Welcome
Welcome to First Methodist Church of Odessa – We’re so glad you found us! Established in 1890, First Methodist Odessa has a rich history and a limitless future. Our church is a multigenerational family where all are welcome. We strive to be a place where people of all ages can meet Jesus, engage in life-giving community and grow in faith.
Like most families, regardless of your age, life is probably busy and a little chaotic. Our church is here to help navigate the many challenges facing individuals and families. You’ll find worship to be uplifting and through our liturgy, music, message and other elements of worship, you’ll hear about a loving and grace-filled God full of peace, hope and love. You’ll find these same elements within our many small groups as well.
We hope to help your family find a place to connect and develop deeper relationships so life, even a busy one, is full of meaning and purpose. From the moment you walk in, our West Texas hospitality will make you feel right at home. First Methodist Odessa offers a place for people to become committed followers of Jesus.
We look forward to seeing you at church and saying “Welcome Home!”
Rev. Steve Moss
Senior Pastor
Our Story
The story of Methodists in Ector County actually begins in 1888, when the Pennsylvania Methodist Conference voted to accept the offer made by the Odessa Townsite Company to come to West Texas. The first college building in this county was completed in 1890 by the Methodist Church. Worship services were held in a vacant house at the corner of Second and Texas Streets. The college building burned three months after it opened, but itinerant preachers continued to minister to the band of Methodists.
In 1900, the New Mexico Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church – South, appointed Rev. T. L. Lallance to Odessa. In 1901, the Odessa Methodist Church-South was organized with 38 charter members. They started the first Sunday School in the county and continued to meet in the courthouse until the Baptists built a small frame building which was shared with the Methodists and Christian Congregations.
In 1906, two lots at the corner of 5th and Lee Streets were donated to the church and construction on ‘the little white church’ was begun with the $600 raised by the Women’s Home Missionary Society. This wooden structure served as the home to a growing congregation until 1937.
In 1937, the new brick church building was constructed at an estimated cost of $35,000. It included a sanctuary, eight church school rooms and an undercroft which included kitchen facilities for gathering of the entire church membership.
In 1949, additions were made to the church building to include a sanctuary that was equipped with a beautiful two-manual Moller pipe organ. That same year, Odessa Methodist Church was the mother church to Highland Methodist Church on the north side of the city and to St. Paul’s church on the south side of the city. Highland is now on North Dixie Boulevard and St. Paul’s is now the home to Mackey Chapel United Methodist Church on West Clements Street.
In 1955, First Methodist church helped organize St. Luke’s Methodist Church at 42nd and Lyndale. Also, in 1955, Dr. Orbin Turner was appointed to First Church. At the end of his 19 years of service, the chapel was named in his honor.
Tragedy struck the growing church on November 12, 1965 when fire destroyed much of the building. Less than a year later, on November 6, 1966, the congregation moved into the renovated and rebuilt church building.
In 1968, The Methodist Church united with the Evangelical United Brethren Church and a new sign went up at 5th and Lee: First United Methodist Church of Odessa.
In 1976, the church purchased property on Lincoln Street directly behind the church building, expanding the campus to the current half-city block it occupies. In the early 1980’s, the church’s vision to build a fellowship hall, overflow worship space, meeting spaces and a kitchen to support the growing ministries of the church came to fruition with the building of our Fellowship Center.
In 1997, at the conclusion of a multi-year renovation of our sanctuary, our current Ross King Organ was installed. This beautiful organ features 4 manuals, 31 ranks and 1762 pipes. The consecration recital for this organ was held on September 7, 1997.
In 2009, the Imagine More Campaign transformed the campus into a Plaza housing a children’s playground, leading the way to establishing the Children’s Center, a five-day a week program for children 6 weeks old to pre Kindergarten. This program continues to share God’s love with children and families in our community as our staff and leadership prepare the students for success once they get into kindergarten.
The Imagine More Campaign also provided seed money to help establish a new faith community to meet the needs of residential expansion in Odessa. This led to the launch of The Bridge Church as a second campus which initially met at LBJ Elementary. As this new faith community continued to grow, another financial leap of faith – the Momentum Campaign was held in 2014 which provided the means to build a permanent building on land donated by the Hurt family at Grandview and Yukon Street.
Beginning in 2022, our church began a process of discernment to determine what the next steps would be in our journey forward in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in our church, in the community and beyond. This process of discernment led to the difficult decision to leave The United Methodist Church at the end of June of 2023 with The Bridge Church remaining a part of The United Methodist Church. With this change, we reclaimed our previous name of First Methodist Church.
The last part of this discernment process was our belief that God was calling us to move forward faithfully by joining the Global Methodist Church denomination which we did on October 11, 2024. As has been the case throughout our church’s history, we remain committed to Wesleyan traditions and theology and we continue to maintain the highest regard for the authority of Holy Scriptures contained in the Old and New Testaments, as well as the historical confessions of the Christian faith included in the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and John Wesley’s Articles of Religion and sermons.
First Methodist Church has been serving the needs of Odessa for many decades. Some examples include the Children’s Clothes Closet which is a collaboration with the Ector County Independent School District and other churches to ensure all children have essential clothing and shoes for the school year. Thousands of school children have been clothed by our Clothes Closet.
Other examples include, Samaritans By Grace feed the hungry every Sunday morning in Noel Plaza. Our Foster Angels provide Christmas gifts for children in foster care under Children’s Protective Services. We provide safe and supervised visitations for non-custodial parents and their children through Kids First administered by Center for Children and Families. Our Celebrate Recovery and Stephen Ministry offer Christian-based guidance for people who are emotionally hurting and struggling with hurts, hangups or habits.
We love this community in which God has placed us and look forward to serving its needs for many more decades to come as we live more fully into our mission: “To make committed followers of Jesus Christ who love God, love others and boldly witness their faith throughout the world.”
Our Beliefs
As Methodists, we share the unique theological emphasis of the Wesleyan Tradition. We also value the contributions of the entire range of Christian faith traditions and celebrate our unity of faith in Jesus Christ. First Methodist Church Odessa operates under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
We believe the Bible is the Word of God and contains everything necessary for salvation and is instructive for daily living. We believe that the essentials of the faith are expressed through the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds; statements that date back to the early days of the church’s existence.
We believe that God’s love has been poured out to all creation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that we can experience the grace and presence of God in our world today through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. We value Scripture as God’s holy and inspired word to humanity, and trust that through prayerful reading, reflection and discussion, God will speak to our deepest questions and needs.
The members of First Methodist Church Odessa live out this expression of faith, both individually and collectively through ministries of service and love as we witness to others how we’ve experienced God’s gracious love in our lives. We believe God’s gracious love has in Christ been made available for all. Hence our mission statement is: To make committed followers of Jesus Christ who love God, love others and boldly witness their faith throughout the world.
We welcome everyone to join us in this exciting journey of faith, regardless of your church background or present life circumstances. God desires to work in your life in powerful ways, and we feel privileged to be a community of faith in which God’s grace can be experienced and lived out in the world.
First Methodist Church Odessa is a member of The Global Methodist Church whose mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly and witness boldly. To learn more about the Global Methodist Church, click here.
