By Susan Burgess, TCPalm.com
March 5, 2010
PORT ST. LUCIE — Port St. Lucie’s first church, founded in May 1960, marks its 50th anniversary with a celebration this Sunday.
First United Methodist Church on Prima Vista Boulevard, originally called First Methodist Church, began before Port St. Lucie was a city, back when it was a 36,000-acre development started by General Development Corp.
The church will host a special program, “50 Years of Blessings,” with speakers, refreshments and a video following the 11 a.m. service on Sunday, Pastor Renee Lawrence said. The anniversary committee was chaired by Gary Stannous.
“The celebration will be dedicated to a long-time worshiper, Blanche De Remer who passed away recently,” she said. “Blanche moved here in 1974 and she was very active with the church. Many people will remember her, especially those from the River Park area. She was a feisty, wonderfully frank person who spoke her mind. She drove a school bus, and then she was a crossing guard. She was 78 years old.”
Lawrence said the Rev. Tom Derrough, her predecessor, will speak at all three services this Sunday.
“We’ve had 13 pastors here over the years and every one of them said it was the best church they ever ministered,” Pastor Lawrence said.
“It’s a community that is cross-cultural, very loving toward one another, and always reaching out to others.”
When the congregation learned a Methodist church in Cuba was holding services in a shack and the pastor had no house to live in, the Port St. Lucie members donated. When they recently learned a church in Haiti had no roof, they donated.
The church is becoming well known for being the location of Sarah’s Kitchen, which feeds around 250 hungry community members every Monday. They began serving dinners in June in cooperation with seven other congregations in an interfaith effort to take care of those who can’t afford hot meals every night of the week.
Lawrence said that as far as she knows, theirs was also the first church in the city to start doing big “extravaganza events, always free.”
Last Easter, they put out thousands of Easter eggs for children to find in Sportsman Park by Port St. Lucie Elementary.
The original church was built at a cost of $33,000 on three acres donated by General Development Corp. The church held 156 worshipers and could be converted for social events to hold 172 people. The first pastor was the Rev. James W. Baugher.
The church now ministers to about 1,000 people.
Pastor Lawrence said she is retiring in the next four or five months, but she doesn’t know exactly when. A new pastor is to arrive in early July.
“I have arthritis and fibromyalgia and I just can’t do it anymore,” she said. “But I feel the same way the other pastors did — I’ve loved being here.”