Smith Point Community Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to give it its due. Out on Smith Point, there's a church with a story that starts before it even had walls to call its own. Smith Point Baptist Church was officially organized in 1948, but in those early years, the congregation didn't have a building.

They gathered once a month in the 1937 Smith Point School and community center, and they were led by traveling Baptist ministers. Picture it: a rotating cast of preachers rolling in, one Sunday a month, to hold things together for a community that was determined to hold together. That's faith running on a schedule and a prayer.

Now, that school building didn't stay a school building forever. It was later sold to the church and moved to this very site in 1960. Moved.

The whole thing. And once it arrived, the congregation went to work, adding restrooms and Sunday School classrooms to the old schoolhouse to accommodate a congregation that kept on growing. Then came 1956, and something shifted.

The church reorganized and hired its first full-time pastor, a man known as Brother C.L. Smith. A church finding its footing, putting down roots, committing to something permanent.

And then, 1961. Hurricane Carla had torn through, and the wreckage was everywhere. Church members didn't just sit with the grief of that storm.

They picked up what Carla left behind and built a parsonage out of it. Wreckage into shelter. That right there says about everything you need to know about this community.

The church kept evolving, kept reflecting the people it served, and in 2007, it took on a new name: Smith Point Community Church, renamed to better reflect their mission to assist the Smith Point community. From a once-a-month gathering in a borrowed schoolhouse to a church built partly from storm wreckage and standing on a foundation of stubborn, quiet commitment. That's Smith Point.

What the marker says

Officially organized in 1948, Smith Point Baptist Church held services once a month in the 1937 Smith Point School and community center led by traveling Baptist ministers. The school building was later sold to the church and moved to this site in 1960. Restrooms and Sunday School classrooms were added to the old school house to accommodate a growing congregation. In 1956, the church reorganized and hired its first full-time pastor, Brother C.L. Smith. In 1961, church members helped build a parsonage from Hurricane Carla wreckage. In 2007, the church was renamed Smith Point Community Church to better reflect their mission to assist the Smith Point community. (2016)