We believe that love one for another as Jesus loves the believer manifests our discipleship, proves our love for God and symbolizes our authority as New Testament churches. Love is therefore the great commandment of the LORD Jesus Christ upon which all others are dependent.
During the month of February 1996, God called His servant Bernard Buhl to establish a church in Round Rock. With these instructions and a faith sure to please God, March 1996 marks the dawn of the One Way Baptist Church (OWBC). The first worship service and communion was held on March 3, 1996 in the living room of Pastor and Sheila Buhl at 1522 Latigo Trace. On that special Sunday, OWBC received her first members. OWBC then moved to 1301 E. Main Street in Round Rock, a converted carport that was the home of one of the current members. At this location regular Sunday Morning Worship and Wednesday Night Bible Study/Prayer services were conducted weekly. In April 1996, OWBC submitted a Constitution and was registered and recognized as a formal church.
From the rural farming town of Sprinkle, Texas, just nine miles northeast of Austin, the Reverend S. W. Wormley traveled to Round Rock to become the first pastor of the second black Baptist church. Upon arriving in the city named for the large anvil-shaped limestone rock in Brushy Creek, he met with a committee of area religious leaders: the Rev. L. L. Campbell, Moderator; Rev. Sam Clark, Vice Moderator; Rev. Archie Shackles, and Deacon Davis of Taylor. That was January 8, 1905.
These leaders led twenty-two enthusiastic Christians, former members of the Good Hope Baptist Church to organize. At her conception, Bro. Mitchell Mays donated the land and befittingly named this new assembly, Sweet Home Baptist Church. This “sweet” haven securely bound the members in unity to support their spiritual, educational, social, political and cultural needs. Sweet Home’s wealth of “all things common” was and remains a testimony of God’s grace, mercy and provision.
God set in motion His plan for First Baptist Church of Round Rock more than a century ago. In 1847, two years after Texas became a state, the Baptist Mission Board of New York sent four young men, fresh out of seminary and on fire for the Lord, to Texas to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ “in the wilderness”. The men first settled in an area located on the banks of Brushy Creek. One of the men, R.H. Taliaferro, of Kentucky, participated in a revival in Huntsville. One revival attendee has been quoted as saying, “I heard R.H. Talaiferro again in the great revival . . . at Huntsville. In one of his powerful sermons, General Sam Houston, General Davis, and a number of leading citizens were powerfully convicted, and during the meeting of twenty-five days, over one hundred and twenty souls were saved.” In December of 1847, Taliaferro preached the first Baptist sermon on record in Williamson County. In 1848, a group of ten or twelve families organized a missionary Baptist church in the Round Rock area. Robert Taliaferro became its first pastor.
Central represents a “marriage” of two Round Rock churches, Lake Creek Baptist Church and Northeast Baptist Church. Lake Creek Baptist Church resided at 301 North Lake Creek Blvd since 1975. Northeast Baptist began in 1990 as a mission outreach of FBC-Round Rock and held services in several different Round Rock locations for almost three years.