About Us
Our History
Wood Springs
Wood Springs is a small rural community located northwest of Tyler and just west of Lindale in Smith County. Natural springs probably attracted settlement in the area in the late 1800s. The wooded landscape and natural springs inspired the name of Wood Springs. In 1897 residents established Wood Springs Methodist Church,
Swan
Swan (Swann) is just east of U.S. Highway 69 three miles north of Tyler and just south of Lindale. The area was occupied by farmers as early as the 1850s and named for a prominent local family. In 1892 Swan had a population of 200, ten fruit growers, a blacksmith, a carpenter, two doctors, a railroad agent, three schoolteachers, three cotton gins, a general store, and a sawmill. In 1899 there were almost one million fruit trees, mostly peach, in the Swan-Lindale vicinity, and large amounts of strawberries and blackberries were also grown. Tyler Pipe Industries transferred there in 1947. In 1951 the Swan Methodist Church was established.
Swan Wood Springs Methodist
In 1962 the Wood Springs Methodist Church and nearby Swan Methodist Church merged to organize the Swan Wood Springs Methodist Church. Tyler Pipe was expanding and bought the land where the original church stood. That year Tyler Pipe picked up the church and moved it across the street where it stands today. The church joined the United Methodist denomination during that time and stayed until December of 2022, where they disaffiliated from the United Methodist and joined the Global Methodist Family.
Our Vision, Our Mission, Our Calling
Worship Passionately, Love Extravagantly, and Witness Boldly
​Our desire is to join God in a journey of bringing new life, reconciliation, and the presence of Christ to all people, and to help each person reflect the character of Christ.
Worship Passionately
Through our ministries, we desire to share the love of God with all peoples and to advance the presence and fulfillment of the Kingdom of God in every part of the world and at all levels of societies and cultures. Swan - Wood Springs is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, and the work of the Holy Spirit in conveying God’s truth and grace to all people.
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Love Extravagantly
We desire to surrender to and be fully devoted to one God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are passionate about what is important to God.
Jesus calls those who follow Him to love God wholeheartedly and love their neighbors as themselves. Our desire is to demonstrate to the world the extravagant love of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
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Witness Boldly
​We have been entrusted with a lifesaving and transforming message that we must share with others. Our witness is bold, compelling and fearless. Our mission advances when individuals become disciples of Jesus Christ and join God’s mission to make more disciples.
Core Values
At the Heart of Everything We Do
Our congregation is fueled by a firm belief in the teachings of our Lord, and when we are together under the holy spirit of God — we become one. We welcome you to join our community and discover His power in your life. Don’t hesitate to contact us to find out more. We are always open to visitors and new worshippers who want to come and pray among us.
Our Wesleyan Foundation
As a Wesleyan expression of Christianity, Swan – Wood Springs Methodist Church professes the Christian faith, established on the confession of Jesus as Messiah, the Son of God, and the resurrected Lord of heaven and earth.
This confession, expressed by Simon Peter in Matthew 16:16-19 and Acts 2:32, is foundational. It declares Jesus is the unique incarnate Word of God, and He lives today, calling all to receive Him as Savior and as the One to whom all authority has been given.
This faith has been tested and proved since its proclamation by Mary Magdalene, the first witness of the resurrection. It was defended by the women and men of the early church, many of whom gave their lives as testimony. Their labors, enabled and inspired by the Holy Spirit, resulted in the canon of scripture as the sufficient rule both for faith and practice It formulated such affirmations as the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed as accurate expressions of this faith.
Our Beliefs
God
We believe there is one true God who exists eternally in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and from everlasting-to-everlasting lives in perfect relationship and love with one another. We believe God is eternal. We believe God is the creator of the world and everything in it. We believe God is all present, all knowledgeable, all powerful, full of compassion and mercy, unchangeable and righteous. God is relational and full of love, always choosing the highest good for all.
Father
In other religions deity has different names, but the revelation of God as Father belongs uniquely to Christianity. Jesus was Who brought the revelation of God as Father. This is first manifested when Jesus was baptized and the Spirit of God came like a dove and a voice could be heard from heaven saying: "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Afterwards Jesus himself stated the revelation of God as Father in Matthew 6:5-15 saying: "… Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven …." Repeatedly in John’s gospel, Jesus addresses God as Father. Jesus begins his prayer in John 17, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you."
