By Loretta Fulton

Three historic Black Baptist associations will meet in Abilene the week of June 24, two jointly and one separately.

The 121st annual session of the Original West Texas Baptist District Association, Inc. (OWT), will meet Monday, June 24-Friday, June 28. Joining that group will be delegates to the 110th Congress of Christian Education. All sessions, classes, youth activities, and worship services of both groups will meet at Wylie Baptist Church, 6097 Buffalo Gap Road. The opening musical will begin at 7 p.m. Monday, June 24, at Wylie Baptist.

The host churches for the joint meeting will be Mount Zion First Baptist Church and Valley View Missionary Baptist Church. Theme for the joint conference is “Connect, Reconnect, and Reconstruct for Reentry.” 

Rev. Andrew Penns, left, and Rev. Demotis Sherman

The Progressive West Texas Baptist Association will meet Tuesday, June 25-Thursday, June 27 at New Light Baptist Church, 518 N. 6th St. Sessions open at 9 a.m. June 25. All meetings will take place at New Light. If additional space is needed, meetings will be held at Macedonia Baptist Church, 608 N. 7th St. Theme is “Commitment to Stand Firm, While Yet Moving Forward,” based on Jeremiah 29:11 and 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Rev. Deori Newman

Worship services will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at New Light, pastored by Rev. Deori Newman. The youth program will be presented Wednesday night, and the Bible Drill Competition for youths will begin at 9 a.m. Thursday. 

Moderator for the  Progressive West Texas Baptist Association is Rev. Clarence Holliman, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Breckenridge. First Vice Moderator is Rev. Matthew Lubin Sr., pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Abilene. Other local officers are Rev. Gregory Ayers, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, treasurer; and Newman, financial secretary. 

Rev. Matthew Lubin Sr.

Moderator for the Original West Texas Baptist District Association, Inc., is Demotis Sherman, pastor of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in Abilene. Sherman was elected last year to replace longtime moderator Rev. Andrew Penns, pastor of Valley View Missionary Baptist Church.

Sherman, fittingly, is pastor of the oldest Black church in Abilene. It was organized in 1885, just four years after the city was founded. The church was organized by the Rev. James Curry, a missionary from Sherman. 

The Rev. James Lewis served as first pastor of the congregation, which met in a small house near the railroad tracks until about 1907, when a sanctuary was erected at the corner of Fourth and Cherry streets in the south part of town. The church moved to the north side of town in 1940.

The historic organizations that will be meeting in Abilene are made up of Baptist churches with predominantly Black congregations. A history of the OWT states that Black Baptist congregations date to a meeting at Silver Bluff, Aiken County, South Carolina some years prior to 1776. The second meeting was held at the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia, in 1778, which George Leile, the first ordained Black Baptist preacher in the New World was instrumental in founding. 

In 1805, the Joy Street Baptist Church, the first Black church in New England, was organized in Boston. In 1808, the Abyssinian Baptist Church was founded in New York City, and in 1809, the First African Baptist Church of Philadelphia opened. 

The history of the Original West Texas Baptist District Association, Inc., dates to 1903 under the leadership of the Rev. W.F. Talley and the Rev. B.B. Johnson, along with the ministers of the churches listed below:

St. John, Stephenville
St. John, Decatur
Mt. Zion, Weatherford
Mt. Zion, Colorado City
Mt. Zion, Abilene
First Baptist, Thurber
St. Luke, Annetta
Macedonia, Albany
Mt. Hermon, Mineral Wells

They met at St. John Baptist Church in Stephenville in August 1903 to lay the foundation for the association. Rev. Johnson, pastor, preached the first sermon of the new association. The first moderator was Rev. F.B. Williams, who served in 1903-1904. 

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene