Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association
Cleburne, Johnson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Messengers from nine Baptist churches, Shady Grove # 1 and # 2, Alvarado, Bethesda, Rock Springs, Hillsboro, Island Grove, West Fork and Union met to organize themselves as an Association on October 29, 1864. The purposes of the Association are to encourage a spirit of cooperation among the churches and to assist the churches in accomplishing their work of fulfilling the Great Commission. Over the years, the Association has been identified by several names, finally named Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association in 2003. From the first meeting, a moderator has been elected annually to preside over meetings and oversee the work of the Association. Today there are 66 churches and missions in the Association, but only First Baptist Church, Alvarado, and Bethesda Baptist Church remain of the charter member churches. The location for an office for the Association was held in a single room in Reverend James G. Payne’s home, who was the first executive director of the Association in 1950. The office moved to a space in the first Baptist church, then to a small building provided by the Field Street Baptist church, and finally in 1992 to a new building in West Cleburne. The Association provides leadership training, demographic studies, church staff development and pastoral counseling for participating churches, as well as financial support to ministries such as the Woman’s Missionary Union, Christian Women’s Job Corps and the Baptist Student Ministry. The Association has also extended its ministry to Canada, Germany, Mexico and Tanzania.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On October 29, 1864, messengers from nine Baptist churches met to organize an association to encourage cooperation and support their shared missionary work. Over the decades it carried several names before settling on the Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association in 2003, growing to some 66 churches and missions even as only First Baptist Church of Alvarado and Bethesda Baptist Church survived among its charter members. From a single room in its first director's home in 1950, the association's office moved several times before reaching a new building in West Cleburne in 1992.
Why it matters
Founded amid the Civil War, the association shows how Texas Baptists built cooperative networks that shaped religious and community life across generations.
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Related people
- · Rev. James G. Payne
Themes & tags
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