The First Baptist Church of Schererville first met in December of 1953, as a mission in the old fire station located in Schererville. In the spring of 1954, the mission was moved to an old store building on the corner of Cline and Highway 330. It was at this location in April 1954 that the mission was organized as a church and called its first pastor on December 5th of that same year. The following year, the church bought property from Mr. Gorley to build the first building. The church then applied for a charter from the state of Indiana on June 27, 1956 and in October of 1956 was chartered as a Baptist Church.

Pastor Thomas McDonnell trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as His Personal Savior at the age of 15, when he went down to the altar at the First Baptist Church of Schererville in 1974. He went to the Pensacola Bible Institute under Dr Peter S. Ruckman in 1980 and graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Divinity. He then went off to Bethel Baptist Children's Home in Lucedale, MS in June 1985 to minister to the boys in the home. While there, he met his wife Mary, and was married in 1988. Grace, Faith, Hope, and Tommy are his children. In 1996, he then moved back home to First Baptist Church where Pastor Dennis Hicks asked him to serve as Assistant Pastor. In 2004 Pastor Dennis moved back to Sweetwater, TN to Pastor and the Church then voted Thomas McDonnell in as Pastor of First Baptist Church. He continues today to preach, believing the same Book he was saved under at the First Baptist Church of Schererville.     Visitors are welcome to come and hear the word of God preached.