Our History

On January 6, 1918,  sixteen brave and courageous people with hearts of hope and faith  met in the “village of Park Place” to establish the Park Place Baptist Church.  The Park Place community was defined as being ten miles southeast of Houston.  The young church met in the homes of members and a school until March 19, 1922 when the first church building was completed.

During the pastorate of our thirteenth pastor, Dr. Joe Stiles, our present chapel and education facilities were constructed in 1952. Our current sanctuary was completed in 1962 during the tenure of Dr. Brooks Wester.  

 Today Park Place is in the fourth largest city in the United States.  Over 500,000 people live within a fifteen minute drive of the church.  Over the past eighty years countless lives have been touched by this ministry; adults and children have come to know Christ as their Savior; members have taken the Gospel to every corner of the earth; missionaries, preachers, church staff, denominational leadership, pastors, ministers of all makes and kinds have been birthed through this ministry; millions upon millions of dollars have been cheerfully given to the cause of Christ. 

Our current Pastor, James Clark, has served as the eighteenth pastor of the church since 1993. What was predominately a senior adult congregation in the early 1990s, the congregation has experienced many changes including cultural and age diversification. The congregation is now made up of at least twelve different cultural groups attending English language services, and is comprised of approximately twenty percent representation in each of the five current generations. 

 Desiring to insure the long-term continuance of the Park Place ministry and heritage the congregation voted in 2001 to donate the land and buildings to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for use as the seminary’s southeast Texas campus.  Through a long-term lease agreement the church will continue to maintain ministries and services at the Broadway location.

Claiming the promise of Jeremiah 29:11-13, we look forward to another eighty years of Proclaiming Hope to the City.