"It is difficult to establish the exact date of the birth of a church.  Even though we say our church was born December 27, 1886, when organization took place under the leadership of the Rev. Bobby Childers in the home of the T.D. Harrises, it began long before in the hearts, dreams, and visions of dedicated men and women.  As early as 1835 William B. Travis wrote in a letter to the New York Christian Advocate and Journal of the need for churches and preachers.  'I regret that the Methodist Church with it excellent itinerant system should have neglected Texas.'   In a few months Travis had fallen at the Alamo, but soon Churches were rising in Texas.

"Our first sanctuary was built under the pastorate of Dr. John R. Nelson in 1887-88 on the corner of Fisk and Austin, the land had been purchased for $300.00.

"The first quarterly conference report in the 1800's showed, as ours today, a concern about money.  $800 had been collected for the preacher; $105 for the presiding elder (now called our district superintendent), $6.43 for bishops; $55.70 for conference claims; $38.46 for foreign missions; $38.46 for domestic missions; $30 for church extension and $9.63 for education.

It is stated in another early conference report: "The spiritual condition of the church is not good.  The holidays, ever to be dreaded by the pastor, brought more than usual worldly amusements and ungodliness.  Raffling is common and looked upon as no harm.  A few of our representative members play cards while some have been guilty of immorality and drunkenness and cursing.  But do not infer that this is the condition of all and that the preacher alone is left.  By bar the great majority of the members are in obedience to the Discipline and try to conform to their holy vows."

"By 1906, there was talk already of building a new church to cost around $20,000 with a new parsonage, however this talk died down after a terrible drought.  IN fact during these years the weather outdid itself.  In 1909 there was a disastrous tornado in Zephyr followed by a horrendous flood in Brownwood and Halley's Comet in 1910.  People asked, 'Is the world coming to an end?'

"Then came 1914 and the War to end all Wars.  Building a church was out of the question, but the church grew and by 1917 records show 500 in Sunday School alone.

"In 1920, despite more droughts, the Rev. E. Wilkes appointed a building committee to make plans for a new sanctuary and to purchase the remainder of the block where the old church stood.  In 1921 another terrible drought was reported followed by a devastating flood and a small pox epidemic.  All building plans were canceled.

"By October 1922, groups began talking of building 2 churches - one on the present site and one on the south side in the new Coggin addition.

"In November 1922, the church divided and the group leaving became the Central Methodist Church.  In the 1922 quarterly conference minutes we find, "We hate to lose them but in Christian Spirit wish them God speed."

"So once again in 1923 under the Rev. C. Q. Smith's leadership, a building committee was appointed, and a large Greek Revival sanctuary was built on the corner of Fisk and Austin in 1924.

"How I wish there were time to share some of the glorious reports from the quarterly records of the good years when the church grew from 334 in 1923 until a report in the early 1930's shows 430 in Sunday School alone.

"Then came the depression.  Poverty gripped the nation.  People in Brownwood were standing in soup lines in the shadow of the churches unable to answer their needs.  But somehow in time the church came through.  At least we had plenty of water and no more flood as the dam (for Lake Brownwood) had been built.

"On May 10, 1939, we changed our name.  The Methodist Episcopal Church South, the Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church united to become the Methodist Church.

"As we were progressing under our new name, we suffered another blow - World War II.  I found few records of these war torn years; somehow we survived.  There was hardly a family in the church untouched by tragedy, but in due time men and women began to put the pieces together again; even to dream once more.  Dr. Leslie A. Boone was our pastor at this time serving from 1937 to 1945.

"In 1961, to replace the Rev. C. D. Wooten, there came to us a young pastor, the Rev. Ben Feemster who not only dreamed but put wings to his dreams, and we began to move!  We moved the old parsonage, next door to the church, to a new location, 2209 Tenth Street and remodeled it.  We moved to buy and bought 6 acres of land in what was 'the country' out at the end of Tenth Street and moved to build a new sanctuary to the tune of $375 - $380,000.

"When the Rev. Feemster left Brownwood in 1964, he was followed by the Rev. U. A. Schulze.

"Dr. A.A. Peacock came in 1966, and ground was broken September 18 of that year for this sanctuary.

"The Rev. Carroll Thompson came in 1967 and helped us gather enough force and money to complete our home.  The challenge of meeting the financial goals for the building of this church was probably one of the greatest opportunities for Christian Witness this church has ever faced.

"We no sooner had moved into this sanctuary in 1967 and were feeling at home when another change arose.  We changed our name again.  In 1968, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church united to become the United Methodist Church.

"In 1969, the Rev. Cecil Ellis came to pastor us for two years followed by a four year pastorship of the Rev. Bobby Weathers.  What can I say about those years that would do justice to him?  His tenure speaks for itself, as does that of the Rev. John Dowd under whose pastorate in 1978 we burned the note for our sanctuary.

"By 1997 it became apparent that we needed to reach out to the people in our community by adding on a "Family Life Center" and additional classrooms.  A building committee was appointed to survey the church family and see what they felt we needed to do.  As a results of the survey we had a capital campaign in the fall of 1997 to raise the necessary money to build the center.  In the spring of 1998 construction was started on the $1,200,000 facility.  We were in the new addition by Easter of 1999."