Texas Conference
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Image not found or type unknown Texas Conference BRODY WOODARD Brody Woodard, B.A. in theology (Ouachita Hills College, Amity, Arkansas) and B.A. in religious studies (Griggs University, Berrien Springs, Michigan). Woodard has done work with TMI (Total Member Involvement) in Romania and serves as a pastor in the Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Currently (2020), Woodard is pursuing his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary on the campus of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. The Texas Conference is an administrative unit of the Seventh-day Adventist Church within the Southwestern Union Conference. Territory: That portion of Texas (except the city of Texarkana) east and south of Callahan, Concho, Foard, Hardeman, Haskell, Jones, Knox, Runnels, Schleicher, Sutton, and Terrell counties, and south of the south line of Crockett County. Statistics (June 30, 2019): Churches, 252; membership, 61,007; population, 24,859,973 Origins On December 29, 1845, the United States of America under President James Polk annexed the Republic of Texas as the American nation’s twenty eighth state. Texas formally joined the union on February 19, 1846. The Seventh-day Adventist message began to be preached in Texas about thirty years later, in 1875. Three brothers, John E., E. G., and A. B. Rust, came from Michigan to Texas and conducted a series of meetings, at the end of which a company was organized in Dallas. That first company met in various homes and buildings in the Dallas-Grand Prairie area.1 In May 1876, D. M. Canright came to Texas to hold meetings that eventually lead to the formation of a church of 18 members in Dallas. E. G. Rust was the deacon and the state’s first Seventh-day Adventist baptism was conducted the very next day. Canright estimated that “about sixty Sabbathkeepers” were scattered throughout the state.2 In the same year the General Conference asked R. M. Kilgore to go to Texas in response to a request from Dallas for an evangelist. He went in May 1877, held tent meetings, and organized churches in 1878 in Cleburne, Peoria, and Terrell.3 A. G. Daniells, then twenty-one years old, served as the tent master.4 James and Ellen White spent several months in the Plano and Denison area of Texas in 1878 and 1879. Regarding a camp meeting held November 12-19 in Plano, James White, General Conference president at time, reported: “During the camp meeting thirteen people were baptized, the Texas Conference was formed, and aggressive plans were laid for tent evangelism. It was decided to purchase two evangelistic tents, one sixty feet in diameter and the other fifty feet.” 5 Texas Conference (1878-1932) At this camp meeting, the first regular one held, the Texas Conference was organized, with R. M. Kilgore as president. 6 Around 1880 Kilgore moved to Peoria, and conducted evangelistic work in a number of places in north Texas (Fairview, Marystown, Plano, and Dresden), and organized a church at Sherman. Earlier John Wilson had begun German work in southwest Texas, and A. W. Jenson had started the Swedish and Danish work in Austin and Lexington. By 1890, through the evangelism of Kilgore, W. S. Cruzan, and W. S. Hyatt, churches or groups had been organized in McKinney, Black Jack Grove, Clifton, Brushy Knob, Corsicana, Wilmer, Savoy, Cooper, Fairyland, and Ladonia. The conference membership then stood at 425, and there were two ordained ministers and four licensed ministers.7 In 1893 R. W. Roberson moved to San Antonio, and six months later a group of 21 were meeting regularly on the Sabbath. In the same year the conference purchased 800 acres (325 hectares) of land in Johnson County for a Texas training school (now Southwestern Adventist University). Smaller tracts of this land were sold to Seventh-day Adventist families, and many settled there. On January 6, 1894, a church of 60 charter members were organized. The U.S. Post Office Department named the settlement “Keene” in 1895. In 1893 a copy of Uriah Smith’s Daniel and the Revelation was sold in a German settlement near Hutton, in central Texas, by a colporteur named Hunter. Several German families became Seventh-day Adventists and were organized in October 1895 as a small company, and then in December 1896 as a church, which increased to 34 members the next year. From this German church, 13 members moved in 1903 to Valley View, in north Texas, and with six isolated members in that area organized a church there. Also in 1896, evangelism conducted by J. N. Summerville in the east Texas counties of Cass and Morris resulted in the organization of the Marietta church (now New Hope). A day school was opened soon afterwards. As of 1900, the Texas Conference reported a total of 1,294 members.8 West Texas Conference Organized In 1908 