The 11th Baptist Church of LaCucaracha has been embroiled in a hymnal controversy that appears to be irreconcilable. A liberal faction in the church fought to update the 1945 hymnals to a newer edition containing “more catchy” hymns from the 1950s according to a member who wishes to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, this impasse has resulted in an announced split of the congregation.
Following tradition, the new church should be named the 12th Baptist Church of LaCucaracha; however the liberal faction is not content following the established order of things. The new church plans to lease the vacant building once occupied by 4th Baptist, and would prefer not to spend funds changing the sign. The pastor of 11th Baptist believes it gives the liberal faction more prominence by having a higher ranking. The liberal group pointed out that 4th Baptist has been closed for three years since the few remaining members from the Holleman clan, who made up most of the membership, were all relocated to the LaCucaracha Nursing Home or moved on to join their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
At one point, it looked like this church split could have been averted when the Stockton family of 11th Baptist was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. The Stocktons filled up several pews with out of town relatives from Dallas and Houston. Unfortunately, most of these guests were not believers, and their children had not been trained to sit still in church and respect the Lord. The Stockton grandchildren, nieces and nephews virtually destroyed at least half of the congregation’s hymnals with crayons.
It appeared the church would have no choice but to upgrade hymnals until Mary Ann Witherspoon found a box of the 1945 hymnals for sale on E-Bay. “It was one of those moments when I knew God was speaking to me,” Witherspoon said. “What are the odds I would have found the exact edition we needed? There’s no doubt in my mind, it was the Lord’s will that we use the 1945 edition.”
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