FIRST BAPTIST FOCUS AND EVENTS

                                                                                August  2026

First Baptist Church will be celebrating our 150th Anniversary in September.

Each month some history of our church will be included in the newsletter.

From 1928 to 1940 The church took great strides spiritually. During this period more than 50 new members were added. Major renovation of the church was made, and a pipe organ was bought.

On June 1, 1940, Dr. R.E. Simms of Princeton, Indiana, accepted the church’s call and began his ministry. Dr. Simms and his sons stayed at the home of William and Mary Lossman (great-grandparents to Skip Rogers and Paula Bender) until his wife arrived with the household goods. His pastorate of sixteen years was the longest. Many changes took place in the building during this time. Emphasis at this time was placed on strong work of the young people and missionary giving. The Dr. Simms’ yearly New Years’ open house was remembered with pleasure.

When the United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941 until the final signing in September 1945, the women of the church remembered the servicemen with boxes of goodies at Christmas. Ladies were responsible for writing letters and sent literature to the servicemen. Money was sent to the American Bible Society for Bibles for servicemen. When church men were called to serve the country, the ladies remembered

them with cards, letters, magazines and packages.

Missionary outreach was strong during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Prayer meetings with Bible Study have been the supporting service of the church. During the 1950’s cottage prayer meetings were held on Friday evenings. Records show that during this time from 30-50 attended each prayer meeting.

One of the ladies Sunday School classes provided financial aid during these years from the sale of vanilla and lemon extract. These were easily earned funds for the church due to steady users for a good product. The extracts were furnished from a company, which allowed a certain percentage to be kept by the class.

Since 1944 until the 2000’s, the church had an annual Vacation Bible School. The VBS was one of the most successful of the church’s ministries with as many as 100 children attending. In the early 2000’s VBS was held with the United Methodist Church and First Lutheran Church.

A Passion Week tradition was began with a Thursday night candlelight communion service and for years the members joined with other church of Plano in Good Friday services. An Easter sunrise service was started in 1940 followed by the regular morning Easter worship. Often this Easter service had the largest attendance of the year. Easter breakfasts were included in the 1950’s.

The first Thanksgiving breakfast was held in 1946. For many years this seven o’clock breakfast was an outstanding event.

The highlight of each year was the special programs for Christmas with its Sunday School program or Christmas pageant. The choir with its Christmas anthems and Cantatas added much to these programs. Special musical programs included a Christmas Eve Midnight Service and New Year’s Eve midnight watch service.

During 1950, Eva Prince (great-grandmother to Deena Boerner) started a fund with the children’s pennies, which became known as the Fish Bowl. This was the beginning of the fund to build an educational building. With special offerings and memorials enough money was raised to pay the cost of $42,000 for the building which was dedicated in 1963. Sunday School attendance at this time was 236.

Rev. L Neal Carlson started his pastorate in 1962. He began the church paper, Church Echo and the Dial-a-

Devotion.