Nevada Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Nevada Baptist Church, out there in Southeastern Collin County. Now, before you even get to 1882, folks in the Nevada area were already gathering for Baptist worship services. The roots go deep here; deeper than the records spell out in full.

But 1882 is where the story starts to sharpen. That year, the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church made a decision: divide its membership and form a brand new congregation.

They called it Pleasant Hill. A split like that could go a lot of ways. This one, as it turns out, was just the beginning of something bigger.

Eight years later, in 1890, Pleasant Hill itself gave rise to something new. Under the leadership of the Reverend M. M.

Wolfe, thirty-five members of that Pleasant Hill Church came together and organized the Nevada Baptist Church. Reverend Wolfe became the congregation's first pastor. And here's the thing about those thirty-five founding members: by the time that first year was out, the church had grown to eighty persons.

More than doubled. Word travels fast when something takes root. They put up their first church building in 1891, and that structure did its job faithfully for nearly three decades.

Then, between 1919 and 1920, they raised a brick structure in its place. Something built to last. And then came 1927.

Nevada was hit by a tornado; the marker calls it destructive, and you don't use that word lightly. The sanctuary took damage. But here is where the story turns on itself in a way you don't forget: that wounded building, the one the storm had just torn into, became a shelter.

An emergency hospital. A morgue. Right there in the middle of the crisis, the Nevada Baptist Church was holding the community together from the inside out.

Over the years, that congregation has played what the marker calls an important and vital role in this small Southeastern Collin County town. Mission work, community service; they've sent actual missionaries out into the world from among their own membership. And through all of it, the church has kept faith with the ideals and traditions of those thirty-five founders who walked in with Reverend Wolfe back in 1890.

That's the kind of institution a town builds its memory around.

What the marker says

Baptist worship services were held in the Nevada area before the 1880s. In 1882, the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church divided its membership to form a new congregation known as Pleasant Hill. In 1890, under the leadership of the Rev. M.M. Wolfe, thirty-five members of the Pleasant Hill Church organized the Nevada Baptist Church. Wolfe served as the congregation's first pastor. Membership during the church's first year totaled eighty persons. The first church building was completed in 1891 and served until a brick structure was erected in 1919-20. Although the sanctuary was damaged in Nevada's destructive 1927 tornado, it provided shelter for an emergency hospital and morgue during the crisis. Over the years, Nevada Baptist Church has played an important and vital role in this small, Southeastern Collin county town. With its emphasis on mission work and community service, the congregation has produced several missionaries from among its membership. Throughout its history, it has continued to uphold the ideals and traditions of its founders. (1985)