First Christian Church Sold

First Christian Church building sells

Upkeep prohibitive for small congregation

By Bob Wright-Editor

A dwindling congregation and the foresight to sell when the opportunity presented itself, has brought about sale of the First Christian Church building on East Main at Bonham.

“Our small congregation couldn’t afford the upkeep and maintenance on the building,” Darrow Condon said this week. Condon, who teaches a Sunday School class at the church, was often seen at the facility, attending to the lawn and to other matters around the building.

The congregation, however, hasn’t disbanded, and is meeting in a private home each week, Condon explained. The membership is down to around 20, and that’s a far cry from the 150 during the church’s heyday in Mexia. “Over the years it just declined,” Condon said, and said part of the problem is due to having “no active youth program.”

The Rev. Tom Prentiss has been filling in as minister, since Dr. Wayne Robinson retired, due to health problems. Dr. Robinson had served the church as pastor in two different timeframes. “We haven’t quit,” Darrow added.

The building, which served members during Mexia Oil Boom Days, has been sold to The Mission Pentecostal Church, which is presently located on Highway 171 in Mexia. That building, which formerly housed First Assembly of God Church when it was on East Milam Street, was bought by the congregation. The building was moved to Highway 171, and then underwent extensive renovation. The new congregation in the First Christian building is to begin meeting there on March 15. The pastor is Carlos Morer.

Darrow doesn’t anticipate First Christian’s congregation to disband. “We’ve re-organized in a private home,” Condon explained. “We might rent a facility, and looking at sites on which we could build a smaller facility,” Condon states.

Dr. Robinson served as pastor of First Christian for around 17 years, before and after the Rev. Ken Coffey, who retired from the pulpit.

Some of the earlier members of the church bear names easily recognizable by many Mexiaites - names like Jim and Alberta Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Val Horn, Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Kendrick, Polly and Buck Jackson, Stanley Foster, Mary and Earl Speer and Maude Blair

About the photo: This photo was taken in 1922, and pictured the Building Committee. Large structure on far right was a rooming house, owned by a lady who donated adjacent land on which to build the First Christian building. Left to right, J.E. Baxter, Carl Davis, C.O. Sargent, Mrs. Louise Gamble, Vice-president of the Building Committee, and W.B. Kendrick, committee President.