In the middle of downtown Denton, Texas, the brick and stucco buildings of First United Methodist Church have stood on the same block between Locust, Mulberry, and Sycamore Streets since the city's earliest days. Methodists have gathered for worship on this spot since 1856, not long after the city itself became a reality, and the congregation has grown into one of the most distinctive downtown churches in North Texas, running five separate Sunday worship services in different rooms and styles - including a Spanish-language service, a contemporary artful service called Mosaic, an inclusive modern service called Open Worship, a long-running free breakfast for neighbors in need, and a traditional Sanctuary service that has been broadcast on local cable since the late 1990s.
Five Sunday Services Under One Downtown Roof
Few churches in North Texas pack as many worship expressions into a single Sunday morning as FUMC Denton. On any given weekend, five services run back-to-back across the campus, each with its own room, music, and feel.
The morning begins at 7:00 a.m. in Monroe Gym with First Meal, a free breakfast and informal worship service for neighbors in need. Churches from across North Texas take turns sponsoring the meal and leading the service, making Sunday morning as much a feeding ministry as a worship gathering.
At 9:00 a.m. in Flinn Hall, Mosaic Worship gathers a creative, eclectic crowd for an hour of contemporary worship music with artful flair. Mosaic was created for people who find God in a different register - worship that mixes instruments and styles for worshippers who do not fit neatly into one mold.
At 10:45 a.m. in Cole Chapel, the doors open for Jesus Fuente de Vida, the congregation's Spanish-language service led by Rev. Martha Segundo. The chapel, on the corner of Locust and Sycamore, hosts a family service described in Spanish as a gathering to lift up the glorious name of God and proclaim the lordship of Christ and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
At 11:00 a.m., two services begin simultaneously. In the Sanctuary on the second floor, the long-running traditional service blends innovative liturgy, congregational singing, and full choral leadership; this service also broadcasts live on Charter channel 191 and Frontier channel 39. Across the breezeway in Flinn Hall, Open Worship launches another contemporary service, explicitly inclusive and rooted in the idea that God's radical love extends to people of every identity.
The result is a Sunday morning that begins well before sunrise with breakfast for those who need it and ends near the southern edge of the noon hour, with a children's program that begins mid-morning and runs alongside everything else.
A Methodist Congregation Older Than the City
FUMC Denton's roots are nearly as old as Denton itself. Not long after the city of Denton came into being in 1856, a Methodist minister organized the earliest congregation, and from that beginning the church has called four different buildings home over the decades. By 1976 the congregation had outgrown its third location, and trustees commissioned a study group to decide whether to relocate or rebuild. They chose to stay and renovate.
The trustees oversaw another full renovation of the Sanctuary in 1991, along with the installation of new stained glass windows. Six years later, on Christmas Eve 1997, the first live telecast of the service debuted. A new pipe organ was installed the following year. The East Wing, completed in 2006, absorbed the rapid growth of the children's ministry. Late in 2015 the renovated Monroe Gym Fellowship Building reopened and began hosting worship and community events, including the First Meal service. In 2017 the modern Open Worship service started in a refurbished Flinn Hall.
Well past its 150th year, FUMC Denton still reaches out from its downtown block with multiple worship services, homeless outreach, the partnership with a local elementary school, pastoral care, an explicitly safe space for LGBTQ+ people, and an active voice in civic life.
Planning a Visit to FUMC Denton
The church's welcome begins with an open dress code. Visitors are invited to come as they are - whether that means a suit and tie or a t-shirt and jeans. Every worship service is open to anyone, and the church describes itself as a place where open hearts, open minds, open arms, and open doors matter as much to God as to one another.
Finding Your Way Around the Building
The Sanctuary sits on the second and third floors and is most easily entered from the Locust Street or Mulberry Street sides, both of which have elevator access to the second floor. Underneath the Sanctuary on the first floor is the Miller Center, where Sunday morning donuts and refreshments are served and where the Church Library lives. Flinn Hall, where Mosaic and Open Worship services meet, is reached from the Sycamore Street side - through the main porch entrance on Sycamore, through the breezeway between the buildings on Sycamore, or from the Cole Chapel entrance on Locust. Monroe Gym is on the Sycamore side as well and houses youth gatherings on Sunday nights. Cole Chapel, at the corner of Locust and Sycamore, is where many smaller services and weddings happen. The East Wing, entered from Mulberry Street, holds the nursery and children's check-in on the first floor, K-5 ministries on the second floor, and music groups and adult classes on the third. The Education Wing, run from the Ivey Garden entrance on Locust Street, houses the church offices on the first floor, students in grades 6 through 12 on the third floor, and many Sunday morning groups.
