A New United Methodist Congregation
After several local United Methodist churches voted to leave the United Methodist Church in late 2022, there were many folks in Jasper and Newton counties who wished to remain United Methodists but were concerned about where they would attend church. The Rev. Dr. Jerry Neff, a retired pastor who had served both Kirbyville UMC and First UMC, Jasper, during his many years in the Texas Annual Conference, heard their despair and told friends that if they could find a place to worship, he would come preach for them for a few weeks while they figured things out. Thanks to the generosity of the members of Trinity Episcopal Church in Jasper, we were offered the use of their sanctuary and parish hall. So, on All Saints’ Day, Nov. 6, 2022, people from Jasper, Newton, Buna, Rayburn and Woodville gathered to worship as United Methodists. Out of this first gathering grew what is now United Methodist Church of the Pines.
Becoming United Methodist Church of the Pines
A few weeks turned into a few months, then a year, and then more. We were grateful guests of our Episcopal friends for nearly a year. In early 2023 we began the process of choosing a name, electing officers, and incorporating, with the goal of becoming a chartered United Methodist church. Folks began to donate the necessary items to enhance our worship, including an offering plate, hymnals, pew Bibles, communion plates, and a cross and flame banner. And then in April of 2023 two very important things happened: we celebrated our first Easter together on April 9, and we became a chartered United Methodist church on April 23 with 73 people choosing to become members of The United Methodist Church of the Pines, along with 3 baptisms. Later that summer, several of our friends from Kirbyville joined us after the church there chose to leave the UMC.
Finding a Place to Call Home
After our chartering, we began to focus on finding a place to call home. Almost from the beginning, our eye was on the former Presbyterian Church building at 740 Verna Street in Jasper which had been for sale for about 10 years. With help from the Texas Annual Conference and generous giving from church members and friends, we were able to close on the building by the end of August 2023.
Renovating Our New Church Home
And then the work began. Both our members and other groups began to clean up the fellowship hall and grounds. The sanctuary had not been in use for most of the previous 10 years and need some serious renovations. One of our members served as general contractor, and we got busy replacing flooring, painting interior and exterior walls, refurbishing bathrooms, and replacing HVAC systems. A generous grant from the Permanent Endowment Fund at Moody Memorial United Methodist Church in Galveston helped us with these renovations.
Worship Begins on Verna Street
In the fall of 2023 we began worshipping in the fellowship hall while we continued to restore the sanctuary. We also held our first monthly fellowship dinner now that we had a place for such gatherings. By December our renovations had progressed sufficiently for us to hold our Christmas Eve Candlelight service in the sanctuary.
A Year of Firsts
Many firsts were just ahead as 2023 turned into 2024. We started our weekly adult Sunday School class led by various members. We began our music ministry with a hand bell choir of three octaves, a men’s chorus and a women’s chorus. We installed our beautiful custom chancel furniture, built and donated by member Matt Morian and his wife Phillys. And then Bishop Cynthia Harvey consecrated our buildings on April 7, 2024, and we renamed our fellowship hall the Jerry and Laura Neff Center.
Serving Our Communities
Now that we had a church home, we realized it was time for us to start focusing on service to our communities in the name of Christ. We chose to concentrate on two areas of great need in the counties we represented: food insecurity and illiteracy. We began to plan various activities to support these initiatives, including our “Feeding East Texas” event which we hold twice a year, volunteering at the Newton Food Bank, setting up our Talbot Scholarship, erecting a Little Free Library on our property, supporting the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, donating supplies to the Kirbyville CISD Back to School Event, serving meals at Lamar University Wesley Foundation, and helping to underwrite the BARK Express mobile free library in Jasper.
Expanding Our Mission
We also began to expand other mission opportunities for our members including providing grace boxes in times of death or illness, helping fund disaster relief both locally and through UMCOR, crocheting and blessing prayer shawls for the ill and hospitalized, cooking meals to freeze and share with those experiencing death and illness, weaving waterproof mats for the homeless, providing a Thanksgiving Community Meal for any who need or want a place to go, and holding a Pine Arts Camp for area children each summer.
A Time of Transition
Early in 2025 our pastor, Jerry Neff, was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, and by August he was no longer able to serve our congregation. At that time Bishop Harvey and our District Superintendent, the Rev. Steve Woody, sent us an interim pastor,the Rev. Dr. Roy James,who came and loved us, led us, and helped us transition through the illness and death of our founding pastor. Roy served with us for 10 months, helping us to prepare for a full-time pastor and to purchase and renovate a parsonage.
Welcoming Our First Full-Time Pastor
"The Little Church That Could"
The Little Church That Could
Texas Conference of the UMC
Rev. Jerry Neff talks to the Texas Conference of the UMC about our journet at UMC of the Pines.