the 100 western counties of Texas, with 261 members, were separated from Texas Conference and became the West Texas Mission. The mission was organized in 1909 as the West Texas Conference, with T. W. Field as president. It became part of the Texico Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, organized in 1916. North Texas and South Texas Conferences Organized The Texas Conference was divided again in 1910. In the division it was reduced to the northeastern part of the state, with 21 churches, 1,336 members, and 10 church buildings. In 1911, it was renamed the Northeast Texas Conference (changed shortly to North Texas Conference), with headquarters in Keene. W.A. McCutchen was president. The southern portion of the state, with 257 members, was separated as the South Texas Mission Field, organized as the South Texas Conference at San Antonio in 1911, with J. I. Taylor as president. In 1912 the North Texas Conference operated seven evangelistic tents, organized seven new churches, and conducted four camp meetings, including one for the African-American constituency, and Sabbath schools increased from 30 to 51. Although failure of cotton crops in 1914 forced the North Texas Conference to reduce budgets, that year saw the founding of Berean Intermediate School (later Jefferson Christian Academy) near Jefferson, in northeast Texas. In 1917 North Texas Conference colporteurs nearly doubled their deliveries over the previous year. Also in that year the financial goal for foreign missions was reached for the first time, and 200 persons were baptized. During the 1920s large-scale citywide evangelistic campaigns were conducted in both the North and the South Texas Conferences. In 1921 J. H. Tindall conducted an evangelistic campaign in the city auditorium in Dallas, in which medical work was combined with gospel preaching. Dr. Mary McReynolds gave numerous treatments, and vegetarian meals were served in the auditorium. A three-month training school for 50 evangelistic workers was also operated in connection with the campaign. The combination of medical work with gospel preaching was also used in 1923 by G. R. West, with Toral Seat and two nurses conducting the medical evangelism in Fort Worth and in Waco; also, by W. E. Barr in Houston and in San Antonio. The South Texas Conference membership rose from 416 in 1920 to 1,155, with 20 churches, in 1928. In 1922 one out of every 15 members in the conference was actively engaged in colporteur work. By 1928 the North Texas Conference (whose office moved from Keene to Dallas in 1924) had a membership of 1,323, with 29 churches. Spanish Evangelism in South Texas Between 1909 and 1913 W. F. Mayer conducted colporteur work among the Hispanic population along the Lower Rio Grande Valley. By 1916 two Hispanic churches had been organized, with a membership of 43. The La Reforma Mexican church in the Lower Rio Grande Valley was dedicated in 1923. Fifty six new Hispanic converts that year gave the South Texas Conference the largest number of Hispanic members of any conference in the United States. In 1925 nearly half the total member attending the South Texas camp meeting were of Mexican heritage, and by 1930 the Hispanic membership reached 200.9 Texas Conference Reorganized In 1932 the South Texas and North Texas conferences were recombined to form the Texas Conference, with a total of 2,950 members. G. F. Eichman was elected president, and the conference office was moved to Fort Worth.10 Between 1932 and 1942, 21 new churches were organized and more than 2,600 members were baptized. At the end of the period there were 63 churches and 25 church schools. School enrollment in Texas in all grades rose from 543 in 1932 to 804 in 1935. In 1941 four evangelists were on the air weekly or daily. Between 1943 and 1951 Adventist evangelists conducted campaigns in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Fort Worth, each adding between 100 and 175 members. In addition, 17 new churches and eight new church schools were organized. In 1944 sales of church publications totaled $137,000—more than in the whole decade of 1932- 1942. From 1950-1957 the Texas Conference had a net gain of nearly 2,000 members. Growth in Recent Decades In July 1959, under the name Operation Lone Star, conference president B. E. Leach launched an intensive program to advance in every phase of the work. Under this program, by 1963, 450 evangelistic meetings had been held and 2,066 persons had joined the church, bringing the conference membership to 8,000. In six years, 27 new churches were organized (through 1965), and active evangelism was carried on in 37 unentered regions. Each pastor was appointed an evangelist, and the conference department heads also conducted evangelistic meetings. The Texas Conference grew substantially during the tenure of Cyril Miller as president (1974-1985).