First Methodist Church (Shreveport, Louisiana)

First Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. Founded in 1845 as a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it moved to its current site in 1883 and built its current building in 1913. In the split in the denomination before the American Civil War, this congregation became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It later affiliated with The Methodist Church, before joining the United Methodist Church in 1967. In 2023, it voted to leave the United Methodist Church. On July 9, 2023, it was announced, through the homepage of the church's website, that the congregation had voted by a 96% margin to affiliate with the Global Methodist Church. Originally a small, frontier church serviced by circuit rider preachers, First United Methodist Church is today one of the largest in Shreveport. By the mid-20th century, it had 5,000 members. Today it has more than 1,000. The church has been led by notable clergy such as William Angie Smith, and James W. Moore. In addition, many notable people have been associated with the church, including state politicians such as William Pike Hall Sr., Lonnie O. Aulds, and Barrow Peacock.

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).