OUR STORY

 In the 1830's the river town that would become Shreveport, Louisiana, was a frontier settlement often mired in the mud. It was merely a stop on the Texas Trail, welcoming the river boats and then watching the dust settle behind wagons headed west. The town prospered from its alluvial Red River soil and its port status, and it dealt with the flotsom -- saloons, carousing, shootings.

First United Methodist Church was founded in this rough-and-tumble environment by a small society of Christians called Methodists. The church had no building and pastors were visiting circuit riders. It was still simply known as Shreveport Methodist Church in 1845 when it built the city's first small meeting house on Market Street and shared it with the Baptists and Presbyterians.

Later it would be called the First Methodist Church - after it helped establish other Methodist churches in Shreveport. A denominational merger eventually would change the name to its current name of First United Methodist Church.

The church, like Shreveport, would grow and prosper. It would move to the head of Texas Street and would become central to the life of the city. That would be one thing that would remain the same.

Eventually, most of the other Shreveport churches would move to the burgeoning suburbs, but the Methodists would not. In 1960, pastor D.L. Dykes, Jr., phrased the philosophy, "I think every city needs a heart, a heart of religion. We chose to stay downtown and be that heart."

Today First United Methodist Church lifts its steeple high above the city -- a symbol of the same, simple hope that marked the church's founding: the desire to serve God and reflect the abiding love of Jesus Christ.