Started as a Sunday School mission of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, the congregation of what would become the Fourth Baptist Church met in members' homes until they grew large enough for their own building. Jewett Chapel, formerly on the corner of 11th Avenue North and Lyndale Avenue, housed the church until, in 1885, they built a new sanctuary at 18th Avenue North and Dupont Avenue.

The church continued to grow and, in 1920, built a new church on the corner of Fremont Avenue North and 21st Avenue. By 1954, the church averaged over 700 for Sunday services. In 1974, the church added a 2,000-seat auditorium adjacent to the original auditorium on Fremont Avenue North. In 1998, the congregation voted to move the church to the suburbs of Plymouth. A new ministry, Family Baptist Church, was planted in the original north Minneapolis neighborhood.

God has blessed Fourth Baptist Church by providing three great Bible teachers to lead this ministry through the last 60 years.

• From 1940 to 1982, Dr. Richard Clearwaters pastored the church and oversaw the establishment of Fourth Baptist Christian School, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, and WCTS radio.
• Dr. Ernest Pickering provided a strong pulpit ministry from 1988-1993.
• Dr. Doug McLachlan pastored the church on two different occasions -- 1982-1987 and 1994-2007 -- and superintended the relocation of the church from Minneapolis to Plymouth, and the planting of two new churches in downtown Minneapolis and Elk River.