First Baptist Church was originally established in 1873 as The Baptist Church of Christ, with ten members. The church met in Palo Alto, a community three miles northeast of what is now our city of Killeen. The city of Killeen was founded in 1882. Eventually, the church moved to downtown Killeen. Through the years, the church bought surrounding lots to use for expansion and parking. The buildings were piecemeal, but worked for the church’s purposes. The oldest building was still standing from 1948, and then there were buildings A, B, C, and D. First Baptist Church had expanded to include a city block.

There were a few quirky aspects of the buildings. When a person wanted to go from the church offices into the choir room or courtyard, that person had to go through a little bathroom. And there was more than one occasion that someone got locked into the courtyard and couldn’t get out because of the high black fencing.

In 2001, the church body started talking about the possibility of relocating. There were several reasons for this. We were totally landlocked downtown; there was no land on which to expand. Also, security became a big issue; the church had to hire two security guards to walk the city block every time the doors were open. This was quite an expense! Several people had requested that an elevator be installed, because some adult classes were on the second story and the stairs were steep. There were no concessions for handicap accessibility.

Probably the biggest issue was that Killeen was growing quickly, but we were failing to attract families to our downtown location. The church staff made a display to see where our current families lived. A large city map was put on a board. Using a current list of church membership, a pushpin was attached for each member’s home address. This was quite enlightening! They found that the vast majority of our members lived on the other side of Highway 190. Killeen was moving South and Southeast, and we also had quite a few members who lived in Harker Heights. Very few members lived near downtown!

The church then voted to look into buying land. The Land Search Committee consisted of Committee Chair Allen Cloud, Don Sutton, Fred Latham, Clara Patterson, and Paula Lohse. The church wanted land that would be very visible and have “presence” in the city – a place where many people would be driving by the church. After a couple of months of looking at various locations, the committee became aware of the fact that Juanita Faucett, a church member, had some land for sale on W. S. Young Drive. Juanita very generously agreed to sell 20 prime acres to the church for the reduced price of $750,000. The closing date for the sale of the land was July 19, 2002. The JOSHUA PROJECT was the financial campaign for the debt retirement on the land; this was Phase 1 of the financial campaigns that we would have in the future.

On October 13, 2002, the church gathered on the empty lot at our current location on W.S. Young to officially dedicate the land. It was an exciting moment, as we looked forward to moving in the future!

In 2004, a building committee was elected. This committee consisted of Committee Chair Gloria Walker, Stephanie Allison, Don Bolen, Mildred Cloud, John Garcia, Don High, Paula Lohse, T.J. Mills, Dr. Charles Patterson, Joe Trimble, Joyce Tuggle, and Gene Steele.

The committee met only occasionally at first. They asked church members to fill out a survey, indicating what they would like to see in a new building. That list was so expansive that it would have been impossible to meet nearly all of the “wants,” of course. But it gave the committee ideas about the direction in which they should move. Several committee members went to various churches in different parts of the state, looking at possible aspects of design.

Next, the committee started meeting weekly, on Thursday nights. They had no idea what a lengthy period of time they would be serving. Three architects met with the committee to make presentations. Keith Hickman, from Round Rock, was chosen as the architect for the building. The Construction would be done by Cloud Construction Company of Temple. The cost for the new building came in at $7.54 Million Dollars. Once a month, Mr. Hickman had meetings with church leadership and Sunday School leadership. We then implemented the UNITED WE BUILD financial campaign. The Building Committee met with the architect for over a year to finalize plans.

As things moved along through the next several years, we had another financial campaign called TOGETHER WE BUILD. People gave generously, and excitement started to build.

We had another big celebration, as the actual Ground Breaking ceremony was held on February 24th, 2008; this was more than five years after the dedication of the land.

Now the big issue was in regard to selling our downtown buildings! Who would buy the property and how long would we have before we had to get out of the buildings? We prayed fervently for God’s plan and God’s timing. Another church offered $1 million and that offer was declined. Eventually, the City of Killeen offered $2 million and was willing to let us stay in the buildings for three years rent free. So First Baptist Killeen did sign a contract with the City. What an answer to prayer.

In the meantime, several issues had to be addressed. Many people wanted to make sure that we did have a Bell Tower in the new building so that we could move the current bell. That was indeed accomplished.

We were going to move from a space that included approximately 84,000 square feet (with additional storage space across the street) to approximately 47,000 square feet. What would we do with all of the “stuff” that had accumulated in all of the nooks and crannies of the downtown buildings? We wanted as much as possible to be repurposed so we sold/donated tables and metal chairs to other churches. Some of our church members wanted a pew to keep personally and some of the other pews were donated to New Sunset Baptist Church.

About two-thirds of the way into the actual building construction, Ann Farris was on a walk-through of our old downtown facilities; she was serving on a committee with the City of Killeen. They wanted to know what we were going to do with the huge “JESUS GLASS” Window. Many people had badly wanted to move the window to the new facility, but it had been deemed far too expensive. But the City had no use for it, and in fact, would be tearing it down. After much discussion, Tony and Jerrie Sue Cleaver stepped up and offered a generous financial gift to help make this possible. The moving of the window would involve many hours of work by a glass specialist. This thrilled many of our members who had very special memories of this beautiful window. And so a Change Order was issued to move “Jesus” to the new building.

However, our glass specialist told us that it would end up costing about double the original figure, because it wasn’t “stained glass,” but rather “slab glass.” Each individual piece would have to be taken apart in a way that it could be packed and reassembled. The process was very time-consuming and tedious. The church agreed to go ahead and move forward with the process and we have all been glad that the decision was made. This beautiful window, which meant so much to so many, would indeed be making the move with us.

This article would be incomplete without the story of the steeple. Everyone wanted a steeple, of course, and a beautiful white one had been selected. But when the steeple was delivered, there was a problem: the steeple was brass, not white! We had no choice, really, but to use that steeple. The day that the steeple was erected, many of us gathered in the parking lot across the street to watch the process.

The consensus was that the brass steeple was not a “mistake,” after all. The brass was beautiful and would be very visible as it gleamed in the Texas sun.

The final issue was in regard to how to actually move everything from downtown! We paid to have all of the office equipment moved; most of the kitchen equipment was new and was delivered. But, in an amazing feat, we – the church – moved everything. After the church service on the last Sunday in May of 2009, each Sunday School department was responsible for moving the things in their room. Families used Rental Trucks, U-Hauls, pickup trucks and trailers to physically move everything. It was an amazing sight to see. People driving down W.S. Young were stopping to see what was going on! Even the children were caught up in the excitement of carrying small boxes into the new building. At the end of that day, almost everything that we were keeping had been moved to the new location. We were all excited and praised God together for this remarkable feat!

The first Worship Service was held in the present location on June 7th, 2009! From start to finish, God had orchestrated every detail. To God be the glory!