First Baptist Church of Bowie

First Baptist Church of Bowie. . On December 24, 1882, Baptist ministers H.M. Burroughs and W.A. Mason, a missionary from the Baptist General Convention, met with fourteen local Baptists to organize the first Baptist Church at Bowie with Burroughs as its first pastor. To celebrate their new church, the congregation sang “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” , From 1883 to 1902, the congregation worshipped in the Masonic lodge building, also known as Rosser’s School for its weekday usage, located at the corner of Pecan and Lindsay Streets. Purchased from the Masons in 1886, that building burned in 1902. The congregation rebuilt on the site, only to see the new building burn in 1909. The next church building lasted until 1943 when the newly renovated structure burned. The congregation consecrated a new white brick sanctuary on Easter Sunday in April 1944. In 1966, the church campus expanded to include an education building. Members worshipped in the 1944 church until 1981 when a new sanctuary on the corner of Tarrant and Lindsay Streets was dedicated. At that time the 1944 sanctuary became the fellowship hall. , The third church pastor, J.C. Ward, preached at as many as seventeen churches in the North Texas circuit, sometimes being paid in eggs, chickens, and flour. In the early twentieth century, church member and author Fannie C. Potter wrote histories of both Montague County and the church. From its inception, the church’s congregation focused on missionary work, a focus that engendered several other local Baptist churches and community missions, including the multi-denominational Bowie mission.