Archive: A Church on the Move

Orthodox faith and some slightly unorthodox methods spell growth at Aldersgate UMC

by Eddie Robb

Aldersgate United Methodist Church began with eight members meeting for worship in the pastor’s home and using cereal bowls for offering plates. Now, seven years later, the church has a membership of 1200, and it’s still growing. No one is more surprised than the pastor.

“Everyone tried to talk me out of taking this appointment,” recalls Reverend Terry Teykl. “My friends just didn’t think it had much of a future.”

From outward appearances, the pessimism was understandable. College Station, Texas, the home of Texas A&M University, already had a strong UM church. It was located next to the campus and was well attended by students. Most of the professors and town folks belonged to First Church, in neighboring Bryan, Texas. With these two large churches and several smaller ones, it seemed the needs of the college community were being met.

“I was scared,” Teykl admits, “but I felt like there was room for another Methodist church, if it tried a bit different approach.”

Apparently the bishop agreed. Texas Conference Bishop Finis Crutchfield (now retired) appointed Teykl to begin the new work. The church was established on May 24, 1979 (Aldersgate Sunday). Thus the name.

Most folks around Texas still thought of College Station as a small, sleepy college town. The fact is, it had changed. From 1970 to 1980 the population grew to 32,000, a whopping 111 percent. Though still tiny by big-city standards, College Station had become the sixth fastest growing area in the United States.

“We had great dreams,” Teykl reminisces, “but I never expected what God had in store for us.”

Now, over 1000 people crowd into the gymnasium-style sanctuary every Sunday morning. (According to church sociologist Lyle Schaller, that puts Aldersgate’s attendance in the top one percent of all American Protestant churches.) Another 400-500 come back on Sunday evenings for a charismatic-style praise service.

The numbers are impressive. But the real story is what is happening spiritually. “There’s more dedication to prayer in this church than in the last 15 churches I’ve been associated with,” explains administrative board chairman Dr. Mike James, a professor of civil engineering at Texas A&M.

Prayer is obviously important at Aldersgate. The church holds regular prayer meetings, but they are not the usual Wednesday-night variety. The last Friday of each month, members gather for an all-night prayer vigil. In addition, every weekday morning the doors open at 6:00 for prayer. It lasts for an hour.

The importance of prayer at Aldersgate is evidenced even in the church’s architecture. Enter the pastor’s study, open the right door, and you’ll discover a prayer closet—a small room with a world map on the wall, a desk, and a well-used Bible. Similar rooms are scattered throughout the building. The pastor’s prayer closet, he says, “helps me keep my priorities right.”

Prayer and small groups

In his Doctor of Ministry studies, Teykl researched the small-group methods of John Wesley and of Paul Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church, located in Seoul, Korea. Cho’s church emphasizes small groups meeting in homes and corporate prayer, and is growing at the rate of 12,000 new converts every month. Not surprisingly, prayer and small groups are also at the heart of Aldersgate’s growth.

Twenty different “house churches” meet weekly. The size of the groups varies. Some have as many as 50 people, while other groups average 6-8 people each week.

“Here is where we minister to one another,” comments Auby Brown, a layman and part-time director of church life. ” For the first few years we had to meet in homes because we had no building. Now that we have a building, we don’t want to give them [the house churches] up,” he adds.

The house churches emphasize prayer, Bible study, sharing, and personal accountability. “They are very much patterned after John Wesley’s class meetings,” Brown says.

Until last fall Aldersgate worshipped in a school gymnasium. “That was wild!” exclaims one member. “Every Sunday morning we had to move everything in. Cribs. Pulpit. Piano. Communion rails. Cross. Everything. You cannot imagine how much work it was.”

Now Aldersgate is housed in a beautiful $1.5 million complex. The spacious 32,000-square-foot building is located on 10 acres along Texas State Highway 6, across from a new regional mall on the growing edge of College Station.

