Our Church in Floresville, TX was founded in 1914 by the Rev. Samuel Zook and since that year our Congregation has been serving our Lord Jesus and ministering to the Community of Floresville, TX. We are part of The Rio Grande Conference of The United Methodist Church. Our New District Superintendent is the Rev. Francisco Campos. Our new Bishop is Rev. Jim Dorff.

Nuestra Iglesia fue organizada en 1914 por el Rev. Samuel Zook; y desde esa fecha nuestra Congregacion ha servido a nuestro Salvador Jesucristo y la Comunidad de Floresville, Texas. Somos parte de la Conferencia Anual Rio Grande de la Iglesia Metodista Unida. Nuestro Superintendente es el Rev. Francisco Campos. Nuestro nuevo Obispo es el  Rev. Jim Dorff.

   Since June of 2005 we are in circuit with "El Buen Samaritano" United Methodist Church of Kenedy, Texas.  Our pastor preaches there Sunday evenings and sometimes members of Floresville help him with Sunday morning services. El pastor tambien va a Kenedy los Martes para trabajar en la oficina y visitar la comunidad o miembros de la iglesia. Our pastor goes to Kenedy also on Tuesdays to work at the office and visit the community and/or members of the church.

CHURCH MOBILIZATION:  A NEW PROJECT FOR "EL MESIAS" OF FLORESVILLE / FORTALECIMIENTO (Nuevo Proyecto).

Our church in Floresville began a new phase of ministry outreach and internal preparation for mission this year (2005) with the help of the Church Mobilization Program of the Rio Grande Conference. Hemos iniciado un nuevo ministerio de expansion y nutrimento para alcanzar la comunidad de Floresville con la ayuda del programa Hispano de Movilizacion de la Iglesia. Este programa es auspiciado por la Conferencia Rio Grande de la Iglesia Metodista Unida. Since June 2006 the Rio Grande Conference adopted a new structure. We no longer have 4 districts; now we have three. All the churches of our conference are now formed in groups or clusters. This new structure will help us to grow faster and with more capacity of service. Desde Junio del 2006 se inicio una nueva estructura para nuestra conferencia. Ya no tenemos cuatro distritos sino tres. Las iglesias ahora estan agrupadas en grupos pequenos para mayor efectividad de ministerio. Our cluster is composed by United Methodist Churches of San Marcos, Seguin and Kenedy, Texas.

CALENDARIO DE ACTIVIDADES - CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES

Our regular schedule of Worship Services/Nuestro Horario de Cultos Sundays: Church School/Escuela Dominical, 9:45am Morning Worship/Adoracion Matutina, 10:45am. Our Worship Service is conducted in English and Spanish.  Nuestro Culto de Adoración es conducido en inglés y español.  We have a Childrens Message given by a young man, Jonathan Martinez and two short sermons for the rest of the congregation given by the pastor. Tenemos un mensaje para los niños preentado por el joven Jonathan Martinez y dos sermonetes para el resto de la congregación dados por el pastor. Nuestro tiempo de Alabanza es dirigido por el joven Tony Ximenez Jr. Our praising time is led by Tony Ximenez Jr. at the beginning of our service. We have Bible Study, 7:00pm - Wednesdays/Miercoles. Prayer and Bible Study/Oración y Estudio Biblico 7:00pm.  We visit nursing homes, hospitals and homes of the people and we celebrate and worship our Lord Jesus Christ.Visitamos los asilos de ancianos, los hospitales y los hogares para celebrar y adorar nuestro Señor y Salvador Jesucristo.

Nuestra Visión para el nuevo Milenio - Our Vision for the new Millennium

SCRIPTURAL BASIS FOR OUR VISION:

John 15:1-9

1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Isaiah 54:2,3a,4a

2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.

3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left..

4 "Do not be afraid...

A LIVING VISION OF OUR CHURCH

Our Church, "El Mesías" United Methodist Church of Floresville, Texas, is a living community of believers living in the power and life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Vine, we, the members of the Church, are the branches. Our ministry and work is done through and by the power of the Lord, if we do not remain in Him our work will not produce fruit, because apart from Christ we are nothing.

