Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little Texas on top. On October 29, 1864, messengers from nine Baptist churches gathered together with a purpose. Nine churches: Shady Grove Number One and Number Two, Alvarado, Bethesda, Rock Springs, Hillsboro, Island Grove, West Fork, and Union.

Nine congregations deciding that what they could do apart, they could do better together. And so they organized themselves as an Association. Now, the purposes were clear from the start: encourage a spirit of cooperation among the churches, and help those churches accomplish their work of fulfilling the Great Commission.

Simple on paper. The kind of thing that sounds easy until you try to hold it together across decades and generations. Over the years, the Association went by several names, shifting and settling until finally, in 2003, it landed on Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association.

That's a name that took nearly a hundred and forty years to arrive at, but arrive it did. From that very first meeting in 1864, the Association elected a moderator annually to preside over meetings and oversee the work. Every year, without fail, somebody stepped up to chair the proceedings.

Now, of those original nine charter churches, only two are still standing in the Association today: First Baptist Church, Alvarado, and Bethesda Baptist Church. Two out of nine. The others are gone, but those two have held on, which tells you something about stubbornness, or faith, or maybe both.

For a long time the Association didn't even have a proper office. The first executive director, Reverend James G. Payne, hosted the office in a single room of his own home, and that was in 1950.

From there the office moved to a space in the first Baptist church, then to a small building provided by Field Street Baptist church, and finally, in 1992, to a new building in West Cleburne. That's quite a journey for an office, and quite a long time operating out of borrowed rooms. Today the Association counts sixty-six churches and missions in its membership, and its reach goes well beyond Johnson County.

Leadership training, demographic studies, church staff development, pastoral counseling, financial support to ministries like the Woman's Missionary Union, the Christian Women's Job Corps, and the Baptist Student Ministry. And beyond Texas altogether, the Association has extended its ministry to Canada, Germany, Mexico, and Tanzania. Nine churches in a room on October 29, 1864, and the work they started that day is still going, still reaching, still adding names to the map.

What the marker says

Messengers from nine Baptist churches, Shady Grove # 1 and # 2, Alvarado, Bethesda, Rock Springs, Hillsboro, Island Grove, West Fork and Union met to organize themselves as an Association on October 29, 1864. The purposes of the Association are to encourage a spirit of cooperation among the churches and to assist the churches in accomplishing their work of fulfilling the Great Commission. Over the years, the Association has been identified by several names, finally named Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association in 2003. From the first meeting, a moderator has been elected annually to preside over meetings and oversee the work of the Association. Today there are 66 churches and missions in the Association, but only First Baptist Church, Alvarado, and Bethesda Baptist Church remain of the charter member churches. The location for an office for the Association was held in a single room in Reverend James G. Payne's home, who was the first executive director of the Association in 1950. The office moved to a space in the first Baptist church, then to a small building provided by the Field Street Baptist church, and finally in 1992 to a new building in West Cleburne. The Association provides leadership training, demographic studies, church staff development and pastoral counseling for participating churches, as well as financial support to ministries such as the Woman's Missionary Union, Christian Women's Job Corps and the Baptist Student Ministry. The Association has also extended its ministry to Canada, Germany, Mexico and Tanzania.