02-05-2025
McKinney's First Presbyterian Church to end 150 years of service in North Texas
Sept. 17 would have been 151 years of existence for the First Presbyterian Church of McKinney. But the church won't survive that long – it's being dissolved and will cease to exist after Sunday, May 4.
"We hate the fact that our mission will be finished. We won't be here anymore," Patricia Beckham said.
Beckham has been with the church since it moved to 2000 W White Ave in the late 60s. She never thought a church founded in 1874 would fail in 2025. The church had survived so much.
Debt and a much smaller congregation from the church's heyday make the situation more challenging. She said their governing body, Grace Presbytery in Irving, came to help them two years ago. But assistance evolved into their end.
"I'm naive, so I thought that we would be (helped)," she said. "They would try and help us to build our membership, and no, they would never close us. It never occurred to me. Why would you close this when we do such for humanity?"
Beckham and other members met with CBS News Texas about the dissolution, which was posted on social media but offered no context beyond a vote.
The members said the vote happened on April 23 at a 6:30 p.m. meeting where they presumed an update was coming.
"And they asked us to do certain things, and each thing that they ask, we completed," Beckham said.
According to Beckham, after trying to satisfy their leadership, the debt still existed, and the membership had not grown. The members said the Presbytery gave them a $90,000 grant but wants repayment. An estimated $350,000 is where the church believes its debt was.
When their governing body cast the decisive vote, the members were asked to hand over the keys. Beckham and other members said they are escorted in and out of the facility that they have safeguarded for years. They are also watched on the premises to ensure that no sabotage is being inflicted.
Grace Presbytery's Rev. Christopher Lee responded to CBS News Texas about the McKinney church but did not mention grants, membership, or specifics behind the vote.
"Regarding FPC McKinney, the presbytery, in consultation with the congregation of FPC McKinney, arrived at the painful decision that dissolution was necessary," Lee said.
Rev. Terry Maze gets to deliver the final sermon on Sunday in McKinney. He said it wouldn't be sad, although he is.
"It's a mixture of sadness and questioning," Maze said. "Why did it have to happen this way?"
Arlene Fowler has been with the church since she was nine. In her 62 years of membership, this dissolution evokes two words.
"Very heartbroken," she said.
The members said 38 people are on the roll, but fewer than 10 show up for service.
"We did what we could. And we would carry on if we could still be here. But here it is," Fowler said.
Still, the members do outreach ministry to the unsheltered. Beckham said the church still gets calls about the church's old English as a Second Language (ESL) program.
The church started with 18 members post-Civil War. They had three buildings. The stained glass windows, Beckham said, represent families who paid to have the colored shapes last into history's pages.
The story of a 10-year-old girl named Cassie K. Coffee who lived from 1878-1888. Her parents did a memorial in her honor and donated a bible with the child's story. Beckham became tearful because she wondered if anyone would ever become a caretaker of Coffee's backstory.
"It's like when you go to a funeral," she said. "It's a celebration of a person's life. So this is supposed to be a celebration of our church."
The final services are at 11 a.m. on Sunday and special services are at 4 p.m. to close out FPC.
Grace House Community Church has been leasing space at the church. Members said the church would take the address so the building wouldn't be empty.
