According to a denomination census released in 2023, it claimed 2,038,537 members and 5,375 churches [2] There were Baptists among the first Anglo-American settlers of Texas, but under Spain (and later Mexico), non-Catholic religious worship was prohibited.

[3][4] The first Sunday School in Texas was organized by a Baptist, Thomas J. Pilgrim, at San Felipe de Austin in 1829.

Mexican authorities forced the Sunday School to disband and hindered the attempts of the earliest Baptist preachers.

To this end, he and several others constituted a church in Illinois, then traveled to Texas by wagon train, arriving in Austin Colony by January 20, 1834.

The following year, Isaac Reed and R. G. Green formed the Union Baptist Church, about 5 miles north of Nacogdoches, Texas.

[7] As the local associations increased, Missionary Baptists became interested in cooperation together on the broader state level.

B. H. Carroll, pastor of First Baptist in Waco, was instrumental in getting the General Association, during its 1883 meeting, to propose that five conventions in Texas consider the expediency of uniting as one body.

[10] The second major division following the formation of the convention was the Premillennial Missionary Baptist Fellowship's foundation by J. Frank Norris in 1933.

[15] Following, in 2001, the Baptist General Convention of Texas recommended shifting contributions away from the SBC's North American Mission Board.

[16] The Baptist General Convention of Texas has funded and maintained their own home and foreign missions organizations.

[17][18] Since then, the state body has continued to remain theologically moderate, operating and partnering their theologically moderate or centrist seminaries, colleges and universities, health and financial institutions, and church planting networks separate from the Southern Baptist Convention's entities.

[21] In 2024, the North American Mission Board announced it would not fund new churches affiliated with the Texas Baptists unless they change their statement of faith.

[33][34] As of May 2023, approximately half of the state's campus ministers are women, and they have been provided scholarships for ministry preparation in seminaries; the Texas Baptists have also endorsed female military chaplains, though few serve as lead pastors.

[35] In May 2023 according to the Texas Baptists executive director—Craig Christina—"conformity over the role of women in the church is neither a test of fellowship nor a condition of cooperation.