New Hope Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Somewhere in Tarrant County, before the year 1886, a man named Reverend D. F.

Smith sat down with fourteen charter members and organized what would become New Hope Baptist Church. Fourteen people. That's it.

That's your foundation. And yet, what they were layin down would outlast just about anything you'd care to name. By 1886, the congregation had grown confident enough to join the Tarrant Baptist Association, which tells you something right there about how seriously these folks took their faith.

In those early years, they didn't have a building to call their own. They met once a month in the New Hope school building. Once a month.

You had to mean it to be there. Then came a man named J. J.

Williams, son of one of those original charter members. In 1903, he gave land for a church building. That word gave is worth sittin with for a moment.

Not sold. Gave. Two years later, in 1905, that building was dedicated.

The congregation had a home. For a while they held services twice each month, beginning in 1917, which was already a step up from those once-a-month schoolhouse gatherings. Then 1942 brought full-time services.

And 1948 brought a new auditorium, and the marker calls what followed a time of prosperity. By 1972, the congregation built a new sanctuary to serve its growing membership. From fourteen people meetin once a month in a borrowed schoolroom to a congregation that kept on buildin and growin and servin.

The church remains active today, still rooted in the traditions of those founders, with programs of worship and service reaching both its members and the larger community. Fourteen names on a founding roll. That's how empires of the spirit get started.

What the marker says

The Rev. D. F. Smith and fourteen charter members organized New Hope Baptist Church before 1886, when the congregation joined the Tarrant Baptist Association. In its early years, the congregation met once a month in the New Hope school building. J. J. Williams, the son of a charter members, gave land for a church building in 1903. It was dedicated in 1905. Services were held twice each month beginning in 1917. Full-time services were begun in 1942 and a new auditorium was erected in 1948, heralding a time of prosperity for the church. The congregation built a new sanctuary in 1972 to serve its growing membership. The church remains active in the traditions of its founders with programs of worship and service to its members and the larger community. (2000)