The History of Our Church
(from 1970 to present)

In 1970, five families united to form St. Martin-in-the-Fields in a semi-rural area of northeast Tarrant County. With what turned out to be fantastic foresight, they purchased 11+ acres of land. Our place of worship and education for most of the first 10 years was a mobile home trailer. Sometimes the coffers of this small mission ran low (or empty!), and paying for the land was difficult. Selling part of our land to help make ends meet was tempting. With God's help, the few families who made up the congregation met each crisis, and the land they purchased remained intact. Thanks be to God and His Spirit in the families at St. Martin's, the final land payment was made in February 1991.

In 1976 Bishop Davies gave St. Martin's the historic St. Philip's building which was located in south Dallas (we were part of the Diocese of Dallas at the time; the Diocese of Fort Worth had not yet been formed.) The church at St. Philip's was lifted from its foundation and moved to Keller in June 1977. Fire destroyed the building only a few weeks later. A trailer once again provided us a worship place. The St. Martin's family worked together to begin another building with proceeds from garage sales, bake sales, bazaars, and an insurance settlement from the ruined building. Foundation for the building housing the nave was poured in January 1979 and the building was completed in 1982.

Beginning in July 1985, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic community co-habitated in our facility, and they staggered their worship services with us until they moved into their new facility in February 1988. The trailer, our place of worship for so many years, was sold in 1987 to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for $1,500. This money was put into a saving account marked for the beginning of an Education Building Fund.

In 1987, long range planning for land use was begun and continued in earnest in 1988 when we had a year-long stewardship program.

All of the congregation was involved in planning meetings to our wants and needs for the precious gift that was given to us by our founding families - 12+ acres of land in an area of rapidly expanding population. 1989 was a very important and busy year. In 1989, we attained Parish Status, declaring ourselves financially able to survive without assistance from the Diocese. Our Senior Warden that year was Bo Foote, who was one of our first Bishop's Wardens.

1990 brought the establishment of a Development Committee. The Committee was charged with taking the input derived from the past three years of long range planning and incorporating these ideas and our vision into a Master Plan. Our founding families cherished a dream of one day having a school at St. Martin's. This dream was kept alive in the design of the education building with the incorporation of infant washroom facilities and expandable walls to the east in anticipation of additional classrooms. The north wall will expand to accommodate a larger parish hall when this is needed. Our "Prepare The Way" capital funds campaign resulted in $227,000 being pledged, and payment of pledges ended successfully in December 1994. Construction on our education building, which is the first phase of our four-phase 20 year master plan, was completed in November 1994 and dedicated on November 11, the feast day of St. Martin of Tours.

Recent additions to St. Martin's are the children's playground and the Memorial Garden/Columbarium. Both facilities are the result of the ingenuity and labor of members of St. Martin's parish. St. Martin's is a rapidly growing parish with a large number of children and an active youth ministry. At the other end of the spectrum, there is a large and active 50+ group, some of whom are 80+! At the beginning of 1997, our membership was 504 and is still growing. We are located in Southlake, but serve a number of surrounding cities including Keller, Grapevine, North Richland Hills, Watauga, Roanoke, Hurst, Colleyville, Bedford, Westlake, Haltom City, and Fort Worth. As we continue to build and grow and plan for our part of God's work in His Kingdom, our history continues. Each new member is a part of the on-going story of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. May God bless us all.

223 Pearson Lane
Keller, Texas, 76248
(817) 431-2396 or (817) 431-2689
(817) 431-5407 FAX

Maps

E-Mail: stmartin@stmartininthefields.org

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