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Small churches contribute commitment, support, leadership, and prayer
to the Southern Baptist convention. Too often, however, small
congregations think they have nothing to give to the rich history of
Southern Baptists. This attitude is wrong! Today’s megachurches began
small, and more than 21,000 churches currently in the SBC have fewer than
300 members. In Texas, 49.6% of the churches report membership under 300.1
These congregations comprise a large segment of the SBC and have important
history to contribute to the heritage of the Convention.
Presnall Wood’s Baptist Standard editorial of August 28, 1985, noted
that often "the church small in number has a tendency to have a negative
image of itself." Every church, no matter how small, possesses a strong
tradition that should be imparted to others. Lessons learned through
trials, evangelistic breakthroughs that changed the community, true prayer
warriors who altered the life of the congregation—these facts and people
need to be shared with other Baptists. Even the smallest congregation has
important events in its past that can enrich the lives of Southern
Baptists. A negative self-image has no place in the Kingdom of God.
Pearl Baptist Church near Gatesville, Texas, with a membership of one
hundred and an average Sunday School attendance of seventeen in 1985,
decided to share her history. A small congregation, limited in finances
but not in vision, the church members organized for a centennial
celebration to take place in September 1985. What the Pearl Baptist Church
accomplished serves as a guide for small churches across the state who
want to celebrate their past while looking to the future.
The pastor, Dr. Mark Bumpus, led the congregation to elect a committee
of five to plan the celebration and decide what the church should and
could do for the event. Because none of the committee members had
experience in planning an anniversary celebration, they began by looking
at what other churches had done. The members also contacted friends who
had helped organize historical celebrations and discovered problems to be
avoided and things to be done. Everyone in the congregation became
involved in the planning and execution of the centennial.
Because the church is small with restricted finances, and because the
church minutes before 1924 were lost in a fire, the committee decided not
to publish a church history. Instead a cookbook and a sixteen-page
pamphlet were printed and sold. The cookbook was a reissue to one written
as a mission project by the Woman’s Missionary Union of the church. Bumpus
was single when he first came to Pearl Baptist Church, and he enjoyed the
Sunday cooking of the women of the congregation. After he married, his
wife, Earl Ann Lenert, and the WMU of the church decided to collect
favorite recipes and publish a cookbook. The proceeds from the first
printing went to the Mexican Rural Work Program of the Baptist General
Convention of Texas. For the centennial, the reissued cookbook contained a
four-page history of the church, with a list of all the pastors and their
dates of services. It also contained the names and addresses of the church
members. The profits from the reissue were divided between the mission
project and centennial expenses.
The church decided to erect a Texas State Historical Marker to
commemorate the anniversary. Working through the Coryell County Historical
Commission, the necessary forms were completed, and a marker was put up.
The church collected the $575 fee by initiating a special fund to which
members of the church contributed. Over a period of several months, the
coins and dollars added up to more than $600 and placed no financial
strain on the church. The fund did not substitute for tithing or regular
offerings—it was something special the people wanted to do to mark the
first hundred years as a church.
Pearl Baptist Church celebrated its centennial with an all-day program
on Sunday, September 15, 1985. Guest speakers were invited who represented
Pearl’s ties with all aspects of Baptist life. Dr. Presnall Wood had
pastored in the area and represented Texas Baptists. Lee Roy Williamson,
the Area Director of Missions, stood for associational work. Ben Rogers,
archivist at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth,
spoke for the Southern Baptist institutions Pearl supports through the
cooperative Program. And Dr. Winfred Moore, pastor of First Baptist
Amarillo, president of the BGCT, and vice president of the SBC,
represented the national body of Southern Baptists. The granddaughter of
the founder of Pearl Baptist Church, Mrs. Anniece Caldwell of Columbia,
South Carolina, stood for the beginnings of the congregation. These
special guests brought insight from every area of Baptist work, and they
delighted in sharing Pearl’s birthday.
Dinner on the grounds followed the morning worship service, and the
church decided to have the lunch catered. By talking with friends who had
organized similar celebrations, the committee learned that if the church
women cooked the meal, they missed much of the fun of the program. So, a
caterer who specialized in church dinners was hired, and the congregation
and visitors were able to enjoy the worship time and afternoon festivities
without worrying about food or cleanup.
As mementos of the event, a sixteen-page program was printed and a
videotape was made of all the proceedings. The program contained
photographs of former pastors, buildings, Sunday School classes, and
special events from the church’s past; pictures of the program
personalities and an outline of the celebration itself were also included.
The videotape captured the sights and sounds of the anniversary party and
has been made available to anyone interested in purchasing a copy. Both
the program and the video have proved valuable in preserving this
important moment in Pearl’s history.
Much work went into the planning and execution of the centennial for
Pearl Baptist Church, but everyone involved would gladly do it again. Many
benefits came from the active preservation and presentation of the
church’s history. Bumpus noted an increased sense of fellowship among the
congregation. They accomplished something important, and it drew the
members together. The self-image of the church went up when the
congregation began to look at all that the small church had done in the
work of the Kingdom of God. Increased missions awareness resulted from
reissuing the cookbook. The members also gained a deeper appreciation for
Baptist heritage and for their place in the Southern Baptist Convention.
They developed a testimony of doing something worthwhile and doing it
well. The people gave their best. Although limited financially and
numerically, their best was good enough to accomplish something they could
point to with pride, something with which they could honor God.
Small churches have many resources upon which they can draw for the
writing of a church history or the planning of an anniversary celebration.
A committee can use church minutes, associational minutes, local
newspapers, and the recollections of long-time church members for
historical data. The Texas Baptist Historical Collection of the Baptist
General Convention of Texas is a valuable source for photographs and
information on Texas churches and preachers. The Texas Collection, at
Baylor University in Waco, also provides historical information. The
Southern Baptist Historical Society has a kit designed to help churches
write their history and/or celebrate their anniversary. The Resource Kit
for Your Church’s History contains about twenty-three items. Individual
items can be purchased from the kit. A handbook for the historical
committee and the "how to" pamphlets are most useful. The pamphlets can be
ordered in groups of five, and they cover different topics: how to locate
church records, how to tape record interviews, how to research and write a
history, and so forth. All of this information will help a small church
organize and publish its history, either in written form or in a special
celebration.
Small churches are the backbone of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Their past enriches us all, and their stories deserve to be told.
Resources are available to help small churches celebrate their past, just
as aids are available to help them grow into the future. The Pearl Baptist
Church adopted a logo for the centennial: Entering the Second Century.
This logo challenged members to remember the past while moving into the
future, to learn where they came from while looking ahead to where they
will go. Every church, regardless of size, needs to learn that lesson—to
remember the past while moving into the future.
Other resources to contact for more information:
Texas Collection
Baylor University
BU Box 97142
Waco, Texas
76798
(254)710-1268
Texas Baptist Historical Collection
4144 N. Central
Expwy, Suite 110
Dallas, Texas 75204
(972)331-2235
tbhc@bgct.org
Baptist
History and Heritage Society
1-800-966-2278
Written By: Dr. Rosalie Beck
If you have questions or comments, please email us at
tbhc@bgct.org.
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