First United Methodist Church of Colleyville gathers at 1000 Church Street in Colleyville, Texas, and much of its work reaches out from there. Sunday worship happens twice, at 9:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary and 11:11 a.m. in the Event Center, and both services are held in person and online. Around those services sit groups for children, youth, adults and seniors, a community music academy, and mission work that includes a monthly neighborhood meal, one-on-one reading help in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD elementary schools, weekend meals for children at five local schools, and an annual coat drive for people who need warm clothing. The church states its vision plainly: "to be an outwardly focused church that engages the local community, to reveal the life-changing impact of a relationship with Jesus Christ."
Two Sunday Services, Two Distinct Styles
The 9:00 a.m. service is traditional worship in the Sanctuary. Pastor Mike, Rev. Dr. Marcus Womack, preaches, and the music draws on time-honored hymns together with anthems from the Chancel Choir, a group of singers that rehearses on Wednesday evenings and performs at this service. Typical attire is business casual.
The 11:11 a.m. service is contemporary worship in the Event Center. Pastor Anne-Marie Berg preaches, and a praise band made up of volunteer members and staff musicians leads with contemporary praise songs and uplifting music. Typical attire is casual. The unusual start time is deliberate: the service motto is "Every One Counts," and the church explains it simply, "At the 11:11, every 1 counts."
Both services are hybrid. You can join in the room or watch on Facebook or online from a computer or mobile phone through the church's live stream, and past messages are kept in a sermon archive.
Families in the Room: Nursery, Children's Church and Sunday School
Children are welcome in either worship service, and the church is unapologetic about it. "There is no need to treat church like a library," it says, adding that "God put the giggles and wiggles into your child," and that worshiping together as a family is one of the best ways to teach children about faith. Nursery care is available for children three and younger. Children's Church is offered during both services for children ages 4 through 5th grade, in the K.I.D.S. Connect room across from the sanctuary. Children are dismissed from worship after the Children's Sermon and meet at the back of the Sanctuary or Event Center with Rev. Stella Cho, where the focus is on Bible stories and lessons that match the sermon so children and parents can continue the conversation at home.
There are also places for families who want to stay together. A cry room sits at the back of the sanctuary during the traditional service. For contemporary worship, tables are set up at the back of the Event Center so families can sit together while children have space to color.
Sunday School classes for children in kindergarten through 5th grade meet during the 10 a.m. hour in the children's wing, with nursery available for younger children at the same time. Parents have their own class, Parent Sanctuary, which meets in Room 100 at 10 a.m. and exists to support one another through the twists and turns of raising kids.
Two more milestones mark the year for younger children. Sparks, for students in grades 3 through 5, meets one Sunday evening a month from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Lighthouse Youth Building for food, games and fellowship, and third graders receive their own Bible during a presentation held in both worship services.
Arriving, Parking and the Shape of a Sunday Morning
Free parking is available on the church campus. Parking lot attendants greet people as they walk in and assist those who need help getting out of their cars and into the building, and a hospitality team welcomes guests and answers questions for visitors and members. On Sunday mornings, the Welcome Center is a good place to ask for help choosing a Sunday School class, and an attendance registration form lets worshipers let the church know they joined the service. The church office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 817-281-5254, and a weekly email newsletter keeps people connected between Sundays. Giving is handled through online giving, where one-time gifts and recurring gifts can be set up.
Adult Sunday School, Short-Term Studies and Small Groups
Adult Sunday School classes meet on Sunday mornings in the 10 a.m. hour, and the church emphasizes that there is room for people of different ages, backgrounds, learning styles and topics of interest. The named classes each carry a distinct approach:
- ABC balances Bible study, historical context and application for Christian living.
- Art and Faith engages a great piece of art from the Christian tradition, noting that Da Vinci, Caravaggio and Rembrandt preached through paint and canvas.
- Discovery is a video-based and discussion format for young and middle-aged adults.
- Gospels studies the Gospels in depth and compares the various stories in a lecture and group discussion format.
- Modern Living applies biblical teachings to daily life, again with video and discussion.
- Open Door prides itself on its diversity and openness to discussion.
A class designed for adults with intellectual and developmental challenges meets from 10:15 to 11:00 a.m. in the Searchlight Center meeting room of the Lighthouse Youth Building, offering a welcoming and supportive time to explore faith and learn more about the Bible. Short-term studies of four to eight weeks let people dig into a particular topic while getting to know new people.
