This congregation was formed on April 1, 1848, when about 20 persons gathered to worship at the home of Nancy and Joseph Bryson Wilmeth.  After a picnic lunch, the group journeyed about two miles South of the Wilmeth cabin to the new county seat of McKinney.  Desiring that the first institution in the town be a religious body, they met at the present site of the courthouse square and formally organized in an unfinished barn and later in Collin County's log courthouse.  

Lay preachers who conducted services included Wimeth and James Sanford Muse, both of whom had studied under Alexander Campbell, one of the founders of the Christian Church.

Members of this congregation erected their first church building in 1858 and shared the small frame structure with other denominations.  In the tradition of the day, men sat on one side of the sanctuary and women on the other.

Despite hardships of the frontier life and the chaos of the civil war, this fellowship grew and flourished.  IN 1872 the Rev. R.C. Horn became the first full-time pastor. 

Members erected their second church building in 1897 which stood just one block north and west of the present day square.  The congregation later moved to what was then the far west side of McKinney (prior to the building of Highway 75) in 1970.  The church is still at that location which is the corner of Hunt Street and Redbud, just east of Highway 75.  A Discipleship Center was built in 2004 completing the present day campus.