This Week in Texas Methodist History November 21 Community Church in Kermit Becomes Methodist, November 1945 During the heyday of American Methodism there was a common boast---“There are more Methodist churches than post offices in the United States.“ The boast was probably true because of the geographic reach of the denomination. Other denominations often were geographically concentrated. Southern Baptists in the South, Lutherans in the upper Midwest to which Scandinavian immigrants had come, Roman Catholics in areas with concentrations of Irish, Italian, Polish, French Canadian, and persons of Mexican origin. Religious census data showed Methodists as the largest denomination in many counties in the Ohio Valley, but few counties reported zero Methodists. The Permian Basin town of Kermit was lifted up as the largest town in the United States without a Methodist church. The town was relatively young, having been founded in 1916 and incorporated in 1938. The transition from ranching to a petroleum based economy resulted in a population boom. Like many boom towns, there was a community non-denominational church. Such a large percent of the population consisted of transient oil field workers, such an arrangement made sense. The denominations preferred cooperation instead of building churches that might wane as the boom turned to bust. At the end of World War II Kermit had a population of about 5,000 but no Methodist church,. Quite possibly it was the largest town in the US without a Methodist church. The pastor of the community church was Fulton Moore. He led the congregation into the Methodist church. The religious enthusiasm at the close of World War II encouraged Methodists to begin a church building program, Crusade for Christ. The easiest way to start a new church was to transition an existing church into a Methodist church, and the Kermit church was one of the earliest examples of such a church start. Incidentally 1945 was also the year Kermit got a bank. By the time conference met, there were about 300 charter members, and 25 charter members of the WSCS. They met in the junior high and started a pledge drive to build a church building for between $50,00 and $75,000.