History:

In 1882, under the guidance of Reverend P.L. Stanton, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South arrived in Deming, New Mexico Territory. At that time, Deming was a year old tent and shantytown clustered around a water well dug after a Southern Pacific railroad crew discovered an underground table of good water. Reverend Stanton was the first preacher in town.

Rev. Stanton organized a Sunday School which was open to everyone, regardless of the church they had attended elsewhere. In 1883, Stanton reported to the Denver Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South: "Good brick church enclosed, costing $1607; parsonage $200, lots $380. Fair prospect. No organization. Collections $10." Stanton had build most of the church himself with financial help from the Board of Extension. His $300 annual salary came from his old Georgia Conference. The church, located on the corner of Iron and Hemlock Streets, was one of the first permanent buildings in Deming and for several years, the only church.

In January of 1884, the church organized with 10 members. In 1918, Sunday School classes were meeting on the church steps, in a tent, and at the Courthouse because Deming's population had exploded after Camp Cody was opened to train soldiers during World War I. The congregation raised $5,000 in one week to build a 56-foot by 88-foot frame tabernacle to face Iron St. behind the crumbling old chapel and the two-story parsonage that was built in 1913 and faced Hemlock St. Over 500 people attended the opening ceremonies on March 8, 1918.

After the war ended, Camp Cody closed and Deming's economy collapsed. No pictures have been found of the tabernacle that was in sad repair by the time it was destroyed by fire during a howling dust storm in April of 1927. The parsonage also caught fire but was saved.

Despite a national depression, the Church Board of Extension helped finance a red brick church with undercroft on the original corner in 1928. The Women's Society of Christian Service (forerunner of today's United Methodist Women) sold meals for as little as 50 cents a plate to help pay the pastor's salary and other bills.

In 1933, the church celebrated its golden anniversary. However, times were so tough that the Methodist Church building was not dedicated until 1941 – as another world war loomed. At this time, the official church name was The Methodist Church.

Through the years, the old parsonage became Friendship House. The purchase of a Sunday School Annex on Copper St. extended the church property for the full block of Hemlock St.

Thanks to forward looking people, the church owned several acres at Buckeye and Granite Streets. The present sanctuary was built there in 1976 when the congregation needed more room and more parking. By then, because of national mergers within Methodism, the church had its name changed for the third time, becoming the First United Methodist Church. Sections of the memorial stained glass windows from the old sanctuary became part of our new sanctuary. The dedication on March 14, 1982, by Bishop Louis Schoengerdt, marked a century of Methodism in Deming. The bell tower was added on the patio in 1986.

The Methodist Activity Center, otherwise known as the MAC building or the gym, was added in 1987 and nearly doubled the size of the church plant. Bishop Alfred Norris dedicated it on October 10, 1993, 110 years after Reverend P.L. Stanton put a baking powder can under the floor of the very first church building, with this note: "Isaac Sollers and Rev. P.L. Stanton finished laying this floor October 11, 1883."