Small groups provide the relationships, support, encouragement and accountability that the church says people need for the lives God is calling them to live. Kaleidoscope meets Tuesday from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m., both in person and online, and is made up of singles and married couples with lively discussion and a strong emphasis on service. Lectio Divina, a reflective and meditative way of reading Scripture, meets every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. by Zoom with Pastor Mike.
Middle and High School Students: The Light
The youth program serves students in grades 6 through 12. Sunday School for those students meets at 10 a.m. in the Lighthouse youth building, between the 9:00 and 11:11 services, and is described as a place where young people strengthen their understanding of God and their relationship with Jesus Christ rather than travel the road to discipleship alone. Sunday night youth ministry meets weekly from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., with the exception of weeks that follow a Monday school holiday. Throughout the year, students also have the chance to attend retreats and mission trips, typically a Midwinter Retreat in January and a mission trip in July. Pastor Cesar Velez leads the youth ministry.
Groups for Adults and Seniors
The Piece Maker's Quilters gather every Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in rooms FL 105 and 106 for quilting projects made for personal use and for charity. Their charitable partners include ABC Quilts for abused children, pillowcases for Cook Children's Hospital, and Quilts of Valor for wounded military veterans, and they also help support the church's Holiday Extravaganza. Anyone interested in quilting is welcome, and no experience is required.
United Methodist Men meet on the second Saturday morning of each month at 7:30 a.m. for a man-cooked breakfast, a devotional, and discussion and planning of mission initiatives. United Methodist Women meet on the third Tuesday of each month at 9:30 a.m.; the purpose they state is "to know God and to experience freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ; to develop a creative supportive fellowship; and to expand concepts of mission through participation in the global ministries of the church." Women's Mission and Fellowship meets on the second Monday of each month from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. for a shared meal, good conversation, fun activities and mission projects, and sponsors the GRACE Feed Our Kids program.
Young at Heart is the ministry for senior adults, meeting the last Wednesday of each month at 10:00 a.m., typically in the Narthex with entry through one of the doors on the south side of the building. The group gathers for fellowship, a program and lunch, and occasionally meets at local restaurants or other local destinations. A recent program, Peace of Mind, covered types of services, planning financially for funeral expenses, what happens when a death occurs away from home, and resources available to families before and after a loss.
The Neighborhood Table and Other Ways the Church Serves Colleyville
The Neighborhood Table is a community meal held in the Event Center on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Each month a different partner or group from the community is invited and honored, the meal is free to first-time guests, and members are encouraged to make a love offering of $7 per person, up to $20 per family. A recent table was hosted by the Sager Brown Mission Team with the Gospel and Open Door Sunday School classes, and the offering supported a mission trip and the staff at Sager Brown Depot.
Project Read serves struggling readers in local Grapevine-Colleyville ISD elementary schools. From late September through late May, volunteers meet with their assigned student once a week for 30 minutes during school hours under the direction of the student's teacher, and volunteers complete the district's volunteer application and background checks each school year. The Weekend Meal Program partners with FUMC Grapevine to provide weekend meals for children living in poverty in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, working with Glenhope Elementary, Colleyville Heritage Elementary, Cross Timbers Middle, Colleyville Heritage Middle and Colleyville Heritage High. Each week a group from the church packs and delivers the meals so that no child goes without food over the weekend.
During the first week of August, Women's Mission and Fellowship coordinates a week of lunches as part of the GRACE Feed Our Kids program, preparing and distributing more than 600 lunches to children in the community along with weekend food bags for families. Helping Hands, funded by the generosity of church members, gives financial assistance to local area residents of Colleyville, Grapevine, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, NRH and Keller.
Cold weather clothing is the focus of the annual Coats Against the Cold mission, which United Methodist Men kick off between late October and early December. Coats, jackets, sweatshirts and hoodies are collected and distributed to agencies that support people who are homeless and families in need, including GRACE, the Presbyterian Night Shelter, the Northside Inter-Community Agency and First Street Methodist Mission. Last year the campaign raised nearly $3,000 and distributed 1,230 cold weather items, 817 of them coats.
Two community gatherings are held outdoors and around the church. Trunk or Treat, a community fall festival at Colleyville City Park, draws more than 1,000 people from Colleyville and surrounding communities each year, with volunteers decorating trunks, handing out candy and welcoming guests. The annual Easter Eggstravaganza, a community egg hunt and pancake breakfast, needs volunteers to stuff eggs and cook breakfast.
