Historic Texas Baptist church ‘still alive and growing,’ pastor reports

Posted: 11/18/05

Historic Texas Baptist church
'still alive and growing,' pastor reports

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

AUSTIN–Texas' oldest continuously active missionary Baptist church is “still alive and growing,” Butch Strickland told the Texas Baptist Historical Society.

Strickland, pastor of Independence Baptist Church, near Brenham, and curator of the Texas Baptist Historical Center Museum, presented a brief history of his church to the historical society's gathering prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Founded Aug. 31, 1839, Independence Baptist Church met in brush arbors and homes initially. Its first building–built in 1853–burned in 1872.

Among the items rescued from the fire was the pew occupied by its most famous member–Sam Houston, hero of the battle of San Jacinto and president of the Republic of Texas. Pastor Rufus Burleson baptized Houston in Little Rocky Creek, two miles south of the church, on Nov. 19, 1854.

Other Texas Baptist notables on the membership rolls of Independence Baptist Church include: George Washington Baines, Lyndon Johnson's great-grandfather; Henry McArdle, an art professor at Baylor University who painted pictures of the battle of the Alamo and battle of San Jacinto that hang in the state capitol; Fannie Breedlove Davis, president of the first consolidated women's missions group in Texas; and Anne Luther Bagby, pioneering Texas Baptist missionary to Brazil.

The early history of Independence Baptist Church became intertwined with the history of Baylor University and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Strickland noted. Both schools trace their beginnings to a charter granted by the Republic of Texas to Baylor at Independence.

Baylor's first president, Henry Lea Graves, was the first of Baylor's presidents to serve as the church's pastor.

An early pastor at the church, T.W. Cox, was instrumental in founding Union Baptist Association, the first association of churches in Texas. Cox later became a follower of Alexander Campbell's movement–which birthed the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ denominations–and was ousted from Baptist life in 1841.

Independence Baptist Church “has stood against doctrine untrue to our biblical heritage and stood up for those who would proclaim the truth,” Strickland said. “It has stood against anti-missionary movements and even sent from its walls missionaries all over Texas, the United States and even to foreign fields.”

When railroads and major highways bypassed Independence, the community–and the church–dwindled. But in recent years, as city-dwellers have relocated to the rural area near Independence, the church has experienced a resurgence.

In the near future, Strickland reported, the church will relocate across the road from its historic location, and the Texas Baptist museum will occupy the entirety of the old church building.

Independence Baptist Church “has endured periods of heartbreaking decline and enjoyed the blessings of God in church growth,” he said.

The Texas Baptist Historical Society honored two authors with church history writing awards–Billye Freeman Pratt for Spreading the Light: First Baptist Church Kingsville, Texas 1904-2004 in the category of churches with resident membership 500 to 1,000 and Ron Ellison for Calvary Baptist Church Beaumont, Texas: A Centennial History 1904-2004 in the category of churches with membership greater than 1,000.

During its business meeting, The Historical Society elected President Van Christian of Comanche, Vice President Ellen Brown of Waco and Secretary-Treasurer Alan Lefever of Dallas. Emily Row of San Angelo and Mark Bumpus of Mineral Wells were elected to the society's executive committee.