Penang Baptist Church, the Malaya Baptist Mission, and the Malaya Baptist Theological Seminary.

For many years, since its inception, the church was served by missionaries from the Southern Baptist Convention (US) Foreign Mission Board.

That changed in 1972 when the Malaysian Baptist Mission decided that the mission in this area should be nationalised. Since then, the church has been served by Malaysian pastors.

Up to 1993 Georgetown had been a one-pastor church. In 1994, that changed when more staff were added and the church was served by a pastoral team. With the establishment of new congregations—such as the Mandarin, Hokkien and Georgetown South—and the growing number of members in the church—the pastoral team has been continuing to grow.

One of the key characteristics of Georgetown since its inception has been its vision of church planting. From 1958 till the present the church has planted nine churches and congregations:

With the establishment of a Mandarin congregation in 1997, the church begun a new milestone of developing different language congregations under the banner of the same church.
The story continues …