History of Crosby United Methodist Church
In 1844, the Lynchburg Circuit was formed and a church in Crosby was started by various Protestant denominations, including the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1879, the church became a part of the Cedar Bayou Circuit. Sometime around 1897 a group meeting in the Crosby schoolhouse on Kernohan Street became the Union Church. It too held services for all Protestant faiths. In 1900, the Union Church was outgrowing it’s facilities. In 1909, C .A. Gustafson donated land for the church’s expansion. In 1911, a white frame church was built as the home of the Union Church congregation. In 1919, the Methodist Conference paid off the building debt to Mr. Gustafson and the Union Church became the Crosby Methodist Episcopal Church. The church joined the Texas Annual Conference in January 1931, along with Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1954, Mr. Elton C. Runneburg donated land and the congregation entered into a building program. In 1956, the congregation moved into its current day location at 1334 Runneburg Road.
In the early 1970’s an education wing was added to the original building to meet the growing need for more group meeting spaces. The current Family Life Center was built on the north side of the campus in 2000 and fully paid for only five years later. With the community growing younger in age, the congregation desired to provide more space to host weekday activities for families and young active people. Today, the facility is occupied almost every day with community organizations, small group studies, youth activities, and church administration around the campus.
While worship continues to be central to the church’s focus for engaging in ministry, service to the community is the benchmark upon which every person is challenged to live out their faith in the workplace, home, school, farm, ranch and on the many fields of sports that bring the people of Crosby together.