Plainview 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 Mitchell County, before the towns got too loud and the roads got too straight, there were communities that held themselves together with not much more than neighborly grit and a shared faith. The Plainview Community was one of those places, and this is its story.

It starts, as so many good things do, a little before it officially starts. As early as 1906, a fellowship was already gathering in the Plainview Community Schoolhouse, meeting under the wing of Liberty Baptist Church over in the Spade Community. Now, a mission is a fine thing.

But some congregations, they outgrow the nest. They feel the pull toward something of their own. And so it was here.

On May 16, 1908, the people of Plainview called an organizational meeting. They sat down together, they made it official, and what rose out of that meeting was the Plainview Baptist Church, a fully independent congregation with its own name and its own calling. And here's the part worth noting: several members of that original Liberty Baptist Church, the very church that had given Plainview its start, they didn't just wave goodbye from the door.

They walked over and joined the new church themselves, lending their experience and their standing to help guide it through those early years. That kind of generosity has a long echo. Throughout its history, Plainview Baptist Church kept an active fellowship and played an important role in the development of its community.

From a schoolhouse gathering in 1906 to a cornerstone of the Plainview Community, that's not a bad arc for a church that began as somebody else's mission.

What the marker says

Begun as a mission of the Spade Community's Liberty Baptist Church, this fellowship met as early as 1906 in the Plainview Community Schoolhouse. On May 16, 1908, an organizational meeting was held to establish an independent congregation that became known as Plainview Baptist Church. Several members of the Liberty Baptist Church joined the new church at Plainview to provide leadership during its early years. Throughout its history, Plainview Baptist Church has maintained an active fellowship and has played an important role in the community's development. (1983)