El Buen Pastor Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Two men, Juan Zepeda, Sr., and Vicente Rodriguez, founded El Buen Pastor Methodist Church way back in 1901. Now, they didn't have a building.

Not yet. So for seven years, the congregation gathered in members' homes, passing the sacred from one kitchen, one front room, one humble hearth to the next. Seven years of worship without walls.

That takes a certain kind of faith, and a certain kind of patience. Then 1908 came around, and patience gave way to action. The congregation erected this very church building; and here's what I love about that, they made the bricks themselves, right there on the local soil.

Adobe bricks, shaped by the hands of the same people who'd been sittin' in each other's parlors prayin' together all those years. And they didn't stop there. One of their own built the pulpit.

Built the benches. The whole sanctuary coming together piece by piece from within the community that needed it. Then, sometime in the 1940s, they added a bell tower.

You can imagine what that meant: a voice for the building, finally, ringing out across Terrell County. Architects would later look at this church and recognize it as a fine vernacular example of the Gothic revival style. Vernacular (meaning it grew from the place and the people, not from some faraway blueprint).

El Buen Pastor served its congregation all the way until 1968. Sixty-seven years from those first home services to the last. That's not just a building.

That's a testimony.

What the marker says

Founded in 1901 by Juan Zepeda, Sr., and Vicente Rodriguez, El Buen Pastor Methodist Church held services in members' homes until 1908, when the congregation erected this church building using locally made adobe bricks. A church member built the pulpit and benches, and a bell tower was added in the 1940s. A fine vernacular example of the Gothic revival style of architecture, this church building served the congregation until 1968. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962