On the north side of Mansfield, Texas, at 777 North Walnut Creek Drive, First Methodist Mansfield opens its doors every weekend to one of the most diverse worship lineups in the area. Pastors and staff describe the congregation as a four-generation church serving as an independent Methodist church rooted in Wesleyan theology, with a mission of making and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ who love God, love others, and serve the world. Within a single campus, the church gathers in multiple sanctuaries, chapels, classrooms, and a gymnasium to support that mission, offering programming for infants through retired adults, including a dedicated ministry for friends with special needs.
One Church, Five Weekly Worship Services
What sets First Methodist Mansfield apart at first glance is the breadth of its weekend worship. Five distinct services give room for different musical styles, settings, and teaching voices, all within the same family.
Saturday Night Worship meets at 6:00 pm in the Sanctuary under the leadership of Associate Pastor Julian Hobdy. The service is described as vibrant and spirit-led, with powerful music, engaging biblical teaching, and a come-as-you-are atmosphere. Nursery, Kids Ministry programs, and Included Special Needs programs run alongside it.
Sunday Contemporary worship fills the Sanctuary at 9:30 am with a live praise band and contemporary music. Senior Pastor David Alexander preaches in a setting that the church calls an uplifting and engaging expression of faith, with nursery, Kids, Student, and Adult Bible Study programs available during the service.
Sunday Traditions, the 11:00 am service in the Sanctuary, is the church's classical offering. The full orchestra and robed choir, directed by Dr. Scott Ferrell, lead liturgy and traditional hymnody, while Senior Pastor David Alexander preaches scripture-centered messages. Nursery, Kids Ministry, Included Jr. Special Needs programs, and Adult Bible Study are provided.
The Well meets at 11:00 am in the Chapel and offers a smaller, more intimate expression. Led by Associate Pastor Thomas Mitchell, The Well is an acoustic contemporary service rooted in Scripture, prayer, simple liturgy, and weekly Holy Communion. Students attend this service, and nursery, Kids, Included Jr., and Adult Bible Study are available.
Celebrate Recovery gathers on Thursday nights at 6:30 pm in the Chapel as a Christ-centered worship and support night for those walking through life's hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Childcare is available.
Online options match the in-person experience. Every weekend service is livestreamed through the FMCM app, the church's live page, Facebook Live, and the First Methodist Mansfield YouTube channel, with a full archive of past services extending back years.
A Place Where Every Family Member Belongs
First Methodist Mansfield organizes its life-stage ministries under a clear umbrella. The church's stated conviction is that shared lives lead to changed lives, and the campus reflects that conviction with dedicated spaces for every generation.
First Methodist Kids
First Methodist Kids partners with parents to equip each child to become the person God intended them to be. Weekly programs run on Saturday evenings at 6:00 pm, Sunday mornings at 9:30 am and 11:00 am, and on Wednesday nights during the school year at 6:30 pm. Programming is split into early childhood and elementary, with each environment tailored to its age group through engaging storytelling, creative activities, and hands-on learning. Nursery care is available during every service, and an annual Kids Ministry Registration helps staff know every child and emergency contact. The Kids Ministry team, led by Director Diane Thomson, Assistant Director Kelly Grieser, Kirsten Brown, Natalie Milner, and Gladys Ramsdell, also coordinates the Kids Care program that supports children from 6 weeks through fourth grade on Mondays through Thursdays from 2:30 onward and on weekends.
First Methodist Students
For fifth through twelfth graders, the Loft is the home base. Students gather on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am for Student Community, a mix of Bible study, spiritual practices, serving, games, and discussion. At 11:00 am, students and their families attend The Well in the Chapel, where students actively read Scripture, greet, usher, and serve Communion. Sunday evenings during the school year bring 9th through 12th grade back to the Loft for worship, community, and small groups, while Wednesday evenings draw 5th through 8th grade for midweek worship. The ministry is pastored by Michelle Rebel and supported by Student Ministry staff Jaycee Marlett and Jennifer Redmond, with overall leadership from Next Gen Director Brittni Blevins.
