About Our Church
First Methodist ChurchOur Mission & Vision
Learning, Growing and Reaching Out in the Love of Christ through our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.
Our Beliefs
We celebrate a shared faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. We profess the historic Christian faith in the Triune God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, initiated by God as creator, embodied in Jesus Christ for our salvation and ever at work in human history in the Holy Spirit. Living in a covenant of grace under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we participate in God’s kingdom and pray in hope for its full realization on earth as it is in heaven. Our preaching and teaching is grounded in Scripture, informed by Christian tradition, enlivened in experience, and tested by reason. As United Methodists, we celebrate our joyful obligation to bear faithful witness to Jesus Christ and the difference He makes in our lives. We recognize and worship Christ as the living reality at the center of the Church’s life and mission. We believe in the Church as the community called to be instruments of God’s presence. We believe in the Bible as God’s revealed Word, and in the final triumph of God’s reign of compassion, justice, and peace.
(Based on “Doctrinal Standards” from The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church and The United Methodist Handbook). For more information about the beliefs of the United Methodist Church go to www.umc.org and click the tab “What We Believe.”
History
The Methodist Movement reaches back to 18th Century England through the ministry of John and Charles Wesley who experienced a powerful evangelical conversion that led to revival in England and America. In 1784 the Methodist Episcopal Church in America was born and in 1968 the United Methodist Church formed when the Methodist Church united with the Evangelical United Brethren Church. There are now more than 11 million professing members in the United Methodist Church worldwide in more than 45,000 local churches.
To learn more about the history of the United Methodist Church go to www.umc.org and click the tab “Who We Are.”
FUMC of Crane History
The city of Crane, Texas was organized in 1908. The Methodist Church was officially organized in October of 1927 with Rev. C.D. Hibgee as pastor, meeting in Crane’s first school building. Construction of the sanctuary began in July of 1954. First services in the new sanctuary were held on March 19, 1955.