Jesus
We believe that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God—completely God and completely man. He was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. We believe Jesus is Lord and that he is the pure manifestation of God’s grace for all who will receive him. We believe he also resides in the heart of the believer (John 14:23 and Ephesians 3:17) and we are called to live our lives in him (John 15:9 and Colossians 2:6). God has exalted him and one day every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11).
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is God with us. We believe the Holy Spirit awakens us to God’s will and empowers us to live obediently. We believe that the Holy Spirit guides us when we are in need and convicts us when we stray from God. The Holy Spirit bears fruit in us (Galatians 5:22-23) and gives spiritual gifts to equip the church for service. The Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8:26) and empowers us to be Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8)
Human Beings
We believe that God created human beings in his image. We believe that all human beings are valuable, no matter their skin color, socio-economic status or ability. We believe all human beings, because of their value, are important. We believe all human beings were created for the purpose of relationship with God the creator. We believe all human beings have gifts with different expressions that glorify God.
Salvation
We believe a person is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that salvation is a gift of grace available to every human being. We believe that the heart of our heavenly Father is that no one would be lost but all would come to the full knowledge of who he is. With Apostle Paul, we affirm the proclamation found in Romans 10:9, "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Grace is the manifestation of God’s love toward a fallen creation, to be freely received and freely given. This undeserved gift works to liberate humanity from both the guilt and power of sin, that they might live as children of God, freed for joyful obedience.
Prevenient or preventing grace refers to "the first dawning of grace in the soul," mitigating the effects of original sin, even before we are aware of our need for God. It prevents the full consequences of humanity’s alienation from God and awakens conscience, giving an initial sense of God and the first inclinations toward life. Received prior to our ability to respond, preventing grace enables genuine response to the continuing work of God’s grace. This grace places us on the front porch of God’s household of faith.
Convincing grace leads us to what the Bible terms "repentance," awakening in us a desire to "flee the wrath to come" and enabling us to begin to "fear God and work righteousness."
God’s justifying grace works by faith to bring reconciliation to God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ; it is what God does for us. It is pardon for sin and ordinarily results in assurance of "God’s spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are children of God." When we accept the gift of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins, we cross the threshold through faith and enter into God’s household.
Sanctifying grace begins with God’s work of regeneration, sometimes referred to as being “born again.” It is God’s work in us as we continually turn to him and seek to be perfected in his love. Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit works to replace sin with the fruits of the Spirit. With John Wesley, we believe that a life of holiness and ultimately entire sanctification should be the goal of each individual’s journey with God. Our ultimate hope and promise in Christ is glorification, where our souls and bodies are perfectly restored through this grace. Sanctification occurs as the believer lives in the household of faith, seeks greater obedience to God’s teachings and most importantly becomes more loving under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Church
We believe the Christian church is the community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. We believe in the one, holy, apostolic and catholic (universal) church. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the word of God is preached by those divinely called, and where sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the church exists for the purpose of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world.
We believe that God has called us to live together in a faithful covenant that expresses our commitments both to God and to each other. As a church, we are committed to one another through sharing and mutual accountability. We celebrate our unity with one another at the table of the Lord and recognize all Christian baptisms.
The Bible
We believe the Bible (Holy Scripture) is the word of God. We believe that the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments are the primary rule and authority for faith, morality and service, against which all other authorities must be measured. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism said, “I want to know one thing, the way to heaven …. God himself has condescended to teach me the way … he has written it down in a book! At any price, give me the book of God! Let me be a man of one book.” Swan - Wood Springs values the study and application of God’s word to every believer’s walk with God.
The Christian Life
We believe that Christian life is the journey that reveals a life of someone who professes Jesus Christ as Savior. We believe that when a person starts a journey with Jesus, results of this life can be expressed through the fruit of the spirit. We believe the Christian life is a journey to holiness.
Sin
We believe that sin is what separates us from God. Sin is the selfish way to respond to life. It comes from living a life independent of God and choosing selfishly to fulfill our own emptiness of heart in our own effort, not believing that Jesus is enough. Sin, by definition, is any way that we miss the mark in loving God or others. It is best identified and defined through the Holy Scriptures and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer
We believe prayer represents our conversation with God, serving as the invocation or action where we seek to actively engage in an intimate relationship with God. Jesus instructs his followers to pray and exemplifies a life of prayer in Scripture. Believers are to have both a private and public prayer life.
Eternity
John 17:3 says that eternal life is knowing the only true God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. We believe eternal life begins the moment the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. It is a gift that comes only through Jesus Christ.