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 on the South Plains, in a place that would one day become Lubbock, a story was already taking shape. The year was 1892, and a circuit riding minister by the name of R.
M. Morris rode into the picture with twelve charter members at his side. Together, they organized what they called the Lubbock Methodist Church.
Twelve people. That's it. That's your foundation.
Now, they didn't have a sanctuary, didn't have a steeple, didn't have anything that looked like a proper church building. So they made do. Worship services went up in the schoolhouse.
They held them in the Lubbock County Courthouse. You use what you've got, and what they had was faith and a borrowed room. Then came 1900, and with it the Reverend T.
W. Sharp, the city's first resident Methodist pastor. Not just passing through on a circuit.
Staying. Putting down roots. That matters.
It took until 1904 for the congregation to raise its first true sanctuary, a building they could call their own. Thirteen years of waiting, and they finally had it. Then 1917 arrived, and a fire took it.
Destroyed it. All of it. Gone.
Now, a lesser congregation might have read that as a sign. But not this one. They built again.
And then they built bigger. Over the years, larger structures went up to hold a growing membership, along with missionary activities and educational services that stretched the work well beyond Sunday morning. Twelve charter members in a borrowed schoolhouse.
That's where it started. What grew from those twelve, well, the marker speaks for itself.
What the marker says
This congregation traces its history to 1892, when circuit riding minister R .M. Morris and 12 charter members organized the Lubbock Methodist Church. Early worship services were held in the schoolhouse and the Lubbock County Courthouse. In 1900 the Rev. T. W. Sharp became the city's first resident Methodist pastor. The church's first sanctuary, built in 1904, was destroyed by a 1917 fire. The congregation built larger structures over the years to accommodate its growing membership and programs, which include missionary activities and educational services. (1992)