Bringing the Word of God to the plains since 1912.

Origins

When the City of Brownfield had been designated, the promoters, A.F. Small and W.G. Hardin, deeded lots to all churches who had members then meeting in Brownfield. These churches included the Church of Christ, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian. Before any of the groups had individual buildings, each group met in the old schoolhouse located in the west part of town. After a school, West Ward, was built on East Main Street, the Methodist congregation bought the old school building and invited all the churches to meet in their building. From 1912 to 1919 the members met in the school house and in the courthouse. A young preacher, Liff Sanders, began preaching and establishing churches all over the plains. He rode horseback most of the time. He preached one Sunday a month in Brownfield while the church was meeting in the Courthouse.

Establishment

The lots that had been given to the church were sold and the money was used to buy a lot on the corner of Main and Third . The members began the construction of a building, and lumber was shipped by railroad to Tahoka and then carried across country to Brownfield. The first structure was a frame building with one large room for an auditorium, and a vestibule. Later, two small classrooms were added. Surface tanks were used to baptize until a baptistery was built in 1925. There was no money for seats, so 12 inch boards with makeshift backs were used until the long homemade benches were made. The new building cost $2,600. Paul Kimbrel preached the first sermon in the new building.In the spring of 1924, the local theater was buying new seats and offered the Church of Christ members to buy their old ones at wholesale. They had no money to pay for them, but decided to rent some land and plant a cotton crop to help pay for the seats. They rented 30 acres of land, the members loaned their mules and plows, and the gins donated the ginning. Nine bales of cotton were made and $300 was cleared.

As the county grew in the 1920's, the church grew. During the depression years, the 30's, there were financial troubles in the church as well as with most individuals, but the church continued to grow. In the 1940's America was engaged in World War II and the members had seen most of their young men leave, going to the far corners of the world. This was from 1941-45. When they started returning home, the congregation had outgrown their building and decided to build. The property at 502 Lubbock Road, located in the Cresent Hill addition, was purchased and the structure begun in August of 1946. The congregation moved into the building and became known as the Crescent Hill Church of Christ on the second Sunday of October 1947. Cline Paden delivered the first sermon, and Tommy Hicks led singing, and F.I. Stanley was the minister.

Working Together

Jimmy Wood started his ministry here in December of 1947, and stayed 4 years. Wood designed the first bulletin, "The Voice of the Church", in January of 1948. For the next 5 years the church grew rapidly, and it was decided to start another congregation. The Southside Church of Christ began meeting in a new building at 701 Old Lamesa road on February 24, 1952. Earnest West was the first preacher for Southside, and by the late 1950's the Southside church grew to 275 each Sunday. Crescent Hill was also growing, and while John McCoy was the minister, additional classrooms were added at a cost of $60,000. From 1952-1980, Crescent Hill and Southside worked together to build the Wheatley Church of Christ in 1960, and the Hispanic Church of Christ on 5th and Ripley. The building and parsonage were purchased in 1964, and Gauste Comache was the minister. In March 1973, Southside Church of Christ opened Thursday School as part of its educational program under the elders. Fay Marie King was coordinator for the school which was free of charge to children 2-5 years old.

Outreach & Community

The Crescent Hill congregation started sending out World Bible School lessons to Africa on a limited basis in 1972, but really didn't have the kind of success for which they had hoped. In 1980, the congregation began supporting some native preachers in the area who were responsible for doing the follow-up work among the contacts. At that point in time, they began seeing positive results and began hearing about baptisms. In the past 17 years, the number of native preachers supported by this congregation has grown to a total of 28, and the total number of baptisms reported has grown to over 10,000. In 1992, for the very first time, the total number of reported baptisms for the year surpassed the 1,000 mark. Over the next few years that went down slightly until 1997, when the congregation reaped an all-time high of 1,288 baptisms.The Wheatley Church of Christ began meeting with Cresent Hill Church of Christ in the early 1970's. On October 1, 1975, Bob Reynolds became the preacher at the Cresent Hill Congregation and served as the full-time preacher until he semi-retired in 1997.

Uniting

The Brownfield Hispanic congregation wanted to unite and closed their facilities on August 22, 1977. In April of 1980, the Cresent Hill and Southside churches agreed to merge together. It was the first Sunday in June of 1980 that the congregations met together, and a new name was selected for the combined groups. The Brownfield Church of Christ had began.

The churches decided to use the Crescent Hill facilities, which today meet at 502 Lubbock Road. In the early 1980's, the church decided to build a facility to accommodate growth. The Family Life Center was built in 1981 directly behind the church on Atkins Street. Ken Young became the Family Life Minister, who designed a chorus called Joyous Sound, with 60-70 members. On July 1, 1981 the elders employed Marcelino Banda to work with the Hispanic members, and in 1983, the addition of a new chapel built for the Hispanic congregation was erected.

On June 5, 2004, tragedy struck with the complete loss and burning of the church building.  This was extremely sad, but God blessed the church abundantly as they grew stronger and closer together.  April 23, 2006, marked the first worship service in the new church building.  It was a joyous day!  The Brownfield Church of Christ continues to prosper together, as one body, under the direction of our Elders and pulpit minister, Bo Shero.