We build a bridge between churches by assessing the needs of the church to be able to continue to tell more stories and testimonies because we are called by the great commission, the great commandment, and together we are more effective than individually.
There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction.
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of human nature and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, partaking of the nature of God and of man, and in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, committed to His teachings, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Richard Taylor presently holds the position of Associate Director of Church Health & Leadership and DFW Regional Catalyst at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Before this, he served as Associate Director of Personal Evangelism and Associate Director of Church Planting with the SBTC. Additionally, Richard served as the former State Director of Evangelism for the Baptist Convention of New York for a decade. As a highly sought-after communicator, Richard engages in preaching revivals and leading workshops, seminars, and conferences on evangelism, strategic planning, and leadership development. He challenges individuals and organizations to surpass mediocrity, drawing on his educational background from Texas A & I University and The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. With over 30 years of diverse ministry experience at local, state, and national levels, Richard has demonstrated leadership in various roles, including 10 interim pastorates. His approach involves strategic, prayerful, and cross-cultural leadership, emphasizing collaboration to equip and empower others for maximum potential. Richard and Romona have been married for 27 years, have no children and currently resides in Fort Worth, TX.
The first official step toward the organization of the Corpus Christi Baptist Association was taken at the annual meeting of the Blanco Baptist Association, which was held at Beeville, on Friday, October 20, 1911. At the afternoon session on that day, D.B. South read a resolution which had been adopted by a mass meeting that had been held Thursday morning. This resolution was adopted. It provided for the division of the Blanco Baptist Association in such a way that the part lying southwest of the Nueces River would be organized into a new Association. It also provided that in 1912 the churches southwest of this river would organize a new association.
The reasons given in the resolution of D. B. South for the desire to organize a new association were: (a) the Blanco Association as so large that it was necessary that some of the messengers travel too great a distance in reaching the meeting, (b) the number of messengers was too large to be entertained by the churches. Another reason that seemed to have played a part was the existence of so many poor roads in the association. The meeting for the purpose of organizing a new association was called to meet at the Corpus Christi Baptist Church on Friday, April 19, 1912. The call was issued at the Fifth Sunday meeting which met at Bishop in March, 1912.
There were nine churches represented by messengers at the Organizational meeting. The messengers from Aberdeen failed to get to the meeting, but the church sent a message favoring the organization of a new association, The messenger from Bishop failed to arrive on account of inclement weather, and Falfurrias was not represented by regular messengers, it seemed, but J.F. Franks said the church favored the organization and wished to cooperate.
The temporary moderator and Clerk elected were D. B. South and W. C. Hamil, respectively. After ample discussion as to its propriety, it was decided to organize a new Baptist association. A constitutional committee was appointed composed of J. G. Brice, D. M. Carr, and H. A. Choran.
The first name proposed for the New Baptist Association was the new Baptist Association was the Nueces Missionary Baptist Association, but the name of “Corpus Christi” was substituted for “Nueces”. This association was to include the Baptist churches within the district south of the Nueces River and north of the line of the Cameron—Hidalgo Association and between the east line of the Rio Grande Association and the Gulf of Mexico.
The Association was composed of Nueces, Kleberg, and Jim Wells Counties, and a large part of Duval, Live Oak, Jim Hogg, Brooks, and Wil1acy Counties. This constituted a territory sixty—five miles wide and one hundred miles long, but since the area is not rectangular in shape, the area was only about 5,000 square miles.
The Association was composed of Nueces, Kleberg, and Jim Wells Counties, and a large part of Duval, Live Oak, Jim Hogg, Brooks, and Wil1acy Counties. This constituted a territory sixty—five miles wide and one hundred miles long, but since the area is not rectangular in shape, the area was only about 5,000 square miles.
There was six county seat towns in the association, and a population of about thirty thousand Anglo-Americans and about twenty thousand Latin Americans.
The objectives of the Association were to strengthen Baptist fellowship and promote cooperation among the churches in their efforts along Missionary, Educational and Benevolent lines.
The officers of the Association were Moderator, Clerk, Corresponding Secretary, and Treasurer. The Executive Board was composed of the officers of the Association together with the pastors of each church. Every church with a membership of less than sixty cooperating with the Association was entitled to three messengers. A church with more than sixty members was entitled to one messenger in excess of this number.
The first permanent officers of the Corpus Christi Association were elected after the adoption of the Constitution. They were D.B. South, Moderator; W. C. Hamie, Clerk; W. A. Myers, Corresponding Secretary; and W.I. Walton,Treasurer.
Sandia was selected as the place of the first annual meeting of the Corpus Christi Baptist Association. This meeting was to be held from September 18 until September 20, 1912.
There were fourteen churches represented at Sandia from the Corpus Christi Baptist Association. Of these there were two new churches, which had not been present at the organizational meeting. These churches were received as members at this time were the London and the Sunshine Churches.
In 1953, the association, comprised of approximately 150,000 people in a fast-growing area, decided to become metropolitan in its concept. To meet the challenge, twenty-six cooperating congregations joined hands with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. W. H. Colson was called to be the Metropolitan Missions Superintendent and served until November 1, 1981.
Rev. Bill R. Frazier joined the staff March 1, 1979, as Associate Director of Missions. He was called as Director of Missions November 1, 1981
Rev. Mell Plunk served as Director of Missions from 1994 to 1996.
Rev. Harvey Kneisel served as Director of Missions from 1997 to 2000.
In his twenty years of service (1983-2003), Rev. Forrest Smith served as Associate Director of Missions in the area of Church Services and Weekday Ministries. He served as Interim Director of Missions on three occasions and as Acting Director of Missions prior to his retirement May 31, 2003.
In 2004, Rev. Ed Jump joined the association as Director of Missions. He served until 2011.
In 2010, Rev. Anson R. Nash, Jr. came aboard as Administrator. As Administrator, Rev. Nash moved our association from committee led to team led.
In 2011, he became Interim Executive Director and answered the call to become Executive Director in 2012. Our 2012 focus, ROCC 2012!, was designed to reach the Inner City with the Gospel message. We are continuing that goal in 2013 and striving to enhance our efforts by connecting our churches together in a common goal of Kingdom building in Corpus Christi and the surrounding area.
Now, we are striving for a more united, but diverse association. As well as pave the way for those who will come next. We are choosing to take a bigger stand. With that, we are putting a new image forward.