A Mount Pleasant Congregation with Methodist Roots
Hibben United Methodist Church sits on Coleman Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, across the Cooper River from historic Charleston. The congregation traces its roots to a Methodist Society organized in the area around 1799, soon after Francis Asbury, one of Methodism's most influential early leaders, first visited Charleston in 1785. Many of those early members lived on the surrounding plantations and came into the resort area during their periods of vacation, a connection to Asbury that few churches can claim.
Today Hibben UMC describes itself as a community of believers committed to making disciples for Jesus Christ and witnessing to God's grace by seeking scriptural holiness and serving all people in the name of Jesus Christ. Its motto, displayed on the front of its materials, is "Do Good, Stay in Love with God." The church is led by Senior Pastor Rev. Cathy Mitchell and Associate Pastor Rev. Katie Brock Lesh, with a staff that includes a music director, a children's and communications director, an office manager, and a preschool director. A Christian Life and Learning Center on the campus houses classrooms, fellowship space, and the cold-weather shelter.
Sunday Mornings: Traditional Worship in the Sanctuary
Sunday worship at Hibben is a traditional service held at 10:30 a.m. in the Sanctuary, under the steeple at the front of the building. The service is styled around hymns accompanied by piano and organ music, with choral music offered by the Chancel Choir on most Sundays. Holy Communion is served on the first Sunday of each month. The church practices open communion, and the words of invitation are spoken on Jesus' behalf to all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin, and seek to live in peace with one another. There are no conditions of church membership or class completion required to receive the sacrament.
The congregation is made up of all ages, from infants to retirees, and includes many families with children and youth. Some members are long-time Mount Pleasant residents while others are relatively new to the community. Dress ranges from traditional Sunday attire to Lowcountry casual; visitors are welcome in a suit or in shorts. Greeters stand at the Sanctuary doors and at a covered walkway between the Chapel and the office, where a Welcome Center offers helpful information and a Visitor's Desk answers questions. Ushers hand out worship bulletins that describe the order of service.
Visitors will find visitor and handicapped parking in front of the building, additional parking on the main campus and at The Oops! Company next door, and overflow parking near the Pumpkin Patch lawn and playground. A drop-off circle in front of the Sanctuary offers handicap access, and a covered drop-off at the rear of the Education Building has a wheelchair lift.
Children, Youth, and Sunday School
Sunday School for all ages begins at 9:15 a.m., an hour before worship. A staffed nursery is provided for children from six weeks through pre-K, and Children's Church during the 10:30 service is open to children through third grade. Children are dismissed from the Sanctuary following the Children's Moment and can be picked up from the Chapel after worship; they return to the Sanctuary for Holy Communion on those Sundays.
Sunday School classes for Pre-K through fifth grade meet in the Chapel, with age-appropriate lessons built around games, crafts, projects, plays, sharing, and Bible reading. Mission and outreach projects are woven in throughout the year. Middle and high school students meet separately for Bible study geared toward living out their faith as a young person.
GLOW (God Lights Our Way) is a once-a-month fellowship, mission, and study group for fourth and fifth graders that also meets with the youth group from time to time to ease the transition into middle school. Hibben UMYF, the youth ministry for students in grades six through twelve, gathers for Sunday School at 9:15 and for youth group on Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. during the school year, with a modified summer schedule. Youth group includes dinner, games, and a lesson, plus game nights, beach days, retreats, lock-ins, and outings to attend one another's sporting events and concerts. The youth participate in worship, lead Youth Sunday services, take confirmation classes in grades six through eight, and serve joyfully through the Pumpkin Patch, Kairos Prison Ministry, Charleston Youth Mission, Salkehatchie Summer Service, Operation Christmas Child, and youth work days.
All staff and volunteers working with children and youth have cleared a background check and completed Hibben's Safe Sanctuary training. The Safe Sanctuary Policy, in place since February 2009, sets qualification standards, screening procedures, application and training requirements, operational procedures, and a clear reporting process for any suspected incident of abuse.