Included Special Needs Ministry
Few ministries define First Methodist Mansfield as clearly as Included, the church's special needs ministry for friends of all ages. Included Jr. serves participants in kindergarten through 12th grade, while Included serves participants 18 and older. The vision is to provide a safe and loving environment tailored to the individual needs of each participant as they learn about Jesus, form friendships, and develop life skills. Included Jr. meets during the 11:00 am Sunday services in Rooms 107 and 108 of Building A, and Included meets during the 6:00 pm Saturday service, gathering first in the Sanctuary for opening worship before moving to Room 102 of Building A. The program also offers buddies for friends who would like to be in classes with their peers within the Kids and Student Ministries. Director Raelyna Ford leads a team that includes Summer Eatman, Keeton Roddy, and Susan Sargent, and an annual intake form helps staff provide the safest environment possible. Sensory resources are available, and the ministry hosts a yearly Included Ball, monthly programs, and seasonal events.
First Methodist Adults
Adult Ministry at First Methodist Mansfield is built around the conviction that to grow spiritually, members must grow relationally. The ministry is led by Director Chrissy Smith and a team that includes Donnette Plumlee, Andrea Roberts, and Cathy Wilkerson. Adults can join Sunday school classes, weekday studies, semester-length courses, ongoing small groups, and seasonal events. Recent offerings have included an eight-week co-ed study of 1 John: How the Love of Jesus Guides the Gospel, led by Associate Pastor Jan Davis, with Kids Care available for fourth grade and under.
Young Adults and 55+ Senior Adults
Young adults between 18 and 30 meet weekly off campus for Bible study, worship, mission projects, and community with Pastor Thomas Mitchell, with a Sunday morning small group in Building C, Room 1, and monthly hangouts on the calendar. The 55+ Senior Adult Ministry, supported by Support Groups Director Cindi Blackburn, mixes fun with faith through events, trips, Bible studies, speakers, and service opportunities. Highlights include weekly Co-ed Chair Yoga on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 am in the Sanctuary Atrium and ongoing interest groups like Little Explorers, the Pickleball Fellowship, the Quilting with Heart group, the Holy Pickers guitar ensemble, and the Heart Meals outreach.
Care Ministry: Walking With People Through Every Season
Care Ministry exists to share in the celebrations, sorrows, and challenges of life. The team is made up of Care Chaplains, Prayer Ministry, Support Groups, and Celebrate Recovery, and offers homebound and hospital visitation. Pastoral Care is staffed by Associate Pastors Brenda Beaver and Lexi Headland, Care Ministry team member Kay Bebermeyer, and Support Groups Director Cindi Blackburn. For non-emergency needs, families can reach the team at care@fmcm.org or 817-477-2287, ext. 101. For emergency pastoral care, a separate on-call line at 817-739-6755 connects callers directly to a pastor.
Support Groups gather across the week. The Breast Cancer Support Group meets the second Monday of each month. The Caregivers Support Group meets virtually on Monday evenings. Grief Support meets Thursday evenings, and DivorceCare, GriefShare, and Journey Through Grief run throughout the year. Celebrate Recovery meets Thursday evenings as well, with the larger program extending into the surrounding rooms of Building C. Praying for one another is a deeply held value at First Methodist Mansfield, and a prayer request form on the church's home page invites anyone to submit needs that staff and volunteers will lift up.
Missions: From the Pumpkin Patch to the World's Edges
Missions is organized into local and global streams, with a Food Ministry, a Military Ministry, a Prison Ministry, and seasonal outreaches that touch the whole church. Missions Ministry Director Susan Luttrell, Communications and Missions team member Michelle Gery, and Assistant Director Andrew Hudson lead the work.
