Germantown Baptist Church

Western Tennessee was still Indian Territory until 1819, but soon after that date Shelby County was open to settlers.

By 1825, a Kentuckian, William Twyford, had settled on the banks of the Wolf River, near the Neshoba area.

Also in 1838, the church petitioned to be seated at the meeting of the "Big Hatchie Association" and reported a membership of 69.

He plus the Vasser and Brooks families continued to encourage the membership to rebuild and helped secure from the United States Government a payment as partial value for the burned church building.

On the 4th Lord's Day in January 1891, there was a special meeting of the membership at which the pastor, Reverend J. W. Porter, read a communication from Sister Agnes Brooks proposing to build and donate a parsonage for the church.

At the same meeting, Mr. Joseph Brooks donated a lot to the church, and the members agreed that each would furnish a wagon and team to haul the materials needed to build.

In addition to the Pastor, the church had a full-time staff that included a Director of Education, Mr. Emmett Wade; a Director of Music and Youth, Mr. Bill Spencer; Secretaries, Nena Harper and Cheryl Rogers; and a Custodian, Harold Weddington.

In 1974, it became apparent that Germantown Baptist needed a larger sanctuary and the church purchased 3 acres (12,000 m2) on the east side of its existing lot.

In 1975, membership and attendance increased so dramatically that the church had to return to two services and two Sunday School hours in spite of the additional room provided by the interim sanctuary.

On March 14, 1975, a ground breaking ceremony was held for a church gymnasium called the Christian Family Center.

As anticipated, the building project disrupted the church's routine activities; parts of the parking lot were used for storage and rooms for meetings were scarce.

The following year, 1981, was climactic; under Dr. Story's leadership the church experienced great spiritual victories.

The old campus was purchased by some anonymous donors and donated to Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary after the move to new facility, in 1995.