This blog is a presentation of records accumulated over the last 65 years in this particular Christian fellowship in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
Midwest Boulevard Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, established in 1954, will have it's last service on April 26, 2020.
Some of the records of the church will be sent to the Disciples of Christ Historical Society to be stored as-is or microfilmed. There are many records that are more casual and those will be the substance of this blog.
I plan to scan photographs and documents that will tell the story of this church. Other records will have extractions posted. It will take many months to sort and make decisions on what records to put on-line and what will be sent to the DCHS.
Some information will be posted by month, some by year, some by subject. Bear with me as I try to find the right mixture.
6 October 2019
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⭐Thank you to Jim Simmons for agreeing to let me take on the
⭐Thank you to Peggy Simmons for providing the equipment to do the work.
⭐Thank you to Matthew Chandler for providing valuable technical support,
⭐Thank you to Milly Gee and Linda Edgell for the hours spent to begin the sorting.
⭐Thanks, too, to Linda Edgell for her years of excellent photographs,
⭐Lonina Moore, long since moved on to Heaven, took many of the early black-and-white photographs as well as contributing hundreds of color photographs. As historian, she kept thick albums of church history and photos. She did a fine job in everything that came her way.
My family wasn't one of the founding families, but we began attending as soon as the first building went up. We watched it being built and were ready to attend. My parents joined in March 1958 and we attended every Sunday, we kids often walking to the church on pleasant days. As of this date, Peggy Simmons has the earliest membership date of someone still a member. She has been an active member for 62 years. Jim Simmons has the longest mostly-continuous attendance (away for a year in college), having begun when he was about 4 years old and still attending. When your family is tied to a church for so long, it's difficult to see the end come. May the next congregation feel the warmth of the fellowship that is sure to keep radiating from the walls.
The following
is an account of the events that led to New Hope Baptist Church buying the
property of Midwest Blvd. Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
August 14, 2019,
three members of MBCC were finishing the yardwork at church. We were in front of the Activities
Center. It was late in the
afternoon. As we were cleaning up, a
nice Toyota Camry drove down to where we were working.
Two
well-dressed women stopped to ask about the possibility of the church providing
help for someone they knew needed it. My
response was that unfortunately, we were no longer able to provide that type of
help. I continued by telling them that because our attendance was down, we had
recently decided to put the church up for sale, but the decision had not yet
been made public information.
At that, their
eyes widened, they smiled, and they said that they were looking for a church.
Not sure of their meaning, I asked if they meant to attend or to buy. They said, “To buy.” That’s when my eyes widened and I
smiled. We agreed that I needed to talk
to their pastor.
The next day
Pastor Tyson and I made contact and it wasn’t long before he came to look at
the property. Following one pandemic, dozens of calls, texts, and emails, multiple
visits and showings, through twenty-six months and two weeks, the property
changed owners.
And all the
people said, “Amen.”
Jim Simmons, Moderator
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New Hope Baptist Church held their first service at their new home on January 30, 2022.
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