Independence Baptist Church is the oldest continuously active Baptist Church in Texas. It was organized in 1839. It is also the church where Sam Houston was baptized.
If you're interested in learning more about Independence, and Texas Baptist History, here's a website you should check out.
http://www.independencetx.com/
We toured the museum, and the old church, the other day day after we left Round Top.
Church meetings were first held in a school building. Baylor University was established in Independence in 1845, and services were held in University buildings until 1853, when they moved to the present site. That building burned 1872, although the pulpit furniture and pews associated with member Sam Houston were salvaged. The congregation then built the stone structure which still stands today.
I really like the stained glass windows. Simple, but colorful.
The old church is now part of the museum, and open to the public.
This is the new church, across the street from the older one. We were blessed to be able to worship with this congregation today, Palm Sunday. And doubly blessed to join them in the Lord's Supper.
I've heard this story before, and you probably have, too. They say that there were "throngs of onlookers" when Sam Houston was baptized on November 19, 1854, in Rocky Creek, 2 miles south of town. When he was told his sins were washed away, he reportedly replied, "I pity the fish downstream."
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