On March 29, 1959, Ross Dobbs organized and became the pastor of the Memorial United Baptist Church then located at 729 W. Memorial Drive, Muncie, Indiana. Official aid was sent from the following churches to assist in the organization; Westside United Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana (Rev. Simon Waters, Pastor), Missionary Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana (Rev. H.E. Phipps, Pastor).  Rev. Phipps stood as the moderator of the presbytery and Bro. Pete Powell was selected as the clerk.  Rev. Phipps called for letters to be presented and examined as to their legality as charter members for a United Baptist Church.

 The following persons were named as  charter members:

                                    Rev. Ross Dobbs       Robert Bertram         Marvin Gregory
                                    Silas Kidd                   Ollie Kidd                   Harvey Blevins
                                    Dean Hammond         Ruth Evans                 Nellie Gregory
                                    Robert E. Gibson       Walter Williams         Fred Gibson
                                    Mabel Gibson

Upon examination of all letters by the presbytery, said letters were found to be legal for the organization of a United Baptist Church. The Articles of Faith were read and acknowledged by the members to be their faith and belief, and was adopted as a part of this organization. Then the moderator (Rev. H.E. Phipps) declared the organization to be a legal United Baptist Church and to have the right to correspond with any church of the same faith and order. The church by motion and second released the presbytery. Then the church moved by motion and second to elect a pastor for the rest of the year. Rev. Ross Dobbs was elected Pastor and Bro. Marvin Gregory was elected the first clerk.

Five years were spent in this rented storefront location. The decor was very basic.  Wooden chairs were rented from H & W Rentals and a homemade podium was used in the pulpit.  The only air conditioning in the building came from handheld fans from Piepho Funeral Home.  The surroundings were not the finest, but the Lord surely blessed this church. The first baptizing was held on April 12, 1959.  Brother Howard Blevins was the first person to be baptized into the Memorial United Baptist Church.  During the year of 1959, forty-nine people took membership with the church either by baptism or by letter.  In October of 1959, the church conducted its first ordination ceremony.  In 1960, thirty-four more additional memberships were added.

Ross was privileged to work with many wonderful people who were a great asset to the church. Rev. Andy Young became his assistant pastor on September 2, 1961.  Andy and his wife, Ada (Gregory) Young married and moved to Indiana in 1941. Andy was ordained on December 8, 1951, at the Big Springs Baptist Church in Monticello, Kentucky.  Ross and Andy worked together as pastor and assistant for the next three years until Andy passed away on July 22, 1964, as a result of open-heart surgery. The whole church felt the great loss of Andy's passing, not only as an assistant pastor but also as a friend.

One hundred and forty-eight people took membership by baptism or letter from 1959 through 1963 while the church was housed in the old 12th Street building. The work of the Lord had blossomed in the church and the time came when the congregation made preparations to build a new church building. The old storefront church had provided a place for revivals, ordinations, Christmas programs and best of all a place where the gospel could be preached and souls saved.  There will always be a tender spot in the hearts of all those who attended there and for the man who stepped out on faith, Rev. Ross Dobbs.

History Of The New Church Building at 3000 Phillip Drive, Muncie, Indiana
By 1960, the church had grown abundantly in size. The storefront building was no longer functional for the size of the church crowd. The church voted on November 5, 1960 to build a new church building. Trustees were appointed on June 1, 1960, to oversee the plans and construction of the project. No lot had been purchased at this time. The trustee committee consisted of:

Rev. Ken Riley, Walter Williams, Harvey Blevins,
Claude Smith, Marvin Gregory, Herstel Roberts,
Homer Branscum, Fred Gibson, Hab Murphy,
Howard Blevins, Sterlie Fairchild and France Blevins.

Ross Dobbs told of a dream he had one night, where a man showed him a plot of ground.
He looked around and noticed there was no road to the land. Making mention of this to the man in the dream, the man responded, "There will be a road". When the search began for a building site, different lots were considered. When Ross went to view the lot at the end of the road on Phillip Drive, he immediately recognized the surroundings as the place seen in his dream. And as noted in the dream, there was no paved road leading to the church. Ross knew this was the location where the new church would be built. He never doubted the dream.

On February 3, 1962, a permit was obtained for the construction of the new church building. The trustees met to discuss the plans and blueprints. They decided the members of the congregation would do as much of the work as possible. Drilling a well, installation of a septic system and buying insurance were discussed at this meeting. Brother Howard Blevins requested a copy of the blueprints to study. The finances of the church treasury at this time were $413.40.

