At the beginning a few words about the origin of Baptist movement in Volyn region. In 1906 the former Polish landowner Olena Rutska came from Odessa to Kovel to her daughter who was married to officer of a cavalry regiment in Kovel. She belonged to the Christian congregation of Jews

Church building before Second World War

. Soon after one more Christian young girl Annya Kurovska came from the same city to Kovel to her cousins who worked on the railway station. These women drew people's attention to the Gospel. God's Word was listened to with great pleasure. Then Olena Rutska invited to Kovel preachers from Odessa (Gotsky and Nasypayko) and Kyiv (Kolesnikov). These men were organizing services in apartments and houses and in such way witnessing about Jesus Christ and His great sacrifice. In 1908 the first group of believers consisted of 10 people and their number was growing. In 1910 congregation of believers in Kovel was registered as a branch of Saint-Petersburg congregation. In the same year one young man Vasyl Gibelinda went to Kovel from Lutsk. He was looking for a job. One day he visited evangelization service and repented there. After a while he was baptized. In 1913 he came back to Lutsk having in his heart a great desire to share Good News with other people. He began to witness his relatives and neighbors. Vasyl was the first evangelist in Lutsk. In the same year two Christian families came to our town - Bolsunov and Klymenko. They helped Vasyl Gibelinda to preach the Gospel.

The inhabitants of Lutsk read the Gospel, sang Christians songs and prayed. Christ changed their lives and they became new people. Among the first believers were the families of Ivanchuk, Vasyura, Kutsov, Nikolyshyn, Dominchukov, Ryhtovsky, Yankovski and many others. The services took place in the house of Ivanchuk, who believed and was baptized among first members. It was the beginning of great God's blessings and origin of evangelistic movement in Lutsk.

In 1926 the church was founded in Lutsk. At the beginning the services took place in someone's houses, later the building of church was built on the Kichkarivska Street. This address is well-known for several generations of Christians in our town. Here many of them promised God to serve Him in good and clear conscience. Here they brought their children and grandchildren and now bring them too. In 1932 there were more than 600 members in the church. At that time famous evangelists V. Fetler, B. Getse, L. Shenderovky and others contributed a lot to the spiritual awakening of our region.

Building before restoration

The growth of our church is closely connected with such people as Oleksandra Agrypinina, Trohym Sahan, Fedir Pavlyuk, Ivan Krasnetsky, Isaya Shylo, Ananiy Govnir. All of them passed away now. They were true God's servants and spiritual teachers, made a lot of efforts to do their sacrificial work for the spreading of God's Word.
At Soviet times the ministry of church was not just difficult, responsible, but dangerous, because Christians were persecuted in our country. During the period of totalitarianism and atheism many followers of Jesus Christ were exiled to Siberia because of their faith. The most of them were executed.

Only after becoming independent, Ukraine got religious freedom, an opportunity to worship not to traditions and rituals but to true God Jesus Christ. The building of former German church on the Karayimska Street, 16 was given to the Baptists. The building was in much neglected condition, but christians repaired and restored it themselves. Services of the Baptist church "The House of Gospel" take place here from 1994 till now.

Building before restoration

The building of the german church has a long history. Time has influenced it very much. There were a lot od talks about the restoration of the building for a long time. In 1985 the idea to place an organ in the church arose. It was arranged with Czech representatives about the installing of the organ. Time passed, but the renovation was not carried out. So at the end of the 80s our congregation asked the officials to give the destroyed building for services of Baptist church. As our congregation promised to restore the temple, it was given into unlimited and rent-free use under the circumstances that the first appearance of the church would be restored. With great enthusiasm we were going to restore the building on the base of earlier projects.
When we were talking about the restoration in the 80s we were not sure of the reconstruction of spire and cross on it (it was lost after the storm on 20 May, 1960). The problem was not in ideological position, but in the technical difficulties. The work was very dangerous because even the least careless movement could cause an accident. But in spite of danger the spire gleams on the church now and there is a cross on it. The cross was made and placed by master Anatoliy Gushchyk. It was made of copper, then covered with gold leaf by Oleksandr Grinchak and Leonid Sahan.
Our church completes the architecture of the ancient town's part which begins from Gate Tower of Upper Castle. That's why the building of the church has an incredible value as an element of the whole composition.