Harold Ryker, local preacher of the First Methodist Church of Biloxi, upon recommendation of the Commission on Missions of First Church, supervised the Church School and preached the first sermon.
For the third Sunday service the pastor spoke from the back steps to a group too large to be seated inside. Then for the next Sunday service the Reverend T.O. Prewitt, Conference Chairman of Evangelism, helped our people set up a large conference tent.
The enthusiasm and attendance continued to grow so that on Sunday, April 8, 1956, the Reverend D.T. Ridgway, District Superintendent, convened a Church Conference and Beauvoir Methodist Church was organized with Harold Ryker assigned as pastor. Seventy-seven people, with sawdust underfoot and the tent over head, signed the registration book as charter members while the Reverends W. A. Tyson, T. O. Prewitt, D. T. Ridgway and Harold Ryker looked on.