First United Methodist Church of Stanton

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Martin County, in the town of Stanton, the Methodists and the Baptists started out sharing the same roof. Now, that kind of arrangement can work for a while, but anybody who's spent time around church folks knows it was only a matter of time before somebody needed a little more elbow room.

That time came in 1904, when a local revival swept through and stirred something up. Out of that revival, nine individuals decided they were ready to stand on their own ground. Nine people.

That's your whole congregation right there, and they made it official, forming a separate Methodist congregation. The next year, a Conference-appointed pastor named Reverend J.A. Sweeney came to lead them.

Then in 1907, just three years after those nine souls shook hands on the idea, the church built its first sanctuary. Its own walls, its own roof, its own place in Stanton. From there, the story only gets bigger.

The membership grew, and it didn't stop at the town limits. Churches from the nearby communities of Lenorah and Courtney eventually merged right into this congregation. Over that first century, new facilities went up to meet growing needs.

A women's group took root. Music ministries filled those walls with something worth listening to. Youth fellowship gave the young ones a place to belong, and educational and outreach programs kept the whole thing reaching beyond itself.

Nine people in 1904, riding the wave of a revival, and by the time a hundred years had passed, they'd built something that just kept on growin'. That's the kind of math that doesn't need a calculator.

What the marker says

Early Methodists in Stanton shared a Union church building with area Baptists. In 1904, following a local revival, nine individuals formed a separate Methodist congregation. The Rev. J.A. Sweeney, a Conference-appointed pastor, came the next year. In 1907, the church built its first sanctuary. The membership grew, and churches in the nearby communities of Lenorah and Courtney merged into the congregation. During its first century, the congregation added new facilities to accommodate growing needs, and church activities included a women's group, music ministries, youth fellowship, and other educational and outreach programs. (2004)