William Jefferson Fuller began leading weekly Bible Studies on the front porch of his wood frame house at the turn of the 20th Century. It wasn’t long after that, in 1906, that “Papa” Fuller and others constructed a crude brush arbor shelter in the Pantego Common School yard. The thatched shelter at Bowen Road and Park Row in Pantego, a small town between Fort Worth and Arlington, weekly welcomed 12 to 15 families for Sunday school at what was then called Pantego Community Church. New Christians were baptized in a local stock tank and, because there was no nursery, babies crawled around or slept on quilt “pallets” while their parents worshipped.

In the early 1920’s, a rustic, shingle-roofed tabernacle was built to replace the arbor. Bill Sweaney, still a member of our church today, remembers riding in his Uncle Clifford Fuller’s truck as they cleared trees in the heavily wooded area. The new structure, closed on the south and west sides, had a dirt floor, long wooden benches and a wooden platform for the speaker.

In the years that followed, KRLD Radio welcomed W.E. Hawkins to produce a Radio Revival. As the Scriptures were preached over the airwaves to surrounding congregations, God continued to change lives and the church grew. As evidence of its commitment to strong Bible teaching, Pantego Community Church organized a VBS for area children and enjoyed a relationship with the Evangelical Theological Seminary which would later change its name to Dallas Theological Seminary. The late Dr. John Walvoord, president and chancellor of DTS before his death, and other respected professors like Dr. Howard Hendricks and Dr. Stanley Toussaint, invested in the pulpit ministry of our country church.

In 1935, Homer Payne became Pantego’s first part-time pastor. A year later, land was acquired from the Pantego school yard and the first permanent building began to take shape. Lumber from the tabernacle was used to complete construction and, as the facilities grew, so did the numbers of people who made Pantego Community Church their home. The church adopted its Constitution and Bylaws on January 21, 1942, and of the 42 original charter members, Bill Sweaney, Iva Roxburgh and Marie Tucker are still attending today.

In 1948, J. Norman Forge became the church’s second pastor. He served from 1948 to 1951 and then returned to the church in 1956. Attendance grew to 100 in morning worship as the church embraced its commitment to one another and its calling to reach the community of Pantego and beyond.

At the annual congregational meeting on December 4, 1955, the church changed its name to Pantego Bible Church to emphasize its continuing commitment to Bible teaching. Soon afterward, PBC purchased property off Park Row in Arlington to make room for its growing flock. The new facility, designed to seat 400, held its first service at 2203 West Park Row on Easter Sunday, 1960.

Moving down the street from the town of Pantego to within the city limits of Arlington marked the beginning of a time of transition for this body of believers. The character of PBC began to change from a “rural” neighborhood church to a suburban one. With the influx of new businesses in Arlington such as those located in the Great Southwest Industrial Park, General Motors, and Six Flags over Texas, the church continued to expand.

Reverend Kenneth K. Kilinski was called as the third Senior Pastor in 1962. Under his leadership, Pantego Christian Academy was launched a year later, the church added a Sunday school wing, and a vital ministry to college students began on the UTA campus. Elliott Johnson was selected by the Board of Deacons as a Pastoral Intern while he completed his studies at DTS.

In 1971, a summer day camp was launched, and in June of 1974, the camp moved from the church property to land owned by Thurman and Iva Roxburgh. Spread out over seven acres, Camp Thurman (renamed in 1990 to honor the gracious gift of the Roxburghs) presently serves several thousand children each summer as Arlington’s premiere Christian summer day camp.

By 1971, with 550 attendees in morning worship services, the church had once again outgrown its facilities. On January 13, 1974, ground-breaking ceremonies launched construction for a new 1100-seat worship center. As the church was growing centrally, it was also reaching out into surrounding communities and planting other churches, including Grand Prairie Bible Church, Park Springs Bible Church and Mansfield Bible Church.

Reverend Kilinski resigned in 1986, and the torch was taken up by Randy Frazee. Under his leadership, numerous ministries launched, including Creative Homemakers, Men’s and Women’s Ministries, and the Newcomer’s Coffee. Student ministries were growing and thriving under the leadership of Joe Centineo. Burdened by busy, yet disconnected people, Frazee began to explore the importance of close community relationships for real life transformation. PBC was growing beyond its facility boundaries again, and in response, the church began to learn how to “do life together” in a decentralized way. In 1999, Randy published The Connecting Church as the model for a new way of taking church into the community. This new ministry paradigm quickly began to take shape as the church, once again, explored new territory.

In early 1993, church elders concluded that, because of limited space, the church should look into moving. An appointed task force recommended our current property location at Eastchase and I-30. After much planning, the official groundbreaking ceremony was on September 19, 1999. Construction began on the new ministry center in November of 1999. Our first service was on Palm Sunday, April 8, 2001.

Another page turned in Pantego Bible Church’s history when Randy Frazee announced his resignation and move to Willow Creek Community Church in May 2005. After a national search, David Daniels, former Senior Pastor at CrossPoint Church in Bloomington, Minnesota, was called to take the church forward. Not surprisingly, God had been laying the foundation more than 20 years earlier when David attended his first Christian concert at Pantego Bible Church and soon afterwards received Christ as Savior of his life.

Today, Pantego Bible Church enjoys 2000 attendees in morning worship services and has a significant number of adults and children connected in community. On average, more than 530 young children and 130 middle/high school children are involved in our Sunday morning age-related ministries. Additionally, over 620 adults are involved in Community Groups on any given Sunday. And during the typical week, more than 80 home groups meet in neighborhoods throughout our area. As Pantego Bible Church looks to its future, it continues to build on the foundation of faithful saints in the past while keeping the goal of God’s glory forever in view. May God bless His people as He moves us into the next 100 years!