About Us:
We are a welcoming, faith community of disciples of Jesus Christ, deeply rooted in the Bible and the Wesleyan Traditions.
First Methodist Church was founded in 1899 as a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and since 1920, has stood as a lighthouse of God’s love at the corner of 5th Avenue and Main Street in downtown Hereford, Texas. Hereford is an agricultural community located approximately 50 minutes southwest of Amarillo. Our worship services combine traditional and contemporary elements.
FMC of Hereford strives to be a place where PEOPLE OF ALL AGES can engage the Christian faith. We have now reopened our NURSERY and it is ready for use! It is available on Sunday mornings! The Nursery is located in our main building. School age children have opportunities for worship and growth on Sundays and midweek through our Sunday School and SPROUTS programs. Teens are invited to our Student ministries on Sunday mornings and LIGHTHOUSE on Wednesday evenings. We offer several adult classes on Sunday mornings in addition to mid-week Bible Studies throughout the year.
FMC is led by a paid staff comprised of full time and part time persons in addition to a core of volunteers who help the congregation grow to maturity in Christ. We would love for you to be our guest on any Sunday morning. The coffee will be ready and a plate of cookies prepared for you to enjoy!
First Methodist Church, Hereford officially became a part of the Global Methodist Church on January 1, 2023.
Our Church Conference was held at noon on Sunday, September 11, 2022. At this Conference, professing members of our congregation voted on disaffiliating from The United Methodist Church. The measure passed with 92.3% of those present voting
in favor of disaffiliation.
Following that result, a vote was taken regarding joining the Global Methodist Church. That measure also passed with 90% voting in favor of joining.
On January 1, 2023, we celebrated our first Sunday as a Global Methodist congregation!
Thank you for your prayers as we move into the future. We are thankful to God for leading us in this way and excited
for what is to come for First Methodist Church, Hereford, Texas!
We believe that God inspired the composition and collection of the Old and New Testaments in the Bible. Therefore, it is inspired, eternal, and true. The Holy Spirit preserves and protects God's Word in the church today and by it speaks God's Word to peoples of every age.
We believe that apart from salvation in Jesus Christ, people are lost and their eternal souls are in peril. We believe that people receive salvation and reserve their places in heaven through faith in Jesus Christ, not by good works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Human beings have their sins forgiven through accepting Christ's sacrifice on the cross. We further believe that those who do not accept Christ are separated from God eternally after their death. Another name for that separation is hell.
We believe that at some unknown point in the future, Jesus Christ will return in full glory and triumph. There will be a bodily resurrection of all persons and final judgment to both eternal reward and eternal punishment. God will have ultimate victory over satan and will establish a perfect kingdom in a new heaven and a new earth.
As Methodists, we join with our Methodist brothers and sisters around the world and claim the historic distinctives of Wesleyan faith: prevenient grace, free will, personal & social holiness, assurance of the believer, and a connected church.
Foundational Methodist Beliefs:
1) There is one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, “Spirit” as Jesus told the woman at the well, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are 3 persons, of one substance, power, and eternity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
2) The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the virgin, Mary; so that 2 whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; there is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a Sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of humanity.
3) Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took His RESURRECTED body, with all things pertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith He ascended into Heaven, and there sits until He returns to judge all people at the last Day.
4) The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, absolute and eternal God.
5) The Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any person that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church. The names of the canonical books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, Job, The Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon, 4 Prophets the greater, 12 prophets the less. All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical.
6) The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and Man. So, do not listen to those who falsely claim that the old fathers looked only for temporary promises. No Christian is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.
7) The Pelagians vainly say that original sin does not come from Adam (Pelagianism teaches that a person can will self to not sin - we don’t need Christ). In reality original sin is the corruption of the nature of every human, and is now “built-in” to the offspring of Adam, through which we are very far gone from original righteousness; and by our own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.
8) The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that we cannot turn and prepare ourselves, by our own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God, except by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, in God working with us, when we have that good will.
9) We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. So, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.
10) Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot cancel our sins, nor endure the severity of God’s judgment; yet, they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.
11) Voluntary works - besides, over, and above God’s commandments - which are called works of supererogation (works that are unnecessary for salvation), cannot be taught without arrogance and impiety. For by them people do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for His sake than of bounden duty is required. Christ says plainly, “When you have done all that is commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants.’”
12) Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Therefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as they live here; or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.
13) The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful people where the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ’s ordinance, in these things are requisite to the visible church.
14) The Roman Catholic doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration of images and of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God.
15) It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church or to administer the Sacraments in a tongue not understood by the people.
16) Sacraments are ordained of Christ and are not only badges or tokens of our Christian profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God’s good will toward us, by which He works invisibly in us, and not only quickens, but also strengthens and confirms, our faith in Him.
There are 2 Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel: they are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Nothing else is of like nature to these 2, because they do not have any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God. The sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation; but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to themselves condemnation, as the Apostle Paul says.
17) Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth. The Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church.
18) The Lord’s Supper is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ’s death; insomuch that, to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ.
“Transubstantiation,” or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthrows the nature of a sacrament, and has given occasion to many superstitions.
The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only in a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not by Christ’s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshiped. (Holy Communion, in itself, is not to be worshiped. It points to Christ alone, Whom we worship.)
19) The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people; for both the parts of the Lord’s Supper, by Christ’s ordinance and commandment, ought to be administered to all Christians alike.
20) The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation (atonement), and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin but Christ alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in which it is commonly said that the priest offers Christ for the living and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphemous fable and dangerous deceit.
21) The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God’s law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore, it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they judge the same to serve best to godliness.
22) It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and customs, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word….Every particular church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done to improvement.
23) The United States is a sovereign and independent nation, and not subject to foreign jurisdiction.
24) People can have wealth, but must give alms to the poor, according to their ability.
25) Rash swearing is forbidden by Christ and the Apostle James, but an oath may be given in court in justice, judgment, and truth.
From The Methodist Protestant Discipline, From 1939: Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement cleanses from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are washed from its pollution, saved from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts and to walk in His holy commandments blameless.
From 1939: It is the duty of all Christians, and especially of all Christian ministers, to observe and obey the laws and commands of the governing or supreme authority of the country of which they are citizens or subjects or in which they reside, and to use all laudable means to encourage and enjoin obedience to the powers that be.
(From Paragraph 106 - “Constitutive Standards,” Section 1, of THE TRANSITIONAL BOOK OF DOCTRINES AND DISCIPLINE OF THE GLOBAL METHODIST CHURCH, pp. 8-13, February, 2024)
The General Rules of the Church:
1) Do no harm (avoid every kind of evil)
2) Do all the good you can (good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all)
3) Do the ordinances of God (public worship of God, read and explain the Bible, do Holy Communion, family and private prayer, dig into the Bible, fasting and abstinence)