Meadow United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Terry County, on the flat, wide-open reach of West Texas, a story of faith took root long before there was much of anything else to anchor it. Methodist worship services were being held in this area as early as 1904.

And the man doing the holding was the Reverend J. A. Sweeney, a pioneer West Texas circuit rider.

Now, picture that for a moment. A circuit rider. A man on the move, covering territory so vast and so spare that a congregation wasn't a building, it was a route.

Sweeney was out there doing it, 1904, when much of this country was still figuring out what it wanted to be. Years passed. The area grew.

And then came February 1st, 1920, when the Reverend J. W. Baughman rode in and made it official.

He formally organized the congregation, and when the dust settled, there were seventeen charter members standing together. Seventeen people who said, yes, this is real, and we're putting our names to it. Now, they didn't have a building of their own just yet, so the congregation did what folks out here have always done when resources are scarce and resolve is not.

They borrowed. Services were held in the schoolhouse, or in the Baptist church building, depending on what was available. There's something quietly remarkable about that, a Methodist congregation keeping the faith inside a Baptist church, and nobody making too much of a fuss about it.

But they were building toward something. And in 1922, the members built their own sanctuary. Their own.

From that point on, the Meadow Methodist Church became a cornerstone of the Plains Circuit, and for a time it served as the circuit's very headquarters. That's no small thing. Out of seventeen charter members and a borrowed schoolroom, this congregation grew into the anchor of its region.

They carried that role for years. And then, in 1951, something that had been a long time coming finally arrived. The congregation welcomed its first full-time pastor.

After decades of circuit riders and shared arrangements and doing more with less, Meadow United Methodist Church had a pastor who was there, present, committed, full-time. That's the arc of it. From a circuit rider named Sweeney crossing the West Texas plains in 1904, to seventeen names on a charter in 1920, to a sanctuary built by hand in 1922, to a headquarters on the Plains Circuit, to a full-time pastor in 1951.

Some stories take a while to finish arriving. This one was worth the ride.

What the marker says

Methodist worship services were held in this area as early as 1904 by the Rev. J. A. Sweeney, a pioneer West Texas circuit rider. On Feb. 1, 1920, the Rev. J. W. Baughman formally organized this congregation with 17 charter members. Services were held in the schoolhouse or in the Baptist church building until the members built their own sanctuary in 1922. The Meadow Methodist Church was long associated with the Plains Circuit, serving for a time as its headquarters. The congregation welcomed its first full-time pastor in 1951. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.