130-Year-Old Central Texas Church Holds Final Service - Rogers, TX
N 30° 55.810 W 097° 13.512
14R E 669569 N 3423213
A story on KWTX (Waco, TX) from January 23, 2019 noted that the First United Methodist Church of Rogers at 200 S Milam St had closed its doors after 130 years.
Waymark Code: WM185YT
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 06/05/2023
Views: 0
While the congregation has moved on, there appears to be some work here to repurpose the sanctuary. The video and the narrative complement each other, and the latter reads:
"After 130-years of services, the doors of the First United Methodist Church in Rogers closed for the final time on Sunday, a victim of the passage of time and a shrinking congregation.
The closing saddens member Toni Necas Shenkir.
"I've been the treasurer for the last 3 ½ years and I knew it was coming to that and we tried," she said.
"We all got together, because it's not just one person's decision, and we all decided it was time," she said.
Since 1889, people from Rogers and nearby towns came to worship at the church.
The Texas Historical Commission placed a Texas Historical Marker at the church in 1977.
Fire destroyed the original church building in 1985, but the congregation rebuilt in 1986.
"Slowly over the last five years, many members have passed away from an older congregation and we didn’t have the financial resources to continue," the church's pastor, Brian Brice, said.
The congregation looked at other options before deciding to close the doors for good.
"We thought about starting it at the high school gym or in a downtown building and changing the way the worship was and we played with a lot of different ideas of how we could carry on First Methodist Church," Brice said.
"The church never really closes, the church is the people and the people they always go on," Brice said.
Families like Shenkir's had been part of the church for many years.
Now Shenkir says she and others are looking for a new house of worship.
"It was a place when if you were sad from a loss of a loved one that you were able to be uplifted," Shenkir said."
Type of publication: Television
When was the article reported?: 01/23/2019
Publication: KWTX (Waco, TX)
Article Url: [Web Link]
Is Registration Required?: no
How widespread was the article reported?: local
News Category: Society/People
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