HISTORY OF EMMANUEL BAPTIST CHURCH

 

In 1934 a group of women started holding Sunday School classes for children in the old Bumpus schoolhouse on Highway 42.  As attendance grew, Gladewater First Baptist Church adopted the little group and it became a mission. 

 

In 1936 the mission became a church,  chose the name EMMANUEL BAPTIST CHURCH, and was accepted as a member of the Southern Baptist General Convention of Texas.

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In 1937 Mrs. Juan McBee Fisher donated the land on which the church now stands.  The original structure was a frame building.  

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In 1956 the church became a member of the Gregg Baptist Association, which it helped organize.

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In 1966 a new brick building was built in place of the frame building.

 

In 1969 an education building and a parsonage were added, and in 1971 the sanctuary was enlarged to meet the need for growth.  

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Tragedy struck on Thanksgiving weekend, November 2000, when accidental flooding from a city sewer line resulted in contaminating  and making the building uninhabitable. The building and its contents were torn down and hauled off by a salvage company in February 2001.  

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Construction on the present building began in May 2001.  During the time without a building, the church continued to meet regularly first in White Oak Missionary Baptist Church, then in White Oak Community Center and later in White Oak Bank Civic Center for worship.  Many opened their homes for Sunday School classes and church training groups.  On November 4, 2001, the Emmanuel Baptist Church family and friends met with joy in a lovely, new debt-free building to worship their Heavenly Father with thankful hearts. 

 

In August, 2021 the church called John-Daniel Cutler as our Pastor.  

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