August 12, 1904, is the accepted date of the formation of the First Baptist Church congregation in Konawa. Some people beleive at that time they met at the Cook School near the Violet area. By late 1904 or early 1905 their first church building would have been constructed on West Fourth Street. It almost had been built simultaneously with the Methodist church and the Church of Christ. No photograph of the original church has been found, but there is a good sized "blip" with quite distinguishable features which show the church was well built. The sturcture faced Southeast on the corner of West Fourth and Elm.
The 1929 building was destroyed in the tornado of 1961. That building was dedicated and completed in 1929 during the pastorate of G. Madison Ford. It might have even been called Broadway Baptist. This church building faced directly east and was on the corner of Broadway and State Street. The main auditorium featured a high Cathedral ceiling. At the east entrance there was two small classrooms with folding doors for extra seating. Above the two classrooms was a balcony that seated 60 to 80 people.
The present building was constructed at the same site. It has a high needle- stilletto spire. There are also two class rooms on the east side of the church with folding doors for extra seating capacity. There is a balcony on the east side of the church for filming and sound systems. The East wall, behind the balcony, there is a multi-colored stained glass window.
Several pastors distinguished themselves with long tenures. Among them were: G. Madison Ford, serving eleven years, Roy Autry served six years, Alexander Best,six years, Jack Gray, six years.
Falls Creek was a major event in the lives of the Konawa First Baptist youth. Falls Creek is allegedly the World's largest church encampment. For the first two or three years Konawa First Baptist's youth distanation was tent city. After that there was a large two story white cabin behind the tabernacle.
At this time, he children of the First Baptist Church meet on Wednesday nights at 6:30 for The Bible Safari. They have a W.M.U. and some of the men attend Promise Keeper Rallies.You can check out other Promise Keeper Web Sites by typing Promise Keeper in your search engine. The youth attend Falls Creek in Davis, Oklahoma, during July. In early August, the youth go to the Youth Evangelism Conference at the Lloyd Noble Center. During April, the women have a Women's Retreat atFalls Creek. There is a Southern Baptist web page that is very interesting. To visit this Evangelism Web Site click here.