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OUR CHURCH HISTORY Table of Contents
Northridge Park Baptist Church
Northridge Park Baptist Church came into being as the result of a survey made by a committee representing the Baptist General Convention of Texas. This survey sought to locate Baptist churches in the many rapidly developing areas of our Texas cities and towns. The work continued as an arm of the Monte Vista Baptist Church until May 24, 1953 when, with a large committee of pastors and members of various Baptist churches of the San Antonio Association, a regular Missionary Baptist Church was constituted with 46 charter members. The charter was held open until July, and closed with 76 members. A resolution of purpose was adopted in which every phase of the Baptist work was accepted, and then avowed intention was voiced to cooperate with all conventions and agencies of Texas, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Baptist World Alliance. This resolution forms a part of the first minutes of the church. The Monte Vista Baptist Church of San Antonio, with their mission-minded pastor, Rev. J. Ray McVoy, cooperating with the Baptist City Mission Board in San Antonio, and the Baptist State Mission Board, agreed to sponsor a new work in the Northridge Park area. They mortgaged their own property to provide the larger part of the purchase price of five acres of ground where the building is located, and secured the services of Rev. C. M. Spalding as the mission pastor. After buying the five acres, the Monte Vista Baptist Church secured a loan from the Baptist Loan Association for the construction of a building. The loan was secured through the City Mission Board of San Antonio underwriting 25% of it. On Sunday afternoon, October 19, 1952 the Monte Vista Baptist Church and a number of interested visitors met just west of the present unit for the groundbreaking service. Pastor J. Ray McVoy had charge of the service, which was participated in by the missions committee of the Monte Vista Baptist Church, and was concluded with a brief ground breaking message by Rev. C. M. Spalding. The first building was opened March 15, 1953 at 2:30 p.m. with the first preaching service in the evening of the same day. Six people came forward for membership in what later would be known as Northridge Park Baptist Church. Beginning with no congregation, having had no meeting of any description, with only an empty building and a debt of over $32,000, the close of the first year found Northridge Park with 150 members received in to the church, thirty of whom baptized. The Sunday school had an enrollment of 206; Training Union was 47; W.M.S. was 27. It carried a complete budget, gave regularly to all mission causes, paid more than $380 monthly on its indebtedness, had the State Baptist paper in the budget and received a worthy offering at the special seasons of prayer in the W.M.S. program of work. Now, Northridge Park has a congregation of 250 resident members, with an average attendance in Sunday school of 85. The church's commitment to Christ and reaching out to the community remains our focus.
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