As a living community of believers we are growing in the power and life of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our church program and services are being implemented with the needs of the congregation as the primary goals in our ministry. Our church services are well planned and the mens, womens, youths and childrens programs are being implemented. Our church is alive and looking forward into the future.Our church has a great potential: we have the people: babies, children, youth & adults; we have the leadership; we live in a growing community. The spiritual needs of the community challenge us to a more effective ministry

Our Vision for the future is the vision of Isaiah, chapter 54: With the guidance of the Holy Spirit we will expand and enlarge our facilities. Our goal is to serve everybody in the congregation, and to serve the community as a whole with special ministries and programs. We have a vision of building a special all purpose building to be used for all kind of church activities, community programs, sporting and social activities.

Our church will continue increasing her membership; and we feel that God wants for our church to be an integral and important part of the life of this community. Most of our families have grown up here and have been part of the congregation for generations. With Gods help and the hard work of this congregation we will enlarge and expand our ministry and facilities. We want our church to be a force for good, with the power of the Holy Spirit to reach others with the love of Jesus Christ. We will not be afraid, we will enlarge our tents to the right and to the left. This is our vision for our Church into the twenty-first century.

The United Methodist Beliefs

From the 1996 Book of Discipline

Scripture

United Methodists share with other Christians the conviction that Scripture is the primary source and criterion for Christian doctrine. Through Scripture the living Christ meets us in the experience of redeeming grace. We are convinced that Jesus Christ is the living Word of God in our midst Whom we trust in life and death.

Tradition

The story of the church reflects the most basic sense of tradition, the continuing activity of God's Spirit transforming human life. Tradition is the history of that continuing environment of grace in and by which all Christians live, God's self-giving love in Jesus Christ. As such, tradition transcends the story of particular traditions.

Experience

Some facets of human experience tax our theological understanding. Many of God's people live in terror, hunger, loneliness, and degradation. Everyday experiences of birth and death, of growth and life in the created world, and an awareness of wider social relations also belong to serious theological reflection.

A new awareness of such experiences can inform our appropriation of scriptural truths and sharpen our appreciation of the good news of the kingdom of God.

Reason

Although we recognize that Gods revelation and our experiences of Gods grace continually surpass the scope of human language and reason, we also believe that any disciplined theological work calls for the careful use of reason. By reason we read and interpret Scripture. By reason we determine whether our Christian witness is clear. By reason we ask questions of faith and seek to understand Gods action and will.

The Truine God

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Father

We believe in the one true, holy and living God, Eternal Spirit, who is Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. He is infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love, and rules with gracious regard for the well-being and salvation of men, to the glory of His Name. We believe the one God reveals Himself as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one in essence and power.

The Son

We believe in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, in Whom the divine and human natures are perfectly and inseparable united. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the only begotten Son of the Father, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. As ministering Servant He lived, suffered and died on the cross. He was buried, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to be with the Father, from whence He shall return. He is eternal Savior and Mediator, Who intercedes for us, and by Him all men will be judged.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.

God's Grace

Grace pervades our understanding of Christian faith and life. By grace we mean the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through the ever-present Holy Spirit. While the grace of God is undivided, it precedes salvation as "prevenient grace," continues in "justifying grace," and is brought to fruition in "sanctifying grace."

Justification and New Birth

We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sanctification and Perfection

We believe sanctification is the work of God's grace through the Word and the Spirit, by which those who have been born again are cleansed from sin in their thoughts, words and acts, and are enabled to live in accordance with God's will, and to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Faith and Good Works

We believe good works are the necessary fruits of faith and follow regeneration but they do not have the virture to remove our sins or to avert divine judgment. We believe good works, pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, spring from a true and living faith, for through and by them faith is made evident.

One Universal Church

United Methodists respond to the theological, biblical, and practical mandates for Christian unity by firmly committing ourselves to the cause of Christian unity at local, national, and world levels. We invest ourselves in many ways by which mutual recognition of churches, of members, and of ministries may lead us to sharing in Holy Communion with all of God's people.