March 24, 1963, a special called business meeting was held to incorporate the church.
At this business meeting, a board of directors was formed for a three-year term. They were as follows:
Sterlie Fairchild, Claude Smith, Ross Dobbs, Huck Koger, Andy Young, Homer Branscum, Fred Gibson,
Cloyd Dobbs, James Sewell, and Arthur Bell, who was voted as president of the board. Later on, Silas Kidd
and Woody Handshoe joined this board.

The value of the church property, estimated at $20,000.00, was turned over to the board to oversee. Howard Blevins and France Blevins were selected to have all information recorded in the Delaware County Recorders Office. The church voted for this board to meet and report the last Saturday in each month. On April 22nd, the church held a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site. The ceremony began at 2:30 p.m. and Rev. Andy Young conducted the service. The foundation was poured the next week at the cost of $350.00. Nathan Blankenship installed the septic system costing the church $250.00. Mr. Blankenship was paid $15.00 for two days of work. On July 6, 1963, the church voted to start the actual building construction with the money they had accumulated and process a loan to pay the balance. Mr. Mitchell Buttram and son were hired to work on the construction. Mr. Buttram was paid $2.00 per hour, and his son $1.50 per hour.

Originally the church building was to have a wood exterior, but the congregation decided to change this plan to a brick building.

On November 2nd, the church voted to sign a bank note at Muncie Federal for $6,000.00.

The following people signed for the loan:
Claude & Orange Smith, James & Beverly Sewell, Sterlie & Effie Fairchild, Hab & Joyce Murphy,
Fred & Mabel Gibson and Fordie & Norma Jones.
The congregation will always be grateful for those individuals who made sacrifices to see that the church would have a building where future generations could worship the Lord.

The church building was finally completed with all the furnishings installed by March 24, 1964. The building was yellow brick. The inside walls were paneled; the floor was partially hardwood with green carpet down the aisle and on the pulpit. There were two Sunday School rooms, which were located directly behind the pulpit. The benches and podium were blonde wood and there was no padding on the pews. A large mural of Christ and Mary with the three crosses and the tomb hung on the wall behind the podium. The parking lot was gravel. The first service was conducted in the new building on Easter Sunday, March 29, 1964. The first song that was sung in the new building was "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow". The church was filled to capacity. And as Ross had witnessed in his dream, a road had been paved from Hoyt Avenue down to the front of the church building. Ross's dream had become a reality.

An open house was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. that afternoon. Many people from various churches attended the service. Sermons were preached, songs were sung and everyone gave thanks to God for blessing us with a new church building.

Ross was Pastor of the Memorial United Baptist Church for twenty-one years and two months. During his pastorship, he was privileged to work with many great ministers in church services, ordinations and revivals. His ministry was abundantly fruitful baptizing at least 180 people during his span as the pastor. Rev. Andy Young who had been the assistant pastor passed away on July 22, 1964. His funeral was the first one conducted in the new church building. Andy was sadly missed by the entire church.

Over the years, the church took on new appearances. The Brown Brothers quartet came monthly to sing in an effort to raise money for a piano. When a sufficient amount had been raised, the church purchased its first piano from Carrico's Furniture Store. It was a Claire de Lune spinet. The store sent Mr. Virgil Hay out to tune the piano. After the tuning, Virgil proceeded to play some hymns and became very carried away. There was such a good spirit there that day; Virgil decided to attend the church. He came there for a long time and played the piano for the church choir.

The Sunday School attendance had grown so much that the church set up a building fund to raise money to build more Sunday School rooms. In March of 1973, the church had a sing that raised $1,980.00 for the building fund. Five new rooms were added to the church.  The men of the church did most of the work themselves.

In 1974, the church voted to remodel the sanctuary. The old pulpit was removed and a new one was constructed across the entire front of the sanctuary. The green carpet was removed and replaced with royal blue carpeting, and the benches were padded with royal blue material.

January 13, 1979, Ross was stricken with a heart attack. Ross's eldest son, Carter had been called into the ministry but had not been ordained at this time. Ross recovered from this heart attack and recuperated while Carter took over the church in his absence.

March 31, 1979, Carter was ordained. Later on May 4, 1979, Carter conducted his first funeral service. It was for Rev. Newman Rains. Newman had been an assistant pastor of the church and had helped out many times when Ross was ill. The church will never forget Newman and his wife, Lizzie. They would drive from New Castle every week to be in service with us. Newman was a man of God.

