This is a picture of Travis Park UMC, located in downtown San Antonio, Texas. TPUMC is part of the Southwest Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church. (We are located just a few blocks away from both the Riverwalk and the Alamo.) The church was built on the site of the first Protestant sermon preached in San Antonio. The congregation began the year that Texas was accepted as a state in the Union (1845, for those of you who didn't take Texas history in high school). Travis Park was once one of the largest Methodist congregations in Texas but had suffered a nearly 50 year decline in membership from the 1950's on.

Over the last ten years it would be fair to say that Travis Park has experienced death and resurrection. The church has now become a missionally oriented body of Christ. We serve over 50,000 meals a year to anyone who is hungry and have a wide array of services for those who are on the margins of society. TPUMC has vision, medical, and dental clinics on sight as well as AA meetings, anger management groups, community court, etc. We also have an ID recover program (in fact the church was awarded the ID recovery contract from the city of San Antonio for the victims of Hurricane Katrina who now live in San Antonio) and several employment specialists. What makes this ministry different from a social services agency is that we are striving for solidarity with those on the margins. We eat together, serve together, and worship together. Certainly, this kind of ministry has its challenges but we truly believe that this is a large portion of the work that Jesus has called us to do.

I could go on and on about the work that the church does but you get the general idea. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about the work that TPUMC is engaged in.