Service to the World

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said there was no religion except for social religion. In his name and in his spirit The United Methodist Church reaches out to establish peace and justice in the world.

Baptism in the United Methodist Church

From the 1996 Book of Discipline

The baptismal covenant is God's initiating word to us, proclaiming our adoption by grace, and our word to God, promising our response of faith and love.

Baptism brings us into union with Christ, with each other, and with the Church in every time and place. (Romans 6:3-11, 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27-28). Because baptism initiates us into Christ's whole Church and not only into a denomination, United Methodists recognize all Christian baptisms and look upon baptism as something that should unite, rather than divide. Holy baptism is administered once, but may be reaffirmed each time we partake of the Sacrament of Holy Communion or in services of "Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant."

Communion in the United Methodist Church

From the 1996 Book of Discipline

Holy Communion is a sacred meal in which the community of faith, the Church, thankfully proclaims and enacts all that God has done, is doing, and will continue to do for us in Christ. In communion we remember, with thanksgiving, the grace given to us in our baptism and partake of the spiritual food necessary for sustaining and fulfilling the promises of salvation. The Thanksgiving and communion, commonly called the Lord's Supper, is a Christian adaptation of Jewish worship at family meal tables--as Jesus and His disciples ate together during His preaching and teaching ministry, as Jesus transformed it when He instituted the Lord's Supper on the night before His death, and as His disciples experienced it in the breaking of bread with their risen Lord. (Luke 24:30-35; John 21:13).

Early Methodism continued the New Testament church's empahsis on Word and Table, taking the Gospel into the world by preaching and singing and by celebrating of the Holy Meal. Today The United Methodist Church is reclaiming our biblical and historical heritage, as we seek to worship God "in Spirit and in Truth."

The Cross and Flame Logo

From the 1996 Book of Discipline

Each time you see the cross and flame emblem, you are looking at United Methodism's official symbol.

Known informally as the cross and flame logo but formally known as the denomination's insignia, it has been in use nearly three decades. It is seen in cities, towns and rural areas at every point on the globe.

The insignia is a cross linked with a dual flame. This symbol relates our church to God by way of the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity; the Christ (cross) and the Holy Spirit (flame).

Apart from Wesleyan Trinitarian theology and warmth, the flame has two other connotations. The flame suggests Pentecost when witnesses saw "tongues as of fire." And the duality of the flame was meant to represent the merger in 1968 of two denominations: The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

The General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) has custody of the emblem. Because the cross and flame is an official insignia, any reproduction must be faithful to the original design. For that reason, reproduction proofs are available from GCFA.

United Methodist Church Facts & Figures

Facts about annual conferences in the United States (Data compiled from 1997 from the latest official statistics except where noted)

• 8,408,354 lay members

• 43,688 ordained members (1998 figure)

• 1,139 consecrated diaconal ministers (1998 figure)

• 1,735,880 preparatory members

• 35,986 local churches

• 26,098 pastoral charges

• 520 districts

• 66 conferences

• 50 episcopal areas

• 5 jurisdictions

• 3,692,022 Sunday school participants

• 946,980 United Methodist Women members

• 255,741 United Methodist Men members

• 480,483 United Methodist Youth Fellowship members

Organization of the United Methodist Church

Introduction

The organization of each unit in the church is carefully spelled out in the Book of Discipline. All members are at least acquainted with the local church. It includes those who have professed their belief in Christ, have been baptized, and have taken the vows of membership. The local church is the context for hearing the Word of God and for receiving the Sacraments. It reaches out in the name of Christ to bring persons into its fellowship, to nurture the members in their faith, and to witness to and serve the community, both local and global. Groups of local churches work together as a district and are supervised by a clergy superintendent. These districts are part of an annual conference, the basic unit of the denomination. Central Conferences are those regional units outside the United States. Conferences in the United States are grouped into five geographic jurisdictions.Checks and balances are built into all aspects of church life. The organization of the denomination resembles that of the U.S. government. The General Conference is the top legislative body; the nine-member Judicial Council is the "supreme court"; and the Council of Bishops is similar to the executive branch.