April 16, 1980, Ross Dobbs resigned as pastor of the church. His son, Carter, was elected the new pastor and Ross became the assistant. He continued as the assistant until he suffered another heart attack and passed away on May 24, 1982. His lifetime was spent for the work of the Lord and his congregation. Countless hours of hospital visitations, taking food to those who had lost loved ones, visiting the shut-ins and nursing homes consumed his time. Ross never complained about the work to be done, he just gave God the glory for all the blessings he had received throughout the years. No one could ever take his place in the church or in his family. Ross truly was one of a kind.

  April of 1980, was the beginning of numerous changes for the Memorial United Baptist Church.  Under a new Pastorship, the church completed many renovation changes.  In 1983, the construction of a fellowship hall and paved parking lot were added to the church.  1992, brought about the second wave of updates.  The church installed a baptistery, replaced the paneled walls with drywall, replaced the sanctuary carpet, upholstered the pews and installed vestibule doors.  The greatest task the church under went was in 1994, when the addition of city water was installed.  The church raised  $18,000.00 for this project and had the waterline brought from Hoyt Avenue to the church.  In 1995, the church extended the parking lot and added an additional driveway and privacy fence. 
During his 16 years as the Pastor of the Memorial United Baptist Church, Carter was blessed to see 107 members unite with the church by baptism or letter.  He moderated four ordinations for three ministers and four deacons.  Carter helped in many revivals and homecoming services.  He continued to carry on the work started by his father before him back in 1959.  Carter will always be remembered for bringing strength to the church after losing the only Pastor the Memorial United Baptist Church had ever known, Rev. Ross Dobbs.  Carter resigned as Pastor on March 13, 1996.

March 27, 1996, Rev. Ron Black was elected Pastor of the Memorial United Baptist Church.  Ron was the third Pastor to preside in a forty-year span.  He was ordained on May 4, 1991, at the Memorial United Baptist Church.  Rev. Carter Dobbs stood as Moderator, Rev. Oddos Morris examined the Articles of Faith and Rev. Hoyt Davis preached the charge.  Ron had served as a Deacon in the church before his calling into the ministry.  His main objectives for the church was to continue in the traditions set before him, and to secure the principles, doctrines and practices that began since the  founding of the church in 1959. The “old-time way” had been a difficult goal to achieve due to a modernistic society, but his determination to follow the leadership of the Lord by standing firm on the King James 1611 version Bible, administering a church dress code, and promoting good fellowship and encouragement with our sister churches would benefit and strengthen the church in the years ahead.  Many accomplishments were attained during the nine years of Ron’s Pastorship.
 
The church was blessed to become debt free as well as continuing with more renovation projects.  A wheelchair ramp was built, a new church sign was constructed and glass doors were installed in the front entrance.  While church improvements are always an encouragement, the most important aspect is its spirituality and dedication to the Lord’s work.  From May 4, 1996, until May 29, 2005, the church received 35 new members by baptism or letter.  Three ordination services were conducted; the first in 1997 for Mark Hill as a Deacon, and two for ministers, one in 2000 for Brother Andy Phipps Jr., and the second in 2005 for Ron’s son, Christopher Ross Black.  Rev. Ron Black brought strength and harmony to the church.  His main purpose and goal for the church was to be faithful and steadfast not wavering or compromising with new-age religion.  Although Ron resigned as Pastor in 2005, he still remains very active in the church.  We are thankful for his guidance and continued dedication to the Memorial United Baptist Church. 

June 1, 2005, began the leadership of our fourth Pastor.  Rev. Andrew Phipps Jr., was elected the Pastor upon the resignation of Rev. Ron Black.  After one year as Pastor, Brother Andy has continued to bring solidarity and a renewed spiritual spark to the church.  His enthusiasm for the Lord’s work has generated growth and an encouragement for the members to be faithful, producing Christians.  Andy, along with the Deacons, Brother Guy Burnett, Brother Oedwie Hurt, Brother Darrell Branscum, and Brother Joshua Watson, promote visitation and work diligently to see about the needs of each and every member.  Andy is a visionary and puts his thoughts into action.  He encourages  the younger members to step out and not be bashful toward the Lord’s work.  His assistant Pastor, Rev. Chris Black, is the great-grandson of the founding Pastor, Rev. Ross Dobbs.  In the past year, the church has been blessed to receive twenty new members by baptism or letter.  Brother Andy has also conducted one ordination service for Brother Joshua Watson to become a Deacon.  Andy continues the fight to preserve the “old-time way”.  He knows this will not be an easy task but as the scripture tells us “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”.  With this in mind, Andy hopes to take the church forward while holding on to the past. 

The Memorial United Baptist Church is thankful and appreciative for these men who have kept her sure and steadfast by God’s grace and blessings.  We pray for our leadership and encourage them to stay strong and continue in the good fight.  Their dedication has allowed the “dream” to live on.