Project Transformation, a group that grew out of the Central Texas Conference, creates leadership opportunities for college-age young adults and educational summer programs for young students. Colleyville's involvement includes helping elementary students grow in reading by reading with students for one week each summer.
Partnerships That Reach Beyond Colleyville
First United Methodist Church of Colleyville is a partner church with Helping Children Worldwide, which works to strengthen communities in Sierra Leone by supporting programs that give vulnerable children and their families opportunities for education, health care, vocational assistance and spiritual mentoring. Helping Children Worldwide underwrites programs including the Child Reintegration Centre and Mercy Hospital, especially focused on education, family stability, maternal health, infant survival and childhood nutrition, and it provides local leadership and programs with financial underwriting, training and technical advice alongside short and long term mission teams.
The UMCOR Sager Brown Depot is the hub of the relief supply operations of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Each year, more than 2,000 volunteers prepare about $5 million in supplies for shipment to places around the world affected by disasters. Sager Brown also reaches local neighbors through food distribution and housing rehabilitation projects, builds ramps for older adults and people who are disabled, works at Chez Hope, the local domestic violence shelter, in its thrift shop, and volunteers at Matthew 25 International, which conducts outreach in places such as Haiti, Peru and India. The church hosts an annual adult mission trip to UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, Louisiana.
Choir, Praise Band and the Fine Arts Academy
The Chancel Choir rehearses each Wednesday evening from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. in the Sanctuary, with childcare provided upon request, and performs in the 9:00 a.m. traditional service. The choir presents anthems in a variety of musical styles, and special musical offerings appear twice a year, including the annual "Day of Music" on the second Sunday in December. The praise band, made up of volunteer members and staff musicians, leads worship at the 11:11 contemporary service.
The Fine Arts Academy is an outreach ministry of the church that operates under the music ministry and serves the community by providing excellent training in music and other fine arts, providing a safe and wholesome environment for learning, and developing future leaders in church and community arts programs. Church membership is not required, and anyone is welcome to participate. Private lessons are offered in guitar, piano, organ, violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet and voice, with hopes to add drawing, painting and other arts disciplines. The Academy stays open year round and closes on major holidays when the church campus is closed.
Tuition is set by lesson length, with a 30 minute lesson at $37.50, a 45 minute lesson at $56.25 and a 60 minute lesson at $75 per week, plus a semester registration fee of $15 for an individual or $20 for a household. After the first month, payments are due monthly by the 10th, and lesson books or other materials are not included. Lessons are standing appointments, with make-up lessons offered when a teacher must be absent or the Academy closes for inclement weather, and when a student will be absent and the Academy receives at least 24 hours notice.
Care, Prayer and the Leadership Team
A prayer team gathers weekly on Monday mornings at 10:00 a.m. to pray for the church family, the community and the world. The pastors make home and hospital visits, and a Congregational Care Team calls and visits people who are homebound or recovering from illness or surgery. A form lets the pastors and staff know when assistance is needed so that someone can follow up and discuss ways to help.
Rev. Dr. Marcus Womack serves as senior pastor. Rev. Anne-Marie Berg is associate pastor, and Rev. Stella Cho is associate pastor of families, leading nursery and children's ministry, Sunday School for children and the Parent Sanctuary class for parents. Jordan Ricks directs music ministry, Dr. Jung-Won Kim is associate director of music ministry and directs the Fine Arts Academy, Matt Weaver directs contemporary music ministry, and Cesar Velez directs youth ministry.
Family Milestones Through the Year
Beyond the regular programs, the family ministry marks the year with gatherings for the whole church: an Easter Eggstravaganza in March or April, Vacation Bible School in July, Summer Sunday in September, a community trick-or-treat party in October, and a Gingerbread Party in December. The annual Holiday Extravaganza fills the fall with barbecue, a sweet and savory bake sale, a silent auction of more than 100 items and a craft fair of handmade treasures, with a Children's Room kept open in the afternoon so parents can browse and bid without children, and proceeds going to the church's missions and ministries. A Blessing of the Animals is also held in the church Prayer Garden, where people give thanks for the animals that befriend, enrich, entertain and protect them, and a photograph can be brought for a pet that does not travel well.
First United Methodist Church of Colleyville sits at 1000 Church Street in Colleyville, Texas, with Sunday worship at 9:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary and 11:11 a.m. in the Event Center, both offered in person and online, and an office open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 817-281-5254.