New Fountain UMC uses TV
to offer Christ to community

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
New Fountain UMC may be a small congregation, but its influence spreads as far as cable television in Hondo and Castroville takes it.
Every Monday through Saturday at noon, Charter Cable 19 airs the 367-member congregation’s worship from the previous Sunday morning.
Viewers can choose to watch different styles of worship. New Fountain’s contemporary service is replayed Mondays through Wed-nesdays. Its traditional service airs Thursdays through Saturdays.
The church’s weekly listing in the religion section of the Hondo newspaper invites people to tune in.
What began as an effort to make videotapes of weekly services available to shut-ins has blossomed into a television ministry that brings worship into the home of anyone who tunes to the public-access channel, said the Rev. Charlie Parker, pastor of the Hondo congregation.
“The goal of this ministry is to reach out to those who may not be able to attend church for various reasons,” Parker said. “It allows them to praise and worship our Lord along with us.”
The video ministry is unique in offering Christ to all in Medina County, Parker said. New Fountain is the only church in the area on television.
And while the program originates in a United Methodist church, its appeal is nondenominational, Parker said.
“At the end we invite people to visit the church of their choice,” he said.
The cable-television ministry came about after a church member, Garry Allen, approached the local cable company. Allen had experience working in television in Mississippi before moving to Texas.
“He asked if they could work out an arrangement to air the services,” Parker said. “It doesn’t cost us anything.”
The church has since invested in additional video equipment, and church members are “making sure we address the video ministry” in a new multipurpose building, Parker said.
“We’re going to build a special section,” he explained. “We may drop a camera from the ceiling or build a step up for the camera. We’re going to include that in our site plan.”
Parker can’t say just how many people watch the worship services each week. But he does know that people are watching it because they tell him so.
“The only way I can tell it’s a good ministry is word-of-mouth,” he said. “People stop me in the grocery store and say, ‘I watch you on TV.’ Not too long ago, a man came up to me in Wal-Mart and said he’s on dialysis and watches during his dialysis.”