Locally, the church partners with Mansfield ISD families through Angel Tree to provide clothing and necessities at Christmas, organizes Hands of Christ repair teams that serve Mansfield residents three times in spring and three times in fall, and delivers Heart Meals to church members experiencing illness or need. The Food Ministry reaches into the community through the church's food pantry, supported by volunteers who sew, knit, and quilt. Stitches of Love makes and delivers more than 200 quilts each year to children in crisis at Cook Children's hospital, while the Yarn Ministry provides potholders for the food pantry, baby blankets for a women's center, and lap blankets and prayer shawls for Methodist Hospital. The Pumpkin Patch at the corner of Walnut Creek and Pleasant Ridge runs each fall and raises money for Student Ministry Mission Week and Included Special Needs programs.
The church works with Texans on Mission for disaster response, partners with Habitat for Humanity on local home builds, and walks alongside active-duty service members and their families through the Military Ministry. Prison Ministry partners with Kairos, and Zoe Empowers supports youth in impoverished communities abroad. The Pumpkin Patch and Angel Tree are organized under the missions umbrella as well, and the church lists current volunteer opportunities through the Connect portal.
First Faith Preschool and Kindergarten
First Faith Preschool and Kindergarten is a ministry program of First Methodist Mansfield, providing positive, fun, and enriching experiences that fulfill children's spiritual, emotional, and intellectual potential while demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ. Classes are offered for children age 12 months through 6 years old (as of September 1), regardless of race or religion, with small class sizes for individualized instruction. The school follows the Mansfield ISD calendar and the church calendar for holidays, with the school day running from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm, September through May.
For the 2026-2027 school year, classes are arranged by age, with two-day and four-day options for younger children, four days only for Kindergarten, and a combination of M/W or T/TH schedules for older threes and fours. Director Amber Kaumans and Assistant Director Jamie Burdick lead the program, with registration opening in February for the following school year.
Worship Arts: Choir, Orchestra, Handbells, and Production
Worship Arts at First Methodist Mansfield stretches across the contemporary and traditional services, supported by a production team that makes everything run smoothly. The Chancel Choir brings together adults of all ages and leads worship at the 11:00 am Traditions service, with rehearsals on Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm in Building A, Room 130. Childcare is provided, and no audition is required. The Orchestra, made up of youth and adults, plays hymns, preludes, and offertories, and performs major works with the Chancel Choir at Christmas and Easter. Handbell choirs include Beginning Bells, the Joyful Ringers, and advanced ensembles that lead worship once a month and attend bell clinics and festivals. The Contemporary Worship team supports the Saturday Night, 9:30 Sunday, and The Well services, with Director Dylan Peacock and Larisa Peacock coordinating musicians. Production crews operate cameras, run presentation software, and manage audio and lighting for every service, and the Creative Media team produces a sermon archive and broadcast-quality video.
Becoming a Member
Membership at First Methodist Mansfield begins with baptism. All members are baptized Christians, and the church offers baptism for both adults and infants. Adult baptism is celebrated by placing water on the head during a weekend service, with immersion available by request, and infant baptism brings parents into vows to raise their child in the Christian faith. Baptism is a one-time sacrament and is not repeated.
Once baptized, candidates are invited to a Welcome Home Dinner, a casual gathering with pastors and staff where questions can be asked and community can begin. Members commit to the traditional five areas of Christian living that the church calls Prayers, Presence, Giving, Service, and Witness. Children who join with their families are welcomed as constituent members in anticipation of Confirmation, a 10-week class for sixth graders (or older students who have not yet been confirmed) taught by the pastors, after which they are confirmed as full members. Membership inquiries are handled through Guest Services Director Stephanie Alexander and the guestservices@fmcm.org inbox.
