For the past few weeks, I have been working on a committee that is helping to plan the 150th Anniversary of First Baptist Church Richardson.  There are not many churches that can make that claim to fame.  We are even older than First Baptist Church Dallas.  Looking through the archives at the old pictures is fascinating.

On December 19, 1865 a small band of Christians covenanted together to form Mount Calvary Baptist Church.  Joseph Jennings Butler was the first pastor of this congregation.  Elizabeth Butler was his wife.

The group declared:

We pledge ourselves to labor for God’s Glory, to love and kindly treat each other; to be governed by the word of God alone in our faith and practice as best we understand its holy teachings in all our transactions as a church.   (From church minutes)

Is that not wonderful?  These precious words continue to speak to me today, and I love this foundation of our congregation.

There are many other pictures that I love, but I thought I would share just a few of them with you.  The pictures that include members of the congregations are interesting.

This is a photograph of the sanctuary in 1910.  Look at the fancy hats.

In 1909 Mount Calvary Baptist church was destroyed by a tornado.  This is the new church that was built in 1910 at Phillips at Greenville.  The modified Gothic architecture had  stained -glass windows imported from Italy.

Later (1949 – 1950) that pretty little church was torn down and a larger modern church was built.

Then in 1976, 24 acres of land at the corner of Central Expressway and Arapaho Road were purchased for the purpose of building a new church home.  This is now the location of First Baptist Church Richardson.

These are but a small sampling of the photographs in the archives, but I have been moved by the faithful Christians who for almost 150 years have done their best to abide by the pledge to labor for God’s Glory, to love and kindly treat each other; to be governed by the word of God alone in our faith and practice as best we understand its holy teachings in all our transactions as a church. (From church minutes)

Their pledge reminds me of Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (New International Version)

Blessings to you and yours,

If you have any pictures of life at First Baptist Church Richardson, please share.  You can take them to the church office.  The 150th celebration is going to be such a wonderful homecoming.