PHD/Fellowshipper Class History Version 1

 

 

 

One Sunday in 1966 a small group of 3 or 4 couples gathered to start a new young married couples Sunday School class at First Methodist (we weren’t United then) Church. Three couples from the Builders Class took it upon themselves to sponsor/nursemaid/lead the formation of the class. The three couples that took on the responsibility were Lonnie and Paul Palmer, Joann and Bill Dimmick, and Wanda (now Stanton) and Bill Hodges. They taught the class themselves, arranged for teachers, organized parties and in at least one instant sold one of the class members a basset hound. In the first year there were numerous Sundays when only 2 or 3 couples would show up. It took real commitment on the part of our sponsors to keep pushing to keep us a viable group. Jim Richardson was one of our early teachers. He taught a number of series one of which was on a book “A Taste of New Wine”. Judge Cutrer gave lectures on the Shroud of Turin and on the “legal errors” in Jesus’ trial. We were fortunate to have Mrs. Paxton lead our class on a number of occasions. After a couple of years our Builder Class sponsors went back to their class. In their honor we decided to call ourselves the PHD class for Palmer, Hodges and Dimmick. We were able to retain this name for a number of years until the church administration told us that we were losing potential members since our name sounded as though we were “too intellectual”. They “suggested” that we change it. Since we met in Fellowship Hall we decided to become the Fellowshippers. After having that name for a number of years we were prevailed upon to become the Living Faith class. Fellowshippers apparently did not connote the proper message that a Sunday School class should project. How we were able to go back to the Fellowshippers is a mystery to me. It was rough keeping the class going in the early years since the class was like it is now, you never really know who or how many will show up on a given Sunday. The difference between now and then is that now we have more members so if 1/3 of them show up we have a decent group. In the early days if 1/3 of the members showed up we may have had 2 or 3 couples and the teacher/s. There have been some interesting folks in the class through the years. Some joined, stayed awhile and then left to parts unknown. Some joined, stayed in the class awhile, left for a number of years and then returned to the fold (and we are happy for it). The membership was constantly in flux during early years since the group was raising children, taking new jobs and moving out of town, maybe even having a disagreement with church politics, etc.  Thankfully as the group has matured our membership has become more stable and will remain so until we are all packed off to a retirement village somewhere.  Bob Haden