Unity Baptist Church, 



About Us

Who We Are:

Unity Baptist Church is a family of followers of Jesus Christ, most of whom gather at least weekly at our church buildings in Porter.  We worship God together for who He is and for what He has done. Together we learn about Him and we learn from Him through Bible study classes, through sermons, and through songs.  We love and encourage one another, sharing our joys and sharing our sorrows. And together we seek to be God’s people in this community, bringing His love and His Good News to our family, friends, and neighbors.

Short History:

Our church started in March of 1938 as a Sunday School meeting in a home.  That small gathering soon outgrew the home and a building was leased. In December of 1939, Unity Baptist Church was officially formed.  It continued to grow and in the 1970’s, a large bus ministry was running. Several new buildings were built to house the hundreds of people attending each week.

Over the next few decades, however, the surrounding community changed and became predominantly Hispanic while the culture of UBC did not mirror that change.  As many members moved away, the numbers still attending UBC dwindled and by the turn of the century, the small group of members could not afford to keep the buildings operational.  So in 2002, the 35 remaining members decided to make a change. They sold their property to a group who would start a Hispanic church in that location and purchased the current property in Porter.

The first meeting in the Porter location was in January of 2003.  The church began to steadily grow and by the start of 2017, there were 80-100 people attending every Sunday morning.

Brother George Elledge had been with Unity Baptist Church for more than half its existence at that point.  He came to the church as an Associate Pastor in 1970 and became Pastor in 1979. He had lovingly shepherded the people through good times and bad, and he also experienced troubles of his own with a heart attack, a stroke, and his wife moving to her heavenly home.  In 2017, he decided it was time to retire. So on October 1, 2017, Brother George retired after 47 years with Unity Baptist Church - 38 of those as its pastor.

Alan Keith, who had been Associate Pastor since December of 2015, became pastor.  And although several members decided to leave when Brother George retired, we still have 50-60 people gathering every week.

At this time, we are working with our local Baptist Association to “Reset” the church to better move forward.  We are defining who we are as UBC and what Jesus wants us to be. We are excited about how God will use us to touch the community in which he has placed us!

Affiliations:

The Tryon Evergreen Baptist Association is a association of churches who span an area including Porter, Tomball, Huntsville, and more.  They encourage cooperation among the churches in the association and provide resources to those churches.  They also help with the planting of new churches in the area and helping existing churches to grow. Their website is www.teba.org.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is composed mostly of churches within Texas, as the name implies.  This cooperative effort provides many ministries including several universities and seminaries, missions along the border with Mexico, disaster relief through Texas Baptist Men, campus ministries on most college and university campuses across the state, the Buckner home for children, and much more!  Their website is www.texasbaptists.org.

The Southern Baptist Convention is not limited to the southern states, even though it was formed around the time of the Civil War.  The cooperation is among churches around the world and the ministries also extend worldwide. Two of their best known ministries are the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board, both of which are funded through donations from churches like ours.  Their website is www.sbc.net.