“The church provided people with skills to get a job. It provided people with an area of safety for socialism,” Virginia Collins said.
FORT WORTH, Texas — For generations, families at Mount Gilead Missionary Baptist Church have filled the historic sanctuary with worship, celebrations and community events.
Now, after more than 150 years, members are preparing to say goodbye to one of Fort Worth’s oldest Black churches as the congregation plans its final service later this month.
Virginia Collins said her connection to the church goes back decades. Collins and her daughter, Savannah Wilson, represent the second and third generations of their family tied to the church.
“I have been a member of Mount Gilead Missionary Baptist Church since 1994,” Collins said.
Collins said she first returned to the church with her father after realizing she could barely remember attending services there as a child.
“I came here to visit the church with my dad, because I told him I just didn’t remember going there to church with him,” Collins said. “We went one Sunday, and I have not left. I have mixed emotions because I feel selling the church is letting go of our past.”
For Savannah Wilson, the church became a second home growing up.
“It always felt like home to me. I always enjoyed when we had new visitors because I was always able to show them my church,” Wilson said. “I felt like I knew it like the back of my hand. It was really cool.”
Pastor Lorenzo Jones recently announced the church’s final service will take place on May 31. The historic building at Fifth and Grove streets in downtown Fort Worth was listed for sale last year following years of deterioration, costly repairs, and a shrinking congregation.
“The building has so many memories,” Jones said.
Jones said the decision to sell the church property was emotional for both him and longtime members.
“All the amazing moments that have happened there,” Jones said. “The fact that I was able to raise my daughter in that building.”
Church members say those memories stretch far beyond Sunday services. Over the years, Mount Gilead hosted Easter egg hunts, men’s ministry outings, baking contests, graduation recognitions, baptisms and youth dance ministry performances.
Collins said the church also played an important role in the Black community throughout Fort Worth’s history.
“The church provided people with skills to get a job,” Collins said. “It provided people with an area of safety for socialism.”
Jones said he understands the significance of closing the doors on such a historic church.
“It’s not lost on me the weight of the history and what comes with that,” Jones said.
The church was founded in 1875 by 12 formerly enslaved people. Today, Mount Gilead Missionary Baptist Church is recognized as the oldest continuously operating African American Baptist church in Fort Worth.
The church began in a Black settlement known as “Baptist Hill” before eventually moving to its current location at 600 Grove Street, where its historic sanctuary was completed in 1913.
Often referred to as the “mother church” of Black Baptist churches in Fort Worth, Mount Gilead played a major role in the spiritual and social development of the city’s Black community. Historical records show the church once housed a gymnasium, library, day nursery, roof garden and swimming pool during segregation, when African Americans were denied access to many public facilities.
Over the decades, the church also became known for community outreach programs, including job training, youth ministries, feeding programs and counseling services. The historic building, designed in part by noted architect Wallace Rayfield along with Fort Worth firm Sanguinet & Staats, is considered one of the city’s most significant Black historical landmarks.
Despite the sadness surrounding the final service, church leaders said they hope the event becomes a celebration of Mount Gilead’s legacy and impact on generations of families.
The flyer for the final service says “The Walls May Change. The Mission Remains.”
“We want to be able to give our best,” Jones said. “And give our maximum, that is what that means.”
“We would appreciate it if everyone could come and join us,” Collins said.
The final service at Mount Gilead Baptist Church, 600 Grove St., Fort Worth, begins at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 31.
Jones said the congregation will spend the coming months searching for a new church home before the church building is officially sold.