History
We are members of the Universal Christian Church, founded by our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Methodist adjective arose as a derogatory nickname (nickname) to describe the fervent, disciplined, methodical conduct of a group of sincere Christians in England during the 18th century.
They, led by Pastor Juan Wesley, minister of the Anglican Church, formed a group and later a society of believers, who lived the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ, absolutely believed that the Holy Scriptures (The Bible) are the Revelation of God. , whose content is sufficient to understand the Plan of Salvation for the Human Kind, and thus come to enjoy life to the full within the path of holiness.
They made an effort to be used by God to fully transform their world, and they succeeded: religiously and socially, since then, God has continued to transform people, families, communities and entire countries until today, using this part of the Body of Christ that we call the Methodist Church.
We are currently more than eighty million Methodists in nearly one hundred countries around the world.
Origins of the Congregation
The congregation of the Temple "El Mesías", which now meets at Balderas 47, in the Historic Center of Mexico City, was the first established by the missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the South of the United States in our country. This occurred in the year 1873, with the arrival of Bishop Juan C. Keener in the Mexican capital. He, in collaboration with some Protestant liberals such as Sóstenes Juárez, who were already meeting to study the Bible, bought the Chapel of San Andrés, in which the body of Maximilian of Hasburgo had been embalmed, before it was shipped to Europe. It was thus that in February of the same year, on that corner of what is now Callejón del 57 and Xicoténcatl, the first Methodist temple of the Mexican Republic was consecrated.
Years later, at the end of the 19th century, when that building had to be abandoned due to expansion of the streets in the city center, Rev. William Patterson bought a piece of land on the "outskirts of the city" to build the first purpose-built building for evangelical worship in this capital; indeed a jewel in its decorated English Gothic genre. The temple was designed by Rusell C. Cook, using fine details with quarry stone and stylized flying buttresses on its façade. It was chosen to use tezontle for the masonry, basalt stones from Culhuacán for foundations and coverings, and chiluca stone from Tepepan for the stonework details, while the glassworks were made in San Luis Potosí.
The consecration of the new building was on the second Sunday of February 1901. This constituted quite an event in the life of the metropolis that included in its program the participation of great personalities of the time; as was the declamation made especially for that day and presented by the poet Juan de Dios Peza: «The House of the Lord has been opened»(*).
This is how the Methodist Church "El Mesías" was born. In the revolutionary period, the temple witnessed the terrible massacre caused by the armed movement that was organized to overthrow Madero: the tragic ten, as well told by the bullet marks that can be seen on the southern part of the façade. In 1930, when the Mexican Methodists declared themselves autonomous from the Methodist Church of the United States, the temple became part of the nascent Methodist Church of Mexico. In 1939, the pastors of Balderas spoke out in various public forums against the Second World War.
At the end of the fifties and beginning of the sixties of the 20th century, the decision was made to hold two worship services exactly the same, on Sundays at noon, due to the fact that the installed capacity was exceeded week by week, and the horn that was placed in the corridor at the time of the sermon was more than insufficient. For this reason, the idea of building a 13-story educational building in place of the old house that housed rooms for children's cults and organizations began to be entertained.
In 1977, after 20 years of incessant prayer and financial campaign, the old building was demolished and the Bishop in turn laid the first stone of the new educational building. For 3 years, children, intermediates, youth and other organizations met at Balderas 49, where the church rented some rooms, until in 1980 they moved to the building, in black works, even as over the years, it has wrapped up little by little until you have it as today you can enjoy it.
In 1985, due to the earthquakes that devastated the capital of the country, the temple had to close its doors on two Sundays, but the Balderenses met in different parts of the city to give thanks to God because in the midst of the tragedy, he had mercy of our temple.
Innumerable blessings God has given us in this holy place: the stained glass windows, the new organ, the elevator, and the social room on the top floor, to mention just a few examples. But the most important blessing is that for more than 100 years the message of salvation continues to be preached in this place with all fervor, the only true God continues to be adored, and today we can safely and gratefully say: THANK GOD FOR THESE YEARS TAKEN BY HIS HAND.
Review: Carlos Suárez Ruiz.