The members are proud of their new facilities. Yet, one gets the feeling that the people already look back nostalgically to those schoolhouse days when everything had to be set up for worship each week.

Aldersgate’s newest addition is a giant-size Jacuzzi. It sits in a courtyard just outside the pastor’s study. Visitors are understandably surprised to see a hot tub at church. Teykl quickly explains, “Oh, it’s for baptisms. A lot of our new members come from non-Methodist backgrounds and prefer immersion.”

In fact, fully 36 percent of Aldersgate’s members join by profession of faith. Another 38 percent come by vows from another denomination. That is a phenomenal figure, and a key reason why the church places a high priority on membership classes.

“We want membership to mean something,” explains Teykl. Everyone who joins Aldersgate must attend four training sessions taught by the pastor’s wife, Kay. New members are received one Sunday each month.

Such a large influx of new members from non-Methodist backgrounds does pose some problems, admits board chairman Mike James. “The first thing we have to do is give new officers and board members a crash course in Methodist polity [government],” he says.

Truly Methodist?

From zero to 1200 members in seven years, with an average worship attendance over 1000-Aldersgate clearly is a dynamic congregation. Yet not everyone is happy about Aldersgate’s success. Rev. Morris House, district superintendent, is grudging in his praise for the church.

“I’m for it from the standpoint that the church is serving people,” House said. “As far as being a true Methodist church, it isn’t. We’re praying to make it more Methodist.”

Yet, Aldersgate members wonder how they can become more Methodist. “We pay our apportionments,” said one member. “We use Methodist literature. We’re not mavericks; we’re revivalists. And we are fully submitted to our denomination.”

Nevertheless, Aldersgate is viewed skeptically by some, especially by the clergy. Some ministers see the church as a threat to the Methodist appointment system. One minister asked pointedly, “Who will we send there after Teykl? And where will we appoint him?”

It is true that Aldersgate is not a typical United Methodist church. Worship services tend to be less formal, especially on Sunday evenings. The 400-500 people who gather for the evening praise service often clap to the music and raise their hands while they sing. A piano, two guitars, and a violin are the standard fare. Testimonies and spontaneous prayers are often heard, and occasionally someone speaks in tongues.

I’ve always had a vision for a different kind of church,” Teykl says. “I did the routine for 11 years, and I felt like a change was in order.”

Teykl’s vision for Aldersgate, in addition to the emphases mentioned earlier, includes a strong missions program. The young church pays all its denominational apportionments, and beyond that it supports two Evangelism Explosion workers—one in Monterrey, Mexico, the other in Caracas, Venezuela.

Sometimes it’s easy for churches to give to foreign missions and ignore needy folks in their own backyards. Not so with Aldersgate. Each year the church helps several hundred needy people. “We’ve got a Biblical responsibility to care for the poor,” Teykl states firmly. “We take that mandate seriously.”

Apparently they do. The church has a half-time staff person whose sole assignment is to minister to the poor. Last year Aldersgate gave over $70,000 to impoverished families.

If the vitality of a church can be measured by the ministers it sends out, Aldersgate scores well there too. In the church’s seven brief years of existence, 39 of its young men and women have answered the call to fulltime Christian ministry. Six are now in seminary. “And one’s already out of the chute.” says Rev. Teykl. (That’s Texas talk for “already serving a church.”)

At age 38, Terry Teykl finds himself senior minister of one of the larger UM churches in the nation. Nobody is more surprised than he. He entered the ministry late. After graduation from seminary (summa cum laude) his first seven years were spent in a small rural church in Central Texas.

“I was very happy serving where I was,” he says with a grin, “but I guess the Lord had other ideas.”

Rev. Edmund W. Robb III is pastor of the United Methodist Church in The Woodlands, Texas, just north of Houston. Since founding the Woodlands UMC eight years ago, Robb has seen the church grow to more than 1,300 members. In the mid-70s he was Associate Executive Secretary of the Good News movement.