Music at Hibben
Music is woven through worship at Hibben. The Chancel Choir provides choral music for the traditional Sunday services in the Sanctuary as well as special music during Advent and Easter, singing each Sunday except for those Sundays featuring special children's programs. Members come from a wide range of musical backgrounds; some do not read music at all while others are trained choral musicians, and auditions are not required. Regular Wednesday evening rehearsals begin at 7:30 p.m.
Hibben Ringers is an adult bell choir that plays on special occasions as part of Sunday worship and shares its music beyond the church by hosting handbell workshops and taking performances off campus. The group has adopted a mile of Coleman Boulevard as a service project. Musical experience is not necessary to join.
Sonshine Singers is the children's and youth choir, with students of all ages welcome. The group meets each Sunday in the Chapel following worship, performs and helps lead services throughout the year, and presents a Christmas musical each year. Children in the choir also explore bells, chimes, and other instruments.
Reaching Out Beyond the Church Walls
Hibben UMC's outreach portfolio is unusually broad for a single congregation and reaches well beyond Mount Pleasant.
Emergency Cold Weather Shelter
From December 1 through March 1, Hibben operates the only East Cooper cold-weather shelter for people in need during extremely cold nights. The Christian Life and Learning Center is set up with cots for men and a separate sleeping area for women, and guests are offered home-cooked dinners, a safe warm place to sleep, showers, hot breakfasts, and transportation to and from downtown pickup locations. The decision to open is made two days in advance whenever The Weather Channel predicts lows below 34 degrees; doors open at approximately 7:15 p.m. and guests must leave by 7 a.m. so the building can prepare for the preschool day. The shelter is supported by several other area churches, local businesses, and the Rotary Club.
Pumpkin Patch
Each October the front lawn of Hibben becomes a Pumpkin Patch, an annual fundraiser and outreach project the church has run since 2001. Pumpkins are grown in New Mexico on Navajo land and shipped across the country; Hibben sells them on consignment, with a portion of profits returned to the growers and the remainder supporting missions of the church. Past proceeds have helped pay off church buses and supported organizations including Water Missions and Windwood Farm. Over one hundred members volunteer each fall to unload the pumpkins and arrange them across the lawn.
I-Beam Reading Mentoring
I-Beam is a weekly mentoring program that pairs East Cooper elementary school children with a caring adult who meets with them during the school year to cultivate a love of reading. Hibben and other ECFN churches recruit volunteer mentors and provide training and support; seven Mount Pleasant elementary schools and several area churches now participate, serving more than 160 students.
Kairos Prison Ministry
Hibben has a team that regularly goes into prisons with Kairos Inside, a ministry whose mission is to develop a Christian community inside correctional institutions. The Kairos Weekend brings positive and negative leaders together for a three-and-a-half-day program of talks, discussions, chapel meditations, and community building.
Stephen Ministries
Stephen Ministry offers one-to-one, Christ-centered care to people in the congregation and the community who are facing life difficulties. Stephen Ministers are laypeople who have received fifty hours of training in providing distinctively Christian care; they are not counselors or therapists, but they are ready to listen, encourage, and provide emotional and spiritual support by phone, by video chat, or in person.
Operation Christmas Child
Hibben serves as the East Cooper Collection Center for Operation Christmas Child, the Samaritan's Purse project that delivers gift-filled shoe boxes to children in more than 100 countries. Volunteers from the area prepare, pack, and process shoe boxes at the church.
Seafarers Ministry
The church supports the Mission to Seafarers, an Anglican society that visits ships in port, runs seafarers' centers, provides counseling and emergency support, and offers spiritual care and communication links for the world's 1.5 million seafarers.