Parking
The largest lot is behind the church, accessible from Mulberry Street. On Sundays, the city parking lot across the street on Mulberry is also available at no cost, and additional spaces line Sycamore Street, which serves Mosaic Worship, Open Worship, and Jesus Fuente de Vida guests. Locust Street parking places visitors near the sanctuary staircase, the Ivey Garden entrance, or the Cole Chapel entrance. Designated handicapped parking spaces are available with two entrances, both with elevator access to the second-floor Sanctuary.
Office Hours and Weekday Visits
The church office (940-382-5478) is open Monday through Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and on Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. On weekdays the doors are locked for security; visitors can reach the main office entrance through Ivey Garden in the middle of the block on Locust Street and ring the call button to be buzzed in.
Children and Youth: Spaces on Every Floor of the East Wing
Children's ministry is woven through three floors of the East Wing and continues through graduation in the Education Wing upstairs. The Nursery is open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for infants through pre-K, with secure check-in on the first floor. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade gather at 10:00 a.m. for Kid's Church in Room 241 on the second floor. A Children's Choir rehearses at 9:15 a.m. the same morning, allowing music and Sunday school to share the same window.
Sheryl Gallarneau serves as Pastor of Children & Families and tends to the entire children's ministry, which includes Sunday school, Bible study, children's choir, and ongoing family mission projects. Each year the church presents a special Bible to every third grader. Parents of third graders contact Pastor Sheryl so the church can prepare a Bible and have it ready during whichever worship service the family attends.
For students in sixth through twelfth grade, the youth ministry meets under Jack Payne, Director of Youth Ministry. Youth are checked in on the third floor of the Education Wing on Sunday mornings and gather on Sunday evenings for games, dinner, and small-group time in Monroe Gym. A periodic Methodist Mash-Up brings youth from FUMC Denton together with other local Methodist churches, with the group traveling to a partner church for an evening of games, worship, and a shared dinner. The youth also gather for an annual Fall Retreat at Lakeview Camp and Conference Center, a multi-day weekend of games, small groups, and worship.
Confirmation is offered as a 12-week class for seventh and eighth graders, beginning in late August each year, to help students understand what it means to make their faith their own and prepare them for membership at FUMC Denton.
Music from Handbells to Sacred Harp
Music is one of the great engines of the congregation. Dr. Joshua Taylor, Director of Worship & Music, conducts the Adult Choirs and oversees worship planning with advanced degrees in pastoral music, choral conducting, and music education. Dr. Malcolm Matthews, the church's organist, is also Assistant Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at the University of North Texas and brings a doctorate in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music to the Sanctuary's pipe organ. Carol Lynn Mizell, a long-time member of the Chancel Choir and Chamber Choir, directs the Handbell Choirs.
Dr. David Huff serves as Associate Director of Music for Modern Worship, holding a Ph.D. in music theory from UNT and playing bass, piano, trombone, and a unique instrument the staff calls the Stick. Lizzy Williams leads worship in the Mosaic service and helps newcomers find the Mosaic community. Krystal Stroud leads Open Worship and works during the week as Director of Communications.
Jamie Rives serves as Associate Director of Music for Children & Youth, leading the Children's Choir and assisting with the Credo Youth Choir. Credo rehearses on Sunday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Room 331 and is open to all youth in sixth through twelfth grade, singing a range of classical, contemporary, and popular sacred music before joining Youth Group in the gym.
The Denton Sacred Harp singing group also calls FUMC Denton home, meeting on the second Thursday of each month from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Sacred Harp is a participatory, unaccompanied singing tradition; the group sings without an instrument, the room filled with loud human voices, and is open to participants of all or no faith backgrounds. Email the group at SacredHarpNorthTexas@gmail.com.
Each summer the Chancel Choir presents Illuminare, a fully immersive choral concert experience with lighting and visual design. The work by Elaine Hagenberg uses ancient Latin, Greek, and English sacred texts to trace a journey from beauty through darkness into the triumph of light and peace.
