The Wimberley Christian Church has reached an important milestone. This week, the non-denominational church, pastored by Gary Fine, will celebrate its centennial on Saturday, with a ribbon cutting at 2 p.m. and an open house until 4 p.m., with live music from the The Ash Family Band and special guest, Amy Cartee-Cox.
For one hundred years, the white frame building has stood at its location on Ranch Road 12 at Wimberley’s southwest entrance, within walking distance of the town’s square. The building itself is older, 17 years older, having been built as a church on the Hezekiah Williams ranch, which was for a few years, Hays City, Texas. In 1925 a group of Wimberley citizens purchased the building, dismantled it and Americus and Christopher Columbus Leinneweber moved it to Wimberley where it was rebuilt on land donated by the Saunders family.
It was first known as the First Christian Church and later The Wimberley Christian Church and was shared by different congregations until they could build their churches. In the early years, the WCC was guided by temporary pastors and later by permanent ministers, and again by temporary pastors until 1998 when Gary Fine became its pastor. For the last 27 years, he has remained, spurring its evolution from a single, rundown building with a covered pole barn for revivals, to a tidy, gleaming complex of landscaped grounds, classrooms, an expanded sanctuary, an enclosed kitchen, and the reworking of a former parsonage into a facility now used as an office and for other church activities.
In the beginning, Fine was reluctant to assume the role of pastor, having stepped away from a huge 600 - strong congregation in Carlsbad, New Mexico, where he preached four or five times a week, taught seminary classes and had both radio and television shows. He stepped away from that to start another church in New Mexico, which again grew too big too fast and he asked himself, “What am I doing here?”
“When I moved to Wimberley it felt like a breath of fresh air,” said Fine, a tall, warm and thoughtful man who greeted me warmly from the former parsonage. “I didn’t tell people I was a preacher but word got out and I began preaching at Cypress Creek Church and became part of that church for a while. Then a friend of mine said that the Wimberley Christian Church, the oldest church in Wimberley, needed help and that it was going to close its doors. And it was here that God said, ‘I brought you here, this is where you’re going to be.’” After helping the church for several months, Fine again answered the call to pastor, steadily growing the congregation from ten to 60, repairing, restoring and adding to the facilities, and laying the foundation through tithing to grow its financial and physical stability. Through his stewardship and that of the growing congregation, he grew the church’s commitment to the community by supporting the work of other area ministries like Barnabas Connection, the Community Bread Basket, True Choice and others. That stewardship not only grew to be a positive influence in Wimberley but it opened the door to establish mission work, supporting six missionaries in other parts of the world.
When asked if he could explain what has kept him here, Fine said, “Accountability, being accountable to myself, to others and to God, striving to do His will in all aspects of life and the value of consistency.” But he wasn’t finished with the question of the church’s longevity and credited the sacrifices made from the people who came before to bring the church here and keep it standing, about the support he receives from his wife and family, the close-knit nature of the church congregation, of mentoring and supporting other men in the church, the importance of providing a place for people to gather, worship and serve others, and of staying true to the church’s mission and values.”
After the interview, I read a brochure that Fine handed to me inside the church’s light-filled sanctuary built 117 years ago. It read in part, “At Wimberley Christian Church, we’re focused on authentic faith while not being too concerned with the externals of religion. This means we act the same way on Monday as we do on Sunday. Maybe this kind of authenticity appeals to you. We are committed to becoming people who are actively connected in community, and passionately engaged in God’s Mission.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if that very-Wimberley approach to faith had something to do with the church’s long life too.
