Celebration has new meaning as church is dedicated on Sunday

Published 7:37 am Wednesday, November 20, 2019

By Dawn Burleigh

The Orange Leader

 

Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church held a Friends and Family Fall Celebration service on Sunday in its new church home. 

Guest speaker Reverend Jeffery Knox, of Growing in Grace Missionary Baptist Church in Humble, Texas, also performed the dedication of the new church building.

“It is good to be back home,” Knox said. 

He is a WO-S graduate and was one of the Mustangs who took State Champs for the first time.

“I was number 33,” Knox said. 

Associate Minister Franklin Gans said, “God brought us all the way, but the journey is not over.”

St. Paul’s has been in Orange for 135 years.

It was first established in 1884 as a mission of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

According to church records, a plot of land where HEB Pantry Store and Dairy Queen are now located on 16th Street was donated by the late HJL Stark for the first church building. A small building was erected and known as Revenue Baptist Church.

It was under the leadership of Reverend Arthur Robison that the name was changed to Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church. 

In 1963, the church moved from 16th Street to 2907 17th Street and was the home for 33 years.

In 2006, the church moved again to 1704 14th Street. 

The church, whose mantra is “The church where everybody is somebody and God is all,” reflected the procurement of the building was all God and through the efforts of all the church members working together.

“It feels great and is a tremendous blessing to see the people filling up the parking lot,” Deacon James Woodrow said. “Everyone worked together getting prepared for the ceremony.”

He added, “Everyone working together is how we got here. Because of love and working so hard is what brought this church this far.”

Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church is a teaching ministry church. 

Early worship is at 7:45 a.m. followed by Sunday School at 9: 30 a.m. and Worship at 11 a.m. on Sunday.