Our History

Tidewater Baptist Temple was founded in 1966 by Dr. D.M. Hardison, with seventy-two charter members. In 1977, Dr. Hardison entered full-time evangelistic work, and Dr. Hawkins accepted the call to pastorate at Tidewater Baptist Temple. Not long after, in February of 1979, the church moved from 3400 Berkley Avenue to its present location at 1316 Campostella Rd. Pastor and Linda Hawkins served the church faithfully for twenty-seven years.

In October of 2004, Charles Pearson (then assistant pastor) was called as Senior Pastor when Dr. Hawkins was led to move into full-time evangelistic work. September of 2011, God brought a trial into our church family. Literally, a trial by fire. Our church auditorium caught fire in the middle of the night, started by an electrical outlet fire. Thankfully, the missionary family who was spending the night at the church escaped to safety. Quickly, the fire spread throughout the church, destroying most of it, but damaging all of it. The entire church was rebuilt, a blessing in disguise. We moved back into our updated church building in December of 2012.

God has continued to bless the church with a steady growth both in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and in membership and ministry opportunities. After the fire, Tidewater Baptist Temple’s name was changed to a simpler Tidewater Baptist Church. The Tidewater Baptist Church family rejoices together in all that God has done for these many years and looks forward to all the will of God as we continue.