History of 37th Street Church of Christ

History of 37th Street Church of Christ

The first services of the 37th Street Church of Christ were held July 5, 1953 at the current location.  Prior to this, Snyder had been growing rapidly following the discovery of the Kelly-Snyder oil field in 1949, which brought a flood of new residents to Snyder and Scurry County.  As a result, Snyder’s 25th Street Church of Christ congregation was bursting at the seams with people.  After a period when two Sunday morning worship services were necessary, the congregation was faced with the prospect of adding to the existing facilities at the 25th Street site, or establishing a second congregation in the city of Snyder.

In 1952, the decision was made to establish a second congregation.  The eldership, with the approval of the members of the 25th Street church, began the work that would lead to the formation of the 37th Street Church of Christ in western Snyder.  A site committee, consisting of Claude McCormick, Earl McDow, and Gordon Smith, chose a location at 2500 37th Street for the new structure.  A building committee composed of McCormick, McDow, Smith, plus J.L. (Broadway) Browning and John Voss were given the task of designing a building for the location.  They engaged the services of architect William Collier Jr. Of Abilene and ultimately awarded the building contract to Paden Construction Company of Brownfield.  Construction began on the property, located at 37th Street and Sunset Avenue on December 1952.  About seven months after construction began, the first worship services were conducted in the new building on July 5, 1953.  

Warder K. Novak had been chosen as the minister for the 37th Street church and his tenure began with the first day’s service.  Novak and his family lived in Snyder until they decided to move to Alabama in 1954.  C. Dale Brooks followed Novak in 1955 and worked as the minister for the congregation until resigning in 1961.  In 1961, Durward Boggs moved to Snyder and was employed by the church until 1963.  Maxie Boren was then selected by the eldership to become the minister in July 1963 and served the congregation until 1966.  Then in 1966, Pat Abbananto was chosen to be the minister for the congregation and remained in that position until 1980.  Charlie Garner became the minister in 1980 and worked with the church until the summer of 1984.  In the fall of 1984 Randal Gray was hired to become the new minister for the 37th Street church.  Gray and family decided to move to California in 1986 and Rick Cunningham was selected as the new preacher.  Cunningham remained in that position until the spring of 1988.  Larry Mitchell was hired by the eldership to become the preacher for the church in 1988 and remained until resigning in 1991.  In 1991, the eldership selected Homer Anderson to become the minister for the congregation and he remained in that position until the summer of 2000.  In April 2001 Dale Huff was hired by the eldership and served as evangelist until retiring in early January 2014.  Levi Sisemore worked as the minister from May of 2014 to May of 2017.  Darrell Chappell was hired as the involvement minister in May of 2016.  He then became the preaching minister in October 2017 and served in that position until January of 2021.