Church Website
Even before the organization of Temple, Texas as a town, there was a “Methodist Society” which met in a school called Double File, located west of Hickory Road. The congregation of twenty-seven members became the nucleus of the First Methodist Church in Temple, which worshipped in the Old School Presbyterian Church on selected Sunday evenings.
The congregation had grown to seventy-five members when they moved into their own building on Avenue B and Fourth Street in late 1884. At the time, Temple was still on a preaching circuit with Troy and Rogers. It was not until 1886 that the church had a full time minister.
In 1891, ninety members left what was then called the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to form a new congregation in South Temple called Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South. That same year, land was purchased on the corner of Adams and Second Street for the erection of a new building for First Methodist Episcopal Church South. The new stone church, completed in 1895, was a source of great pride. However, because of the growth of the congregation, the need for new Sunday School rooms soon arose.
Money was being raised and plans were being made to modernize the building when, during the night of November 22, 1911, the building burned. Construction was begun in the fall of 1912, and was completed in 1914, on what is now the south domed portion of the present structure. Reverend Bob Shuler, pastor at the time of the construction, returned to preach the first sermon in the new sanctuary.
In 1939, the two separate denominations, Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church South reunited, and became the Methodist Church. The church's name then became First Methodist Church.
In 1968, the Evangelical United Brethren Church united with the Methodist Church, forming what is now called the United Methodist Church. The church's name then became First United Methodist Church.
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