Neinda Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Jones County, there's a little place called Neinda, and the story of its Baptist church goes all the way back to July 21, 1889. That's the day thirteen charter members got together and organized what they called the Baptist Church of Christ at Plum Creek.

Thirteen souls. Not twelve, not fourteen. Thirteen people who decided a community needed a church, and they were going to be the ones to start it.

Now, in those early years, the congregation didn't have a building of their own. They shared a community building with the Methodist Church and the local Masonic Lodge. Think about that arrangement for a moment.

Different traditions, different purposes, same roof. It's the kind of sharing that says something about a small community trying to hold itself together. That went on until 1894, when the Baptists finally raised their own sanctuary.

Their own walls, their own pews, their own place to gather. But the story doesn't stop there. By 1904, a second building went up, and with that new structure came a new name: First Baptist Church of Neinda.

Then, in 1916, a man named Reverend J. S. Hubbard arrived and began what would become a twenty-year ministry at this church.

Twenty years. That's not a pastorate, that's a life's work woven into the fabric of a place. The marker says it plainly and it says it well: throughout its history, this church has been an integral part of the Neinda community.

Thirteen members and a borrowed building. That's where it started. And Neinda hasn't forgotten.

What the marker says

Organized on July 21, 1889, as the Baptist Church of Christ at Plum Creek, this church began with thirteen charter members. The congregation met in a community building shared by the Methodist Church and the local Masonic Lodge until a Baptist sanctuary was built in 1894. A second building was erected in 1904, and the name was changed to First Baptist Church of Neinda. The Rev. J. S. Hubbard began a twenty-year ministry here in 1916. Throughout its history, this church has been an integral part of the Neinda community. (1990)