During the Fall of 1993, Rev. James Powell received a call to plant a church and proceeded to prepare himself by undergoing a Church Planters assessment with the American Baptist Convention under the direction of Dr. William Kline.  Upon completing his graduate degree from Maple Springs Seminary, he began the task of locating an area.  Rev. Powell was involved with much prayer and consultation with Dr. Richard Logsdon and other leaders.  Rev. Powell studied demographic material and decided that the church should be planted in Waldorf, Maryland with three subdivisions immediately west of the Holiday Inn including Westlake as the target area.

After meeting with various families and groups in those areas it was decided that they would have the first service on February 19, 1995 at the Holiday Inn.  Rev. Powell believed that he was being sent to that area to be an agent of change.  It was his belief that the church should be inolved in helping to develop an entire person.  Therefore, the church was to focus on the following four areas:

• Individual Spirituality
• Social/Relationships
• Stewardship of all that God Has Entrusted to Us, and
• The Physical Health of Our Bodies

As people became involved with the chruch it became evident that the expectations of developing families and teaching them good stewardship could not be realized without a great deal of foundational work.  Most of the members were single parents with very limited resouces including transportation.  Consequently, a successful bus ministry was developed.  A total of 2 1/2 years was spent at the Holiday Inn before God gave them property in La Plata, Maryland where most of the members live.

Rev. Powell had prayed that the church would have its own property in 2 1/2 years.  After an aborted attempt to build on the land they had purchased, God provided 4 3/4 acres of land with two buildings on it.  They went to settlement on the La Plata property on July 29, 1997 (which was only 10 days after the 2 1/2 years the pastor had prayed for).

The building which is now the sanctuary was once a swimming pool and garage.  The pool was filled in and the building reconditioned with assistance (both financial and manpower) from Leonardtown Baptist Church and the Potomac Baptist Association's Christian Connection.

In 1999, Christian Family partnered with Fairhaven and Calvary Baptist Churches in Mississippi.

Christian Family Baptist Church views itself as a church planting laboratory.