DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Floyd County, in the little city of Lockney, there's a congregation with roots that go all the way back to 1890. That's the year the Reverend R.
M. Morris gathered up about twenty-five Methodists and said, in so many words, let's make something last. And last it did.
Now, they didn't have a proper church building right off the bat. No, sir. These folks worshipped where they could, meeting in the local schoolhouse, and when the weather allowed, under arbors.
Open sky for a ceiling, Texas wind for a choir. That went on until 1908, when they finally completed a frame sanctuary of their own. That was a milestone.
But a congregation that's alive keeps growing, and by 1920 they'd outgrown that frame building entirely. A larger brick structure went up to replace it. Then came the 1950s, and the membership had grown again, enough that the congregation built yet another new facility to keep pace.
What this marker wants you to understand is that this church was never just about Sunday mornings. It reached into the community around it, and it reached around the world through missionary endeavors. From twenty-five souls meeting under arbors in 1890 to a congregation with a brick building, then another building, then another, all of it rooted in that same flat Floyd County soil.
Some things, once planted, just refuse to stop growing.
What the marker says
This church traces its history to 1890, when The Rev. R. M. Morris led about twenty-five Methodists in organizing a new congregation. The church members met for worship in the local schoolhouse and under arbors until a frame sanctuary was completed in 1908. A larger brick building replaced the first church structure in 1920. To serve the growing membership, the congregation built a new facility in the 1950s. In addition to worship and educational programs, the church has been involved in community activities and worldwide missionary endeavors. (1990)