Hibben Preschool
Hibben Preschool is a ministry of Hibben United Methodist Church, providing developmentally appropriate education within a safe and loving Christian environment for children from within the congregation and the surrounding community. The school serves children ages one through four, with classes meeting from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
One- and two-year-olds may attend two, three, or five mornings per week in age-specific classrooms, with a balance of creative play and structured activities that includes table time, circle time, activity centers, lunch, playground time, music, stories, and crafts. Weekly chapel is included for two- and three-year-olds. Three-year-old and 4K classes meet four or five mornings per week, with a curriculum based on South Carolina state standards emphasizing math and English/language arts, plus weekly music and chapel. Optional after-school enrichment classes currently include karate, dance, Soccer Shots, STEAM, and gymnastics.
Enrollment for the following school year opens in November. The school requires a current SC Certificate of Immunization on file and does not accept medical, religious, or other exemptions. Hibben Preschool follows Charleston County School District weather decisions. The preschool is directed by Ashley Vaughan and is overseen by a board chaired by Katie Wong, with Rev. Katie Brock Lesh and Children's Ministry Director Amanda Moore serving ex officio.
Adult Fellowship and Bible Study
Adult Sunday School classes at Hibben cover a wide range of stages and interests. Faith Builders is a class for members age 60 and over that begins with hymn singing and uses the Adult International Bible Series. Joe Taylor is another class for adults 60 and over that follows the International Adult Bible Study Series. Seekers is a multi-age adult class that discusses Christian beliefs, denominational precepts, community and family concerns, and more. Crusaders is also listed among the adult classes.
A Wednesday Morning Bible Study meets from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the library and is open to all. Lunch Bunch is a monthly gathering for fellowship, prayer, and fun, with covered-dish lunches in the Christian Life and Learning Center and trips to places such as Mepkin Abbey and Poogan's Porch, plus intergenerational programs with Hibben Preschoolers. The Men's Club focuses on fellowship, service, and spiritual renewal, gathering monthly in the CLLC for a meal and speaker, with special events including fall and spring fish fries, a Valentine's Dinner, and other outings. The Women's Ministry touches every area of church life, with regular gatherings and movie nights and a spring retreat at Camp St. Christopher on Seabrook Island.
Seasonal Rhythms: Lent, Easter, Advent, and Christmas
Lent at Hibben begins with Ash Wednesday services and runs through Holy Week. Easter Sunday brings a sunrise service at Station 21 on Sullivan's Island and a traditional service in the Sanctuary with nursery provided.
Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Weekly Advent worship is held at 10:30 in the Sanctuary in the Sundays leading up to Christmas Day. Christmas Eve brings three services: a 3 p.m. candlelight and Holy Communion service in the Sanctuary, a 5 p.m. family candlelight service with a children's nativity, and a 7:30 p.m. candlelight and Holy Communion service in the Sanctuary. The nursery is not open on Christmas Eve; children of all ages are always welcome in worship.
Beliefs and Sacraments
Hibben United Methodist Church holds to the historic Christian faith in God, the Creator, made known in Jesus Christ for salvation and at work through the Holy Spirit. The church shares its life in a community of grace under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, participates in God's present reign on earth, and prays in hope for its full realization on earth as in heaven. Following John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, Hibben teaches that the living core of the Christian faith is revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason. The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ through faith formation, service to the world, fellowship, and worship. The congregation also affirms the United Methodist Church's long history of concern for social justice.
On baptism, Hibben teaches that baptism is an act of God that initiates a person into the universal church and is to be received only once. Infant baptism is normal because the church believes God's love and grace are present in our lives from the very beginning. Confirmation, offered annually for students in sixth grade and above, is an opportunity to respond to the grace of God acknowledged in baptism and to promise to live as a person of faith.
Visiting Hibben
Office hours are Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Services are livestreamed on YouTube, and recordings are available afterward. Giving is supported online through Realm, by texting HibbenUMC to 73256, by Electronic Funds Transfer, or by cash or check in worship. Hibben UMC is committed to removing barriers to worship and church programs: five handicapped parking spaces are available in the front lot, with four additional spaces at the Christian Life and Learning Center, curb ramps at the front entrance and all CLLC entrances, a handicap chair lift at the rear entrance to the Education Building, and handicapped-equipped bathrooms adjacent to the Sanctuary and in the CLLC.