Rehobeth United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passin' it on to you. Way out in Panola County, there's a church with a story that starts in 1878 and runs all the way to the present day, and the thread connecting those two ends of the line is something you can reach out and touch. The Rev.

J. M. Mills conducted the first services for this congregation in 1878, and that same year, work began on a sanctuary right at this very site.

The land came by way of John Wesley Biggs and his wife Mary Ann, who deeded it to the congregation. That deed included a schoolhouse sitting near the cemetery entrance, so from the very beginning, this place was about more than Sunday morning. The sanctuary that rose on that land was built by the members themselves, and it served them faithfully, year after year, decade after decade.

Then came February 22, 1978. The structure was destroyed by fire. One hundred years, near enough, from the day the work began, and it was gone.

Now, a lesser congregation might have taken that as a final word. But the people of Rehobeth United Methodist Church did not. The following year, a new sanctuary was completed on the same ground.

And here is the part worth leanin' in for. When they built that new sanctuary, they took the foundation logs of the first church building and carved from them a cross. That cross now stands among the interior furnishings.

Same ground, same faith, same wood, just shaped now into something that says, plainly and without a word, we are still here.

What the marker says

The Rev. J. M. Mills conducted the first services for this church in 1878. That same year work began on a sanctuary at this site. The land, which included a schoolhouse near the cemetery entrance, was deeded to the congregation by John Wesley Biggs and his wife Mary Ann. Built by members, the structure served the congregation until it was destroyed by fire on Feb. 22, 1978. A new sanctuary was completed here the following year. Interior furnishings include a cross carved from foundation logs of the first church building.