These families and others had formed a new fellowship—a local body of believers committed to seeking God, following His Word, and caring for one another. They couldn’t yet know how the church would grow or the key role it would play in so many of their lives.
The Prathers especially remember the church’s beginning because it came during such a pivotal season in their lives. Barbara says:
We came December first of ‘73 to Arlington….We’re from Dallas. We had just graduated in May of ‘73 from Dallas Seminary … but I was pregnant when we came, and so we had started these meetings in February. And then … we rented a church that was empty to have our first service, and my daughter was two weeks old….That’s how we know how old the church is, because April ‘74 was the official starting, and then we went to the YMCA.
While they now speak with the wisdom of experience, the Prathers recognize that they didn’t have it then. They were young, fresh out of seminary, and just starting their family. Barbara says, “We were twenty-three years old and twenty-five when we did this. To have these people like the Swains and the Reeves and the Bartels follow us … it was just a God thing. Because why would anyone go after a twenty-five-year-old who had just gotten out of seminary?” They rightly recognize that it was God, not them, who formed and sustained the church.
“We began to grow,” Craig continues. “We had some baptisms”—in the pool of the YMCA, Barbara adds. “We started a men’s prayer meeting, and so it just had such a commitment.” About thirty men regularly attended the Sunday night prayer meeting, including several of the key founding members—Earl Swain, Randy McCracken, and Don Reeves, among others.
He began to ask, “How do we ground these people? And how do we prepare leadership?” These are essential areas to consider in any church—but especially a new one, and one where the pastor didn’t plan to stay long-term.
“Sunday night I was teaching, I think, Acts,” Craig says—so he and the members had the model of the earliest church as an example. “Then on Wednesday night I was teaching church doctrine, so that that would help them write a constitution. And then I had one other study.” Barbara taught the children while also caring for her own newborn daughter.
Cecil Bartel was largely responsible for writing the church constitution. “That was his job. He was a details guy,” says Janis of her father.
The new church began to flourish, establishing its own unique identity in terms of doctrine and other distinctive priorities. According to Earl, some of the distinctives of the church included expository and in-depth Bible study. Janis agrees. “That’s something that has been foundational for that church from day one—that there’d be just strong Bible teaching,” she says. And, while Craig was appropriately modest about his own preaching abilities, his congregants did recognize his gifts. Janie says, “Craig was a shepherd…He also was a fantastic pastor.”
Other distinctives that Swain notes were the church’s various programs and ministries, including a “strong emphasis and involvement in missions.” Janie says, “We’ve been doing missions since day one. And that’s a big part of [the church.]” She also adds, “When we first started, we had Awana. That was a wonderful program that ministered to the kids and my kids.”
As one might expect from a church made up of both former Baptists and former Methodists, there were some doctrinal disagreements, even if relatively minor ones, to work through. The Methodists had practiced baptism by sprinkling while the Baptists did it through immersion; Believers Bible Church agreed to teach and practice immersion as the biblical method. “When it comes to biblical doctrines and the doctrinal statement…it was a learning experience for a lot of the Methodist people,” Craig explains. “The Baptists were pretty much secure.”
Craig continues: “I can’t remember their eschatology at that time, but we were teaching pre-mil [the doctrine of a pre-millennial rapture] and the basic doctrines of systematic theology.”
According to Dick’s recollections, “as far as doctrine, there was one couple that left the church over [doctrine]. It was back actually when Craig Prather was still there.” No church can please everyone or perfectly align with everyone’s doctrine (and nor should that be the church’s goal)! But for the most part—concerning the doctrinal unity of the longstanding members who founded the church and stayed with it over time—Craig says, “that wasn’t a problem.”
But the members didn’t become unified in doctrine alone. They were friends—some of them so before finding this new church plant, and others who quickly formed new connections during the church’s early days. Terri notes, for example, that her parents (Earl and Louise Swain) were especially close with the Hensons and the Prathers (despite the Prathers being regular attendees for only a short time). And Janie says that, over the church’s long history, her relationships—with the Swains, Bartels, Perkinses, and others—are some of the memories that stand out to her most. “Just the original people, how much they’ve ministered to me,” she says. “I could tell you about things we did, but it’s not necessarily what we did at the church. We were friends, and we did trips together and that type of thing. We got closer to them in this church than I ever could in the Baptist Church, because we were shoulder to shoulder working.”
The brand-new church was already off to a good start. Even better than that, it was thriving.
Sending out the Prathers
During his time as pastor within the church’s first year, Craig appointed two elders (Earl Swain and Randy McCracken) along with two deacons. After fifty years of history, the memories of those interviewed differ on who the first two deacons were—but what’s certain is that men like Cecil Bartel, Lloyd Carlisle, Dick Perkins, and Don Reeves were instrumental in the work of establishing the church in those early days. Craig wanted to make sure the church continued to thrive in his absence—and he had a number of godly men to help in that endeavor.
The Prathers recall being with the church for around ten months at the beginning. But according to Earl’s account, “Craig Prather pastored the church until September 1974”—only about six months out from the April start date. “[T]hen he, Barbara, and family left for language training in Mexico….He also helped the church with the pastor church process. The Prathers became the first BBC missionaries.”
Craig looks back fondly on the work he accomplished during that first year—or rather, that the Lord accomplished through him. He says, “It was a work of God. You don’t start a church in a year….We went to Spain, it took us ten years to start a church.” Craig adds, “But it’s because it was people already mature in their faith, who were faithful in their Christian lives, but they just wanted a different biblical philosophy. And so we kind of just brought them together and helped get them going. And it was beautiful.”
When the Prathers would return to the States from time to time, they’d visit the church they’d started and see how it continued to grow and thrive. For now, though, they were out of the picture in terms of the church’s everyday life. But Believers Bible Church, on the other hand—the small body of faithful believers who God had used Craig and Barbara to bring into being—was just beginning.