Parkland Baptist celebrating 50th

Courtesy photo

Parkland Baptist Church in 1968 broke ground at Lexington and Ashford streets, where it remains today.

Levine’s department store was selling seamless hose for 29 cents a pair. Shakes at Burger Chef were a dime. The State theater was showing “Harum Scarum,” starring Elvis Presley, and Piggly Wiggly was hosting its grand opening in Hilltop Plaza Shopping Center.

That’s what was going on around Clovis on Jan. 30, 1966, when Parkland Baptist Church held its first services in the Odd Fellows Lodge at Ninth and Connelly streets.

“We had to string up curtains to divide off the Sunday school classes,” remembered Dick Gressett.

“Then when it come time for the sermon, we’d just slide all the curtains back and we had an open room. We did that quite a few months.”

Parkland Baptist had 53 members when it got started 50 years ago this month. Active membership is about 300 today as it prepares to host an anniversary celebration at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Lexington and Ashford, where it’s been since 1969.

Church members, preachers, buildings and even presentation have changed through the years, but the mission ... not so much.

• “The group felt warmly challenged to undertake the task so that the good news of God’s love and forgiveness for all might be proclaimed to more people in this community and around the world,” the Clovis News-Journal reported 50 years ago, when the church first organized.

• “The vision of reaching people with the story of Jesus has never changed ... Parkland remains a place where love is felt and lives are changed,” read a church news release last week announcing its anniversary.

It’s not always been a smooth ride.

Gressett said most of the original Parkland members were members at Clovis’ First Baptist Church.

First Baptist Pastor Herbert Bergstrom was dismissed after he upset “some of the old heads,” Gressett said.

“Some of us felt they didn’t treat (Bergstrom) real well and we didn’t think that was right,” Gressett said.

Gressett, now 77, said about three dozen people gathered on a cold January night in 1966 at his house on Yucca Street to discuss the situation. They decided to form a new church.

Bergstrom was Parkland’s first pastor and remained until 1974.

Seven other preachers have followed, including Wayne Boydstun, who leads the flock today, and former pastor Doug Brooks, who will be part of Sunday’s events.

Gressett, one of about 40 charter members still alive, said the church has experienced a series of highs and lows. But it’s never shied away from change.

Roy Martin, who’s been a church administrator for eight years, said a major component of his job is “to bring new things. And the future is bright.”

Martin said many of Parkland’s Bible study classes meet in private homes. A full orchestra is part of the music ministry. Sunday school classes — they’re called “life groups” — are not grouped by age, but by “where you are in life,” Martin said.

And the life group classes don’t just meet on Sundays. They gather Tuesday mornings, Wednesday mornings, Wednesday nights and Thursday evenings.

“They’re when work schedules allow them,” Martin said.

While Sunday mornings usually include worship services at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., Sunday’s reunion will be at 10:30 a.m. only, “so we can all be together,” Martin said.

A luncheon will follow at noon in the church’s Fellowship Center.

Fast facts

• Parkland held its first services on Jan. 30, 1966, at Ninth and Connelly streets, but was worshiping at 10th and Pile streets by 1967. It broke ground at Lexington and Ashford streets, where it remains today, on Aug. 25, 1968, and moved in 15 months later.

• The original chapel and education center, built to accommodate 300 people, cost $15,000, the Clovis News-Journal reported in 1968.

• Bob Clarke, the Baptist Student Union director at Eastern New Mexico University, preached Parkland’s first sermon on Jan. 30, 1966.

• The church’s first Articles of Resolutions were signed by 53 people in January 1966. A month later, the church had already added 60 members, totaling 113 charter members, church records show.

• Debbie England, the church’s administrative secretary, said two charter members of Parkland remain active in the church today — Dick Gressett and Linda Bocock. About three dozen other charter members are still alive but have moved away or changed churches.