Glow, the Immigration Task Force, and Church & Society
If there is one program that makes FUMC Denton immediately recognizable across North Texas, it is the trio of justice ministries organized through the Church & Society committee. Glow, the Immigration Task Force, and the Church & Society Speaker Series have all made the church a notable voice in Denton civic life.
Glow: A Ministry Created For and By LGBTQIA+ People
Glow is a ministry created by and for LGBTQIA2S+ people and is supported by a Ministry With Grant from the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. The group's Quiet Book Club gathers monthly at the Emily Fowler Public Library for an hour of silent reading followed by an hour of conversation. Queer Theology 101 is a four-week class hosted by Glow on Monday evenings, exploring what it means to be queer and Christian through the lens of scripture, the so-called "clobber passages," and inclusive readings. Each session includes a short presentation and group conversations, with a breakout discussion group for teenagers. The class is designed first for LGBTQIA+ people reconciling their faith and identity, but parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and partners are also welcome.
Open Worship on Sunday mornings is another home for many Glow participants, and Krystal Stroud serves as its worship leader.
The Immigration Task Force
The Immigration Task Force grew out of a six-week Sunday school class called Called to Journey, Called to Welcome: A Study on Immigration. After the class finished in October 2025, the participants formed a subcommittee of Church & Society. Their largest ongoing project is Bolsas de la Amistad - Spanish for "friendship bags" - filled with quiet, child-friendly items for children waiting with their parents at immigration courts and outside the ICE headquarters in Dallas. Each week 50 bags are packed and personally delivered on Tuesdays to the community tent outside ICE and to La Colectiva.
The task force also distributes Know Your Rights cards that allow individuals to assert their constitutional rights without having to explain them verbally in a stressful encounter. Free Family Guardianship Document Workshops connect parents with two immigration attorneys and a notary so they can prepare legal documents placing their children with a trusted friend or family member in the event of detention. The task force has additional plans for Know Your Rights sessions, an immigration covenant for the church, court-observer training, and policy advocacy.
Church & Society
Church & Society organizes the speaker series that has drawn crowds in Flinn Hall for events on Christian nationalism, the separation of church and state, voter education, advocacy for public education, immigration, and workforce housing. Past speakers have included Dr. Randall Balmer of Dartmouth College, Dr. Keri Ladner, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, and Amanda Tyler of Christians Against Christian Nationalism. The committee also hosted Behind the Ballot Box, a community dinner and voter-education program that drew about 70 participants to Miller Center. The work is grounded in the Wesleyan call to social holiness and in the United Methodist Social Principles.
Bible Studies, Classes, and Pub Theology
The church keeps a deep bench of small groups running through the week, from long-form Bible study to monthly book clubs.
Methodism 101 is a four-week introduction to United Methodist theology, worship, history, and leadership structure led by Pastor Scott and a rotation of guests. It meets Sunday mornings in Room 108.
Disciple 1 is a 24-week, Genesis-to-Revelation Bible study led by M.E. Ram and Church Librarian Pat Peters. The class offers both an online and an in-person section each fall. The Enneagram: A Spiritual Perspective meets on Monday evenings in Room 230 and frames the personality framework as nine doorways for growing into the image of God.
Understanding Your Grief is a 12-week support group for anyone who has experienced a loss, led by Pastor Sheryl with Alan D. Wolfelt's book and workbook. The group meets Thursdays at noon in Room 230 and is open to people whose loss is recent or long-standing.
Pub Theology happens on the first Monday of each month at Miss Angeline's, a bar at 125 East Oak Street in Denton. The 7:00 p.m. gatherings are casual and open to anyone with questions about God, faith, and life, with a short presentation and group conversation. Recent topics have included New Age movements, free will versus predestination, the doctrine of the Trinity, and toxic gender roles. Non-alcoholic drinks are available.
A Men's Book Club meets monthly at Zera's Coffee on East McKinney Street. Recent reads include biographies of Larry McMurtry and John Quincy Adams. A Glow Silent Book Club meets at the Emily Fowler Central Library.
Jesus & John Wayne Book Study and other short studies are scheduled around events featuring visiting authors, including Kristin Kobes Du Mez's two-session preparation for her Live Laugh Love Book Tour appearance.
