History of Devine Wesleyan Fellowship
Devine Wesleyan Fellowship, DWF, had our first church service on May 7, 2023. We met at Marken Media in Devine, where we continued to meet for three hours on Sunday mornings through the end of 2023. In June '23, we voted to officially make our name Devine Wesleyan Fellowship and add that as our DBA to our incorporated name of Devine Methodist Church. In July '23, we voted to join the Global Methodist Church.
In August '23, we submitted a “Church Profile for Clergy Transition Form” to initiate the process to get a part-time pastor. A group went to a Wall-Shaker Prayer conference at Uvalde GMC and we started a Prayer Group, meeting on Monday evenings in rotating homes. In September, we had a very successful BBQ plate fundraiser for Mission Devine, raising $7000. In October, Pastor Paula Payne was presented to us as an Interim Pastor and we voted to have her start immediately and stay through the end of the year.
December was a big month. Not only did we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we signed a sublease agreement with the Refuge Church to co-lease the old Christian Church at 200 W College Ave, Devine. Pastor Paul Smith was selected as our permanent part-time pastor, to start in January. December 31st, Pastor Paula Payne conducted Blessing of the Animals at the Briscoe Park, along with us having a covered-dish picnic lunch.
January 7, 2024 was our first church service in our new location, 200 W College Ave and Pastor Paula Payne conducted a dedication service. January 21st was Pastor Paul Smith’s first service at DWF as our permanent pastor. In February we started having Sunday School Classes and we began having Monday Bible Studies. Mondays we had full use of the church building. In-home Prayer Meetings were changed to Tuesday evenings. In March we received our (501(c)(3) Determination Letter from the IRS.
Throughout 2024 we watched God grow us spiritually and in numbers. In October 2024, we found out that the location that had been Marken Media was available to lease full time. The end of November we signed a lease for that location, 203 E College Ave, Ste C. During the first three weeks of December our congregation worked non-stop renovating and setting up our new church. Our first service in our first full-time location was December 22nd, 2024.
As 2025 has progressed we have again watched God's miracles and provision. We have several young families with children giving our congregation lots of vitality. We now have a DWF Youth for all ages one Sunday a month, usually the 3rd Sunday. We have 5th Sunday Dinners and 2nd Sunday Wesleyan Women dinners. You are welcome to come join us.
