White’s Chapel United Methodist Church – Southlake, Texas
White’s Chapel story began over 150 years ago when settlers came by wagon train to begin meeting in prairie houses in 1871. Through wars and droughts, through fires and famines and floods, God has faithfully used the people of White’s Chapel to be beacons of hope and meaning to generations of seekers and strugglers.
That pioneering spirit continues today: though times have changed, their need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our need to worship and grow and serve, their need to shine the Light into the darkness hasn’t. That’s why WC is a church where “Tradition Meets Today!”
In the Beginning
In the spring of 1871, twelve families along with several single persons departed the war-ravaged town of Rising Fawn, Dade County, Georgia, and headed west in search of a new life and better fortunes.
Loading themselves and everything they owned into forty different wagons, they ventured into the great unknown that lay before them. Over mountain and river, through forest and plain, these brave pioneers dared the hardships of the over-three-month journey to arrive upon the Great Plains of Texas, where they stopped and settled a new community.
Central to this community was their need to worship and to draw hope and inspiration from God’s Word; as such, they immediately began meeting in a simple wood-frame house in the fall of 1871 (as they made preparations to build their first church building).
The first formal service in their newly-built chapel took place in February 1872. As the first Methodist congregation in the area, crowds came from as far as 20 miles away to attend the then-named Oak Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Vision Statement…
To make disciples by: (Mk 12:30)
- Engaging the Heart (Missions & Outreach)
- Stirring the Soul (Worship)
- Challenging the Mind (Discipleship & Christian Education)
- Connecting the Body (Evangelism, Community & Involvement)
White’s Chapel Is A Church Where…
- It’s all about Jesus.
- Real people make genuine connections.
- Grace is a lifestyle.
- It’s okay not to be okay.
- Everyone has a place: from the lifelong believer to the un-churched, de-churched, curious, and nominally religious.
Big Church. Big Heart. Big Difference
As much as we try to avoid the label (and all the baggage that comes with it), White’s Chapel is admittedly a big church. And we know that, with hundreds of opportunities to grow and serve, it’s easy to get overwhelmed; but we’re here to help every step of the way to make WC the “biggest small church” around: to make WC not just a church, but your church.
Wherever you are on your journey of faith, White’s Chapel has a place for you to worship, study, grow, heal, and serve.
Beliefs
As a church, they rely on Scripture to guide their beliefs and services. The Trinity, the Bible, their humanity, salvation, and more are significant in keeping them rooted in their faith.