Grace Temple Baptist Church in Waco celebrates 75th anniversary

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - On Sunday Grace Temple Baptist Church celebrated its 75th anniversary with a special Sunday service and a lunch. Afterwards, KWTX met with Pastor Buddy Sipe to go over the church’s major milestones.

Grace Temple Baptist Church has had a total of 4,571 members over the years, according to Pastor Sipe’s record book.

“Also listed in the book are the names of everyone we’ve baptized, about 471,” Pastor Sipe said.

The church formed in March 1949 when founding pastor Rev. V.M. Cloyd leased a former hardware store at 3601 Bosque. At the time it only cost $25 a month.

”Our founding pastor just drove through and just felt like there needed to be a church because at the time there were a whole lot of nightclubs and things like that in Northwest Waco,” Pastor Sipe said.

On Nov. 13 1949 work began at a new location at 39th and Bosque, where the church still stands today.

”They decided they needed to build a more permanent church and thus they began,” Pastor Sipe said.

Flash forward to the freeze of 2021 the church had a pipe burst, spilling all over the sanctuary. Then last August another pipe separated.

”The congregation stayed faithful and true and we have rebuilt and we are so happy to be back in our sanctuary,” Pastor Sipe said.

The church is filled with 75 years of history, both highs and lows.

“It means a lot to this congregation because of everything they’ve gone through, not just the floods but also other adversaries that have come up,” Pastor Sipe said.

Pastor Sipe told KWTX that the number of congregation members at the church has decreased since the ‘70s. He said going forward he plans on advertising that the church still sings old hymns to try and attract more members.