Churchwide agencies are primarily accountable to the General Conference. Their staff are governed by boards of directors who are lay and clergy persons.

Local Churches

A local church is a community of true believers under the Lordship of Christ. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by persons divinely called and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christs own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers, and the redemption of the world.

Districts subdivisions of an Annual Conference. The number of districts is determined by the Annual Conference. The boundaries of the districts is determined by the bishop after consultation with the district superintendents. A district consists of all the pastoral charges within its boundaries and is under the supervision of a district superintendent.

Annual Conferences

The Annual Conference is the basic organizational body in The United Methodist Church. An Annual Conference includes all United Methodist churches in a geographically defined area. Lay and clergy members of the Annual Conference have the right to vote on all constitutional amendments and delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences. Members establish the budget for the Annual Conference and vote on all mater related to the organizational life of its agencies and institutions. The Annual Conference members are responsible for the program and administration of the work of the Annual Conference and its local churches. Only clergy members vote on all matters relating to clergy membership and ordination. The membership of the Annual Conference consists of an equal number of lay and clergy members, and at least one lay person from each pastoral charge is to be a member.

Jurisdictions

Jurisdictions are large regional divisions of The United Methodist Church within the United States and composed of the Annual Conferences within their boundaries. These boundaries are determined by the Constitution. The five jurisdictions are: Western, South Central, North Central, Southeastern, Northeastern.

General Conferences

The Central Conferences are the organizational structures established for the work of The United Methodist Church in countries other than the United States of America. The number and boundaries of the Central Conferences are determined by the General Conference. Each Central Conference oversees the work of Annual Conferences, Provisional Annual Conferences, and Mission Conferences within its boundaries. Central Conferences function in much the same way as the Jurisdictional Conferences function in the United States.

General Conference

The General Conference is the highest legislative body in the denomination. The Constitution states: "The General Conference shall have full legislative power over all mater distinctively connectional." It meets in April or May once every four years. A General Conference may vote to have an adjourned session, if it is deemed necessary. Bishops preside at the sessions of the General Conference but do not have the privilege of voice or vote in its deliberations. The General Conference is composed of an equal number of lay and clergy delegates elected by their respective Annual Conferences. The clergy and lay delegates debate and vote as one body. The primary responsibility of the General Conference is to enact legislation that:

• establishes the conditions for membership, defines the powers and duties of the clergy, defines the powers and duties of the Conferences,

• establishes the powers and duties of the bishops, provides for a judicial system within the church, establishes the budge for the denomination, and establishes legislation governing the work of the local church and general agencies.Bishops and Episcopal Areas

A bishop is an elder (ordained minister) who has been elected to the office of bishop by the lay and clergy delegates of a Jurisdictional or Central Conference. A United Methodist bishop is consecrated for the office of bishop by other United Methodist bishops. A bishop serves as a general superintendent of the denomination. As such, individually and collectively bishops give general oversight to the temporal and spiritual interests of the entire denomination. It is a responsibility of the bishops to see that the rules, regulations, and responsibilities developed by the General Conference are understood and effectively carried out. The Greek word for bishop is episcopos, which is the root word for episcopal.

An episcopal area is the Annual Conference or Conferences to which a bishop is assigned by the Jurisdictional Conference. The bishop lives within the bounds of the episcopal area and presides over the work of the one or more Annual Conferences in the area. The bishop is responsible for the churches in the episcopal area, including the appointment of pastors.

Judicial Council

The Judicial Council is the highest judicial body or "court" of The United Methodist Church. Its nine members are elected by the General Conference. The Judicial Council determines the constitutionality of acts or proposed acts of the General, Jurisdictional, Central, and Annual Conferences. It acts on these either on appeal of lower rulings or through requests for declaratory decisions. It also rules on whether acts of other official bodies of the denomination conform to The Book of Discipline. This is done in accordance with procedures established in The Book of Discipline.