Our history.

Over one hundred and fifty years ago a group of Christians felt led to start a church in the Clear Creek community.  In February of 1867 the church was organized with fourteen charter members under the name Freedom Baptist Church.  They met in a one-room log cabin while the first building was being constructed on land donated by Briar Tatum.  Soon thereafter the name of the church was changed to Tatum Chapel Baptist Church.  The church’s first pastor, G. W. White, preached at the church once each month and remained pastor of the church for eighteen years.

            By 1912 the church had grown to the point they needed a larger building.  With mostly volunteer labor, a new building that would seat 250 people was constructed.  The old building was moved down the hill beside the creek and became a grocery store for a short time before it burned.  The church continued to thrive in the new building and moved from quarter time to half time, or twice monthly preaching in 1924.  

            The 1940’s saw progress on a number of fronts.  About 1940 the church moved to full time preaching, now holding a preaching service each week.  The church building was redecorated and curtains were installed dividing the room into classrooms.  Also in the early 1940’s electricity became available so the church building was wired for electric lights, replacing the old gasoline light.  The church celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1942, and in 1944 the pot-bellied coal stove was replaced by a floor furnace, and a new front porch with iron hand rails was built.  The late 1940’s brought two more building projects.  The church started construction on an addition for educational space in 1947, but it was not completed until 1950.  In the mean time, a new parsonage was built right next to the church.  The parsonage had two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a closed in back porch. 

Between 1950 and 1952 more space was added to the front of the church.  It included a balcony, a nursery, and a partial basement.  The next three years, 1952 through 1955, saw the addition of a baptistry, a choir loft, three classrooms and an office.  During a spring storm on March 27, 1956, lightning struck the church building and it burned to the ground.  In addition to the building and contents, nearly all the church records were lost in the fire.  Only the electric organ was saved from the burning building.  The church bell fell nearly landing on one of the deacons. 

            The owner of Clear Creek Park allowed the church to meet in the park bathhouse until other arrangements could be made.  When the old Clear Creek Methodist Church building became available, the church met there until a new building was completed.  The church moved into the new building in November 1957, and the building was dedicated on July 27, 1958.  In 1959 the east wing was added to the educational space.

            In the late 1960’s the parsonage was remodeled, adding two bedrooms and a bathroom.  One of the original bedrooms became the dining room, making it a three bedroom, two-bathroom house.  During this same time period, the main floor of the east educational wing was turned into a nursery area.

            By the early 1980’s the need for additional worship space found the church in another building phase.  In 1982 work began to remodel the auditorium and enlarge it to accommodate 350 people.  The new building was dedicated in 1983.  Again, in the late 1990’s, the need for additional space for education and fellowship led the church to add a new kitchen and fellowship center on the main floor and six classrooms and a youth room in the basement.  This addition was built in 1997 with mostly volunteer labor.  A Volunteer Christian Builders crew from Louisiana and Texas spent two weeks working on the building and a great number of church members worked tirelessly on the project.

            Since the Clear Creek community is known throughout the area and the church building is located away from traffic with limited visibility, the church felt it would help communicate its presence and location for it to be more closely identified with the Clear Creek community.  On February 8, 2006 the church changed its name to Clear Creek Baptist Church.  

            All through the years, this church has maintained a vital ministry presence locally, regionally, and even internationally.  Clear Creek has nurtured young people who have spent their lives in ministry as pastors, ministers of music, ministers of youth, chaplains, teachers, denominational servants and missionaries.  The church has maintained a strong commitment to missions not only by sending and supporting career missionaries, but also by sending numerous people on short-term mission projects.  In recent years members have ministered in Kansas and Colorado, Mexico numerous times, Belarus, and India.  Ongoing ministries include:  regular Bible study and prayer groups for all ages; children and youth missions classes; men’s and women’s missions groups; Missouri Baptist Children’s Home, Missouri Baptist Home, Grand Oak Mission Center, Pregnancy Care Center, Guadalajara, Mexico Mission, and Victory Mission support; music ministries involving children, youth, and adults; children’s and youth camps; Women of Honor banquets; Sunday evening home fellowships; and, special missions emphasis offerings. 

            Clear Creek Baptist Church has a wonderful history that clearly reflects God’s hand of blessing.  The future is even more exciting as the church steps forward from this rich tradition and moves toward future ministry worshiping the Lord and proclaiming His Word.  May He continue to bless and use His church for His honor.  To Him alone be the glory! 

 Our beliefs.

  • Clear Creek Baptist Church has not developed or adopted a doctrinal statement that is original to our local body. We come after and stand upon the shoulders of giants.

    We fully affirm:

    We also identify as being reformed in our theology and soteriology, understanding it to be both the historic Baptist, but more importantly, the Biblical perspective. We teach and preach from that perspective, and often use or reference the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and the 1853 New Hampshire Confession. We also believe, however, that this should not be a test of our fellowship and should be handled with charity. While we wholeheartedly believe the doctrines of grace, we believe they should be handled with…grace.

  • As a Baptist church, we are congregational. This means we believe in the autonomy of the local church, the authority of the local church for self-governance, and recognize no other authority over our church save Christ alone. We believe that the scriptural model for the New Testament church contains the office of elder (pastor) and deacon, that there should be a plurality of both, and that, in over-simplified terms, the elders’ primary ministry should be the spiritual health of the church and the deacons’ primary ministry is the physical health of the church (its people and assets). We believe the post Acts 6 model for the church is congregational and elder-led. In practice, this means we vote on major decisions as a church family, and follow the leading of our pastors/elders (under-shepherds) as they follow the leading of Christ - the true Shepherd.

    We are also a covenantal church. We willingly enter into covenantal, committed, lasting relationship with each other not as the world enters a contract, but after the pattern of our covenant-making God. We believe that the current culture of western Christianity that promotes moving from church to church based on the whims of desire is contrary to the heart of God for the church, and harmful to the gospel.

  • We are in friendly cooperation with the Greene County Baptist Association, the Missouri Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptist Convention. We fully acknowledge and agree with many of the concerns raised in recent years with both the MBC and the SBC, but also see the beauty, worth, and the advance of the Kingdom that has been made possible by these organizations. As such, we currently believe the path God would have us to walk as a church is one of earnest prayer and diligent work to reform in Christian love.