Groups for Every Season of Life
More than fifty small groups, classes, and serving teams meet across the week. Sunday morning Sunday school classes include Covenant, Crosswalk, Disciples, Faithbuilders, Family Focus, Fusion, Homebuilders, Scriptures, Seekers, Single Spirit, The Bridge, and Wesley, each geared to a particular life stage and meeting across the campus and online. Men's groups include Band of Brothers, the Saturday Morning Book Study, the Tuesday Morning Men's Small Group, the Thursday Morning Campus Group, the Emmaus Reunion Group, the Men's Softball League, and the Sunday Night Bible Study and Basketball. Women's groups include Bible Babes, Bible Buddies, Blissful and Blessed, the Kleinjan Morning and Evening Small Groups, the Kincade Tuesday Evening Study, the Included Special Needs Mom's Bible Study, and the Seasons of Delight home group. The Walk to Emmaus offers a three-day short course in Christianity that feeds a network of reunion groups.
Service teams include Angel Tree volunteers, Habitat for Humanity builders, Meals on Wheels drivers, Heart Meals cooks and deliverers, Hands of Christ repair teams, the Holy Pickers, the Chancel Choir, the Orchestra, the Handbell choirs, and the Saturday Night and Sunday morning production crews. The Grief Support and DivorceCare teams train facilitators, and the Prayer Ministry meets throughout the week.
Giving, the App, and Staying Connected
Generous giving is one of the church's stated core values, framed in the language that living like Jesus means living generously. Gifts can be made online, through the FMCM app, by texting FMCM to 77977, or by mail to the Business Office at 951 N. Walnut Creek, Suite 101, Mansfield, TX 76063. Legacy giving and an Endowment Fund are also available for those who wish to support the long-term ministry of the church. The FMCM app, available for iPhone and Android, offers another way to stay informed, with notifications and resources in one place.
Communication runs through several channels. A weekly e-newsletter goes out on Tuesdays, with separate lists for Kids, Students, Included, Adult Discipleship, Missions, and 55+ ministries. Texting FMCM to 817-477-6498 joins a text group that receives messages from the church and allows members to text back. The Online Bulletin, the First 15 devotional, the Messages archive, and the Pastors Bible Study video library keep members connected to teaching and worship between Sundays.
Weddings, Funerals, and the Building
First Methodist Mansfield hosts weddings in both the Chapel, which seats up to 200, and the Sanctuary, which seats up to 1,000. Couples work with the church's wedding coordinator at weddings@fmcm.org to plan, and payment is handled through a dedicated form. Pastors and staff are available to officiate funerals and celebrations of life in the same spaces, and memorials can be made to the church in lieu of flowers. The church's pastor-on-call at 817-739-6755 is the first call for notifying the staff of a death.
The campus is laid out across multiple buildings. The Sanctuary, Chapel, and Sanctuary Atrium anchor the worship spaces. Building A houses the Kids Ministry classrooms, the choir room, the gym, and the youth Loft. Building B is the Sanctuary, Building C holds many of the adult Sunday school rooms and Care Ministry support groups, and Building D includes the Gathering Room and other meeting spaces. A campus map is available to help newcomers find their way around.
Plan Your Visit
First Methodist Mansfield welcomes first-time guests with priority parking marked by bright blue flags, with friendly attendants available to help direct traffic. Nursery and Kids Ministry are available at every service, and Student Ministry programming happens at the same time as worship. Guests who would like a head start can fill out a Plan My Visit form, pre-register their children, or fill out a Connection Card to let the church know they are coming. The Welcome Home Dinner is a regular opportunity to meet pastors, staff, and other newcomers over a casual meal. For anyone with questions, the church can be reached by phone at 817-477-2287, by email at info@fmcm.org, or by text at 817-477-6498, with the pastor-on-call line at 817-739-6755 for emergencies.
Worship gatherings happen on Saturday at 6:00 pm, on Sunday at 9:30 am and 11:00 am in the Sanctuary, on Sunday at 11:00 am in the Chapel, and on Thursday at 6:30 pm in the Chapel. Online services stream through the FMCM app, the live page, Facebook Live, and YouTube. First Methodist Mansfield sits at 777 N Walnut Creek Drive in Mansfield, with the Business Office at 951 N. Walnut Creek, Suite 101, both in the 76063 ZIP code, in the heart of Tarrant County.