Trippers: A Travel Club Born at FUMC Denton
One of the longest-running programs at the church is Trippers, a members-only travel club that has been sending church groups around the world for years. Candy Blackmon organizes the trips, with help from Happy for local day trips. Recent and upcoming trips include a Canadian Fall Foliage Cruise through Quebec, Nova Scotia, Maine, and Boston on Princess Cruise Lines; a Galapagos Islands expedition on the MV Galapagos Legend out of Quito, Ecuador; a Canadian Brass concert at the Eisemann Center; a New Year's Rose Parade trip to Southern California; a Panama Canal and Costa Rica cruise on the Caribbean Princess; an Ark Encounter and Creation Museum trip out of Cincinnati; a Philadelphia and Amish Country tour; a Washington DC tour timed to the cherry blossoms; and a Kenya camera safari for 13 days in the Amboseli and Mt. Kenya areas.
Closer to home, Trippers visits the reopened Ranchman's in Ponder by church bus for an early lunch, and RV-style day trips take groups to local concerts, restaurants, and seasonal events.
United Women in Faith
The local chapter of United Women in Faith (UWF), the United Methodist women's organization, supports missions locally and around the world through fundraisers like the Soup for the Soul sale, with quarts and pints of homemade soup sold from the Miller Center kitchen after Sunday worship. UWF sponsors much of the congregation's giving to community partners including a partnership with Rivera Elementary School and Denton ISD programs.
Serving Denton from the Mission Corner
FUMC Denton operates several long-running community ministries.
First Meal at 7:00 a.m. Sunday in Monroe Gym is the flagship outreach, providing a free hot breakfast and informal worship to neighbors in need, sponsored and rotated among North Texas churches.
Mission Corner is a monthly collection drive for community partners. Each month's recipient is featured with a specific list of items - baby supplies for the Denton ISD Teen Parent Program, personal care items for Care Closets at Strickland and Bette Myers Middle Schools, classroom supplies for local teachers, and food for Rivera Elementary School's Thanksgiving week. Items can be dropped on Sunday mornings or at the Ivey Garden collection box during office hours, and an Amazon Wishlist serves donors who prefer to ship.
Alternative Gifts Fair, held over three days each November in Monroe Gym, brings together more than 30 nonprofit booths - congregational, local, and international causes, artisans, and crafts - for socially responsible holiday shopping. The Community & Congregational Artisans booth each year supports a different local nonprofit, with proceeds going to organizations like Interfaith Denton.
Trunk or Treat: Share the Harvest draws a crowd each Halloween with decorated trunks, bounce houses, and games. The candy-bucket tradition runs alongside a food drive for Rivera Elementary.
Cook Fresh, Eat Fresh is a free hands-on cooking and nutrition series for adults in partnership with Friends of Shiloh Garden. Saturday sessions in the commercial kitchen in Monroe Gym cover canning, food preservation, and healthy cooking with locally grown produce, taught by Master Gardeners and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension educators. Class sizes are limited to 5 to 10 participants.
Grounds for Grace Garden Workdays keep the church gardens spruced up on Saturdays during good weather.
Beyond the campus, FUMC Denton partners with Blossom Academy, the preschool that meets in the East Wing during the week.
Becoming a Member
Joining Sunday happens several times a year. Becoming a member is a commitment to grow together through prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness - a familiar Methodist framework. Coffee with the Pastors is a more casual introduction for newcomers and is offered in between Joining Sundays. The Plugin Party each fall gathers current and prospective members in Miller Center to explore every group, class, and committee the church has to offer.
Worship Online
Worship services are livestreamed on YouTube every Sunday at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m., with separate channels for Mosaic Worship, Open Worship, and Jesus Fuente de Vida. Archived services for the Sanctuary, Mosaic, and Open gatherings are available in the archive page. Giving online, the weekly Upper Room devotional, and the church's connection card are all available through the main site.
The heart of First United Methodist Church of Denton is its downtown block - the Sanctuary with stained glass and pipe organ, the East Wing humming with children, the breezeway leading to Flinn Hall where Mosaic and Open Worship push the congregation's vocabulary of praise in two new directions, Cole Chapel where Jesus Fuente de Vida sings in Spanish, and Monroe Gym where neighbors share breakfast at dawn. It is a church that has been in the same place since Denton was a frontier town, and it has grown - one service, one ministry, one small group at a time - into a campus that can hold them all.