Founded on a Dirt Floor in Old Town Lewisville
In the spring of 1952, a man named Clyde Boyd was sent to Lewisville, Texas to start a new church. He lived with his aunt Annie on College Street while he searched for a place to gather worshipers. What he found was the old Vita Croft building at the corner of Purnell Street and Mill Street, a structure with no windows and a dirt floor. Boyd laid enough flooring to set a piano on, and in late May 1952 Central Baptist Church was born.
That first home did not last long. The congregation grew quickly, and Boyd moved the church to a larger building on the south side of Main Street in Old Town Lewisville. After about a year, the young church was able to purchase the property on South Cowan Avenue where it still meets today.
Sunday in Three Parts
Central Baptist keeps a busy Sunday rhythm that has not changed much over the decades. Bible study for every age group begins at 10:00 a.m., followed by morning worship at 11:00 a.m. The church gathers again at 6:00 p.m. for evening worship. Three services in one day reflect the central place that gathering around the Word holds at this congregation.
Sunday school classes cover the full range of ages and stages. Children from newborn through seventh grade have their own classes designed for how they learn at each stage, with an emphasis on Bible study, Scripture memorization, and applying what they learn to daily life. Teens meet in their own class. Adults have several teaching options during that hour.
Wednesday Nights Around the Word
Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. bring the church back together for Bible study. Pastor Roy Blair teaches the adult Bible study, working through Scripture in a way that applies to everyday pressures and real-life situations. The Wednesday hour is one of the congregation's longstanding midweek anchors.
Where Christ Is Central
The church's name online, wherechristiscentral, captures the heartbeat of the congregation. Central Baptist holds five distinctive biblical beliefs that shape its identity as a Baptist church.
First, the Bible is the authoritative Word of God, inspired, infallible, and preserved by God. The Authorized King James Version is the final authority for faith and practice.
Second, salvation is by grace through faith. It is freely given to anyone who believes and receives the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who died, was buried, rose from the grave, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. A person who is saved is born again and, in the church's understanding, cannot lose that salvation.
Third, Jesus Christ is the head of His Church. The church began with the original apostles, and the Lord adds to it those who should be saved. Each local New Testament church is self-governing, made up of saved, baptized members.
Fourth, baptism is by full immersion of a born-again believer in water. It is an ordinance, not a sacrament, and carries no saving power in itself. Baptism is administered in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Fifth, the Lord's Supper is likewise an ordinance given to the local church, not a sacrament. The bread and juice are symbols that point to Christ's broken body and shed blood. Central Baptist practices closed communion, observed only by members of that local congregation.
Teaching the Next Generation
Children's ministry is built around the idea that each stage of childhood learns differently. Classes are arranged by age from newborn through seventh grade, with Bible study, memorization, and life application at the center. The goal is described simply as building young lives to live productive adult lives.
During the summer, the church reaches children through Vacation Bible School, Saturday Kids Clubs, and youth camps. The pattern matches what the children's ministry team has seen work best: more children come to faith and grow in Christ during summer evangelistic programs than during any other ministry.
Jared Blair, the pastor's son, serves as an intern associate while attending Crown College Southwest in Fort Worth, where he majors in theology and minors in youth. The youth work at Central Baptist is still being organized, but the church clearly values the next generation and is building toward it.
The Ladies of Central
Cindy Blair, the pastor's wife, leads the ladies ministry of Central Baptist. The women's work is varied: weekly Sunday prayer time, monthly brown-bag power prayer lunches, and special ladies meetings throughout the year. The aim is to meet the many needs women carry spiritually.
Margie Sanders has taught the ladies Bible study for many years and has been a member of Central Baptist for more than fifty years. Her Sunday morning class is described as rich with godly insight into God's Word.
Classes for Every Season of Adult Life
Adults at Central Baptist have several Sunday morning Bible study classes to choose from. Margie Sanders teaches the ladies class. The Calvary Class, the Auditorium Class, and the Pastor's Class round out the adult offerings, along with a Senior Adult Bible Study led by Dale White, a member of more than forty years.
Music at Central Baptist is led by Gene Ridinger, who first joined the church as a teenager. He has served the Lord in many facets of ministry at Central through the years, including a stint as a missionary to Mexico. Today he serves as music minister and as a chalk art evangelist, a unique blend that has shaped the church's musical and visual presentation of the Gospel.
How to Become a Member
Central Baptist outlines three Biblical ways to join the church. The first is baptism, in which a new believer, having first received Christ for salvation, is scripturally baptized and becomes a member of the local church. Those who have been saved but were not baptized in a Baptist church of like faith are invited to identify with Christ and Central Baptist by being baptized into its membership.
The second way is by transfer of letter from a church of like faith, with the new member giving a statement of salvation and baptism to the pastor. The third is by statement, when a believer can testify to salvation and baptism at a like-faith church but extenuating circumstances prevent contact with the previous church.
A Heritage of Faithful Shepherds
Central Baptist has been served by six shepherds across its lifetime. Clyde Boyd planted the church in 1952 and pastored until 1955. Ray Kennedy followed, then Ralph Liles, who served from 1957 to 1982 and was instrumental in starting Faith Promise Missions at the church. Keith Taylor pastored from 1982 to 1986, followed by Al Jones, who led the church from 1986 until October 2009. After six months without a pastor, the congregation called Roy Blair in April 2010.
Pastor Blair graduated from Texas Baptist Bible College in 1990 and has spent his ministry helping new church works get up and running. He pastored in Granbury, Texas for fifteen years, in Iuka, Mississippi for two years, and briefly in Rusk, Texas before coming to Lewisville. He and Cindy have three children, Jared, Ryan, and Catherine, several of whom serve alongside their parents at Central Baptist.
Today, Central Baptist Church continues to gather at 325 South Cowan Avenue in Lewisville, a body built on a dirt floor in 1952 that has stood on the same ground ever since, still pointing every soul who walks through its doors to the Christ who is central.