Our Story
Our church’s history is a long story. In a strange way, we are one of the oldest and one of the newest churches in Dallas. In 2022, through a merge of Scofield Memorial Church and Eastside Community Church, God combined the legacies and ministries of two faith families into one. Part of our story starts with a small church plant in 1877 when we were one of the first dozen churches planted in the city of Dallas. Part of our church’s history also starts more recently. In some ways it starts when Eastside was planted in 2018 and in other ways when we merged in the spring of 2022. Looking at it that way makes us a comparatively new church in Dallas. However you look at it, our now united story is a testament to the goodness of God in our congregation.
If you read our church’s story below you’ll see it is a stirring tale of ups and downs. Our church has endured a tornado, a fire, and a global pandemic, and we’ve seen God’s hand in them all. We have had faithful pastors, courageous missionaries, and brilliant theologians whose labors are still producing fruit around the world. We’ve undergone many changes, many different addresses and several different names. We’ve been called First Congregational Church of Dallas, Scofield Memorial Church, and Eastside Community Church, but what has never changed is our church’s unwavering commitment to God and his word. He has been and is our firm foundation through every transition we’ve endured or chosen. We pray God would continue to use us for his glory until our story ends.
“Our story starts on January 7th, 1877 when a 53 year old missionary named Henry Metcalf Daniels from the American Home Missionary Society of the Congregational Church in the United States organized a meeting of 17 people into First Congregational Church of Dallas. At the time, our city was just a frontier town with a population around 10,000 people. Our church was one of the first 12 churches planted in Dallas.”
“During the first four years (1877-1881), our little congregation met in fifteen different homes, buildings, and halls around Dallas.”
“Summer, 1881 - The Congregational Home Mission Board helped finance a wooden church building on the north side of the intersection of Pacific Ave. and Live Oak Street, now Pacific Plaza. Before its dedication, it was described as “one of the finest churches in that city” at the time. The Dallas Herald newspaper described it at its dedication as “an elegant structure both externally and internally, and an ornament to that part of the city.” The church was finished and dedicated on June 26th. It was paid for at 3pm on July 6th and at seven that same evening it was “completely demolished” by a cyclone. The spire landed on the house next door, trapping Mrs. Catherine Brown and her daughter inside. Mrs. Brown was a charter member of the church, a widow, and 67 years old at the time. Neighbors came to her rescue and sawed the fallen timbers that had pinned them. Unfortunately, she died from her injuries soon after.”
“Spring 1882 - Our second pastor, Reverend William Clement McCune, helped oversee the building of a new church building at Harwood and Bryan Street, a block north of the original. In 1882 he wrote, “I think the Citizens of Dallas are very favorably impressed with the Congregational pluck and generosity that have so soon built a house of worship, better than the first. I believe our prospects are better than they were last July when our church was wrecked by the cyclone.” During this time the church’s attendance was fluctuating back and forth between a few dozen and well over a hundred. Membership, however, did not exceed twenty-three. McCune fell ill and resigned as pastor that summer.”
“August 1882 – Mr. Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, a lawyer in St. Louis, accepted the invitation to Dallas to take on the role of pastor. He had come to Christ just three years earlier at the age of 36. The church grew from twelve active members to over 550 before he resigned its pastorate in 1895. In his last year in Dallas alone, the church baptized 80 adults. In 1886, the Dallas Morning News described him as, “deservedly popular, not only with his congregation, but with the public generally. There are few more eloquent and effective preachers here than he.”
”Whatever else a church is, it is a failure if it have not a missionary spirit.” ~ C. I. Scofield”
“1884 – A teenage girl, Eva May Swift, came to a church house meeting in Dallas with a friend. She was very put off by Rev. Scofield’s overt attempts to convert her. After a couple more visits, however, she professed her saving faith in Christ. Two years later, in 1884, Eva Swift became our first of many missionaries. She dedicated the next 46 years of her life to sharing the gospel with the people of Madura India.
”To be in possession of the truth is a great thing, but to be possessed by it is far greater ... We hold it of the first importance, therefore, that every woman sent out for the purpose of reaching other minds, and impressing other hearts with spiritual truths, must first herself have been reached and impressed ... We ourselves need such a relationship to Him that He will use us in imparting to us a knowledge of His plans, and wisdom to work together with Him in their fulfillment.” - from The Training of Bible Women by Eva Swift, 1896”
“January 11, 1888 – Our church voted to build a new worship center at Harwood and Bryan Street right next to the existing church building. In 1890, the church’s new building was described as “a beautiful and commodious edifice of brick and stone.” The building cost $18,000.”
“1890 – C. I. Scofield gathered three trusted business men from the congregation and together they founded the Central American Mission organization. The first missionaries went to Costa Rica in 1891. Missions were eventually established in El Salvador and Honduras in 1896. Mission work began in Guatemala in 1899, and in Nicaragua in 1900. By the middle of the 20th century, CAM had hundreds of missionaries and congregations throughout Central America. It was eventually renamed Camino Global and now is part of Avant Ministries.”
“1892 - Our church’s first missionary to Central America was 26 year old Margaret Neely who went to Costa Rica from Dallas in 1892. She met and married her husband there in 1896, Henry Dillon, another CAM missionary. He died one year later as they were getting established in Honduras. She spent the next 16 years of her life ministering in El Paraiso Honduras without one furlough. The conclusion of her last letter to CAM supporters, written just a few months before she died of fever, can be seen captioning the image below.”
“1902 – CI Scofield returned for his second stint as Senior Pastor while he simultaneously completed work on his “study” bible. The Scofield Reference Bible was released in 1909. It had several innovative features. Most important, it printed what amounted to a commentary on the biblical text alongside the Bible instead of in a separate volume, the first to do so in English since the Geneva Bible (1560). It also contained a cross-referencing system that tied together related verses of Scripture and allowed a reader to follow biblical themes from one chapter and book to another. By the end of WWII, more than 2 million copies had been sold.
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“1908 – Under the leadership of our pastor, W. Irving Carroll, our church withdrew from the Congregational denomination over concerns about the denomination’s lack of commitment to the integrity and authority of Scripture.”
“1923 – After C. I. Scofield’s death in 1921, under the leadership of our pastor, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the church was renamed Scofield Memorial Church.
”Anyone can devise a plan by which good people may go to Heaven. Only God can devise a plan whereby sinners, who are His enemies, can go to Heaven.” ~ Lewis Sperry Chafer”
“October, 1924 – Our pastor, Dr. Chafer, with the boards of Scofield Memorial Church and First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, formed Evangelical Theological College which is now Dallas Theological Seminary”
“1927 – Dr. Harlin J. Roper became the pastor and led the church for the next 44 years until his retirement in 1971. He also produced the popular “Through the Bible” series for adults.
”It is essential that you study the Bible as God’s message to you.” - Dr. Harlin J. Roper”
“1928 – The Evangelical Theological College was not racially integrated. One of our members, seminarian Edmund Ironside, began to meet in his home with three African American men who wanted to learn what he was learning at the Seminary. Our church helped him develop this into the Dallas Colored Bible Institute, a school designed to train African American men and women to become pastors, missionaries, and Sunday School teachers. It is now called the Southern Bible Institute and College.”
“1949 - Our Church moved to a larger facility at Swiss and Carroll avenues. The property was purchased from East Dallas Presbyterian Church.”
“1949 - Our church joined 19 others in Dallas to open Union Gospel Mission. It started as a place where men who were “down on their luck” could get a shave, a shower, soup, and a spiritual message. In 1962, an overnight shelter became available with the opening of a 105-bed facility. UGM Dallas has grown into a comprehensive human service agency providing housing, food, clothing, rehabilitation and recovery, vocational training, job placement, medical services, and childcare for the homeless. The primary goal is to transform lives and end homelessness one person at a time.”
“1961 - We started a private Christian school that is still thriving today, Scofield Christian School. It was the first preschool sponsored by an independent evangelical church in the Dallas area. The school was formed to provide children with thorough academic training within a truly Christian atmosphere. Although the school started with preschool, it expanded to second grade by 1975 and to sixth grade by 1979.”
“December 25, 1975 – On Christmas Day, our church building burned down. Then pastor, Neil Ashcraft, was quoted in the paper saying, “God doesn’t make any mistakes. We know there is a reason for this.””
“1977 - The congregation celebrated 100 years of ministry in Dallas. At the time, the church was gathering at DTS on Sunday mornings. The church purchased some property in Lake Highlands in order to build a new campus.”
“September, 1979 – A new Scofield Church building opened on Abrams Road in Northeast Dallas. The congregation began worshipping in the gymnasium.”
“1991 – We built our new Worship Center at 7730 Abrams Road.”
“October 7th, 2018 – Northway Church, then a campus of The Village Church, sent out a launch team of 514 people, led by Adam Griffin, to become Eastside Community Church. Eastside began gathering for worship in the Conrad High School auditorium on Sunday mornings.”
“Spring, 2020 – The Coronavirus Pandemic forced Eastside to stop meeting in the High School and so Eastside started gathering on Sunday afternoons in the Worship Center of Scofield Memorial Church.”
“Spring, 2021 – The Elders of Scofield Memorial Church invited the Elders of Eastside Community Church into a conversation about whether or not the Lord would merge our two congregations. In the fall of 2021, the two churches began to pray together about the possibility.”
“February 27th, 2022 – Both congregations voted to become one united church.”
“April 17th, 2022 – On Easter Sunday, 1600 people gathered at 7730 Abrams as the churches began to worship as one congregation with united ministries, histories, and missions.”
“In October of 2023, Eastside celebrated the five year anniversary of our inaugural service. This video summarizes some of the story of our first five years.”
In October of 2023, Eastside celebrated the five year anniversary of our inaugural service. This video summarizes some of the story of our first five years.
