Hondo City Baptist Church of Christ was organized in July 1882 by Elder W.D. Johnson of the Baptist State Missionary Convention, later known as the Baptist General Convention of Texas, with eleven charter members. Plans were made to build a church by the end of that year, and by July 1883 a 28 by 40 foot building costing $600.00 had been erected on a lot just west of the county courthouse. Morning and evening services were held on two Sundays each month, with evening services beginning at early candle light, and baptisms took place in Hondo Creek at the pool. On July 4, 1896, the old church west of the courthouse was blown down by a very hard wind, and a committee was formed to tear down and rebuild the church and procure another site. The new building, planned to be two feet higher, ten feet longer, with a tower fifty-four feet high and a baptistry, was built at the corner of 17th Street and Avenue K and occupied in 1898. As the congregation continued to grow, it bought lots on 20th Street and Avenue K in February 1910, and a new brick church building was completed there in 1914. A baptistry was installed in 1927, ending the need for baptisms in Hondo Creek. Fire damaged the church in 1933, and members met in Horgers Funeral Home while repairs were made. In the early 1940s, the basement was used as a reading and entertaining room for soldiers stationed at the Hondo Airbase, and in 1942 a deacon recommended that the church sponsor and pay for a weekly reception for men in service and local young people. The church united with the Del Rio - Uvalde Baptist Association in 1943 and remains a member. After World War II, an educational building was erected to meet expansion and growth, but the church plant again proved too small. In June 1954, the congregation voted to buy the Hardy Acreage at the corner of 24th Street and Avenue P as the site for a new church building, purchasing five and a half acres for $400 per acre. Ground was broken on October 26, 1969, and the new building was dedicated in November 1970. A church school began in 1977, and by 2003 the building was again too small, leading to a building committee, fundraising for two buildings with classrooms and a gymnasium, groundbreaking in September 2007, and completion in January 2009. For the past 130 years, First Baptist Church of Hondo has been a vital part of many lives in the community and continues to support Baptist mission work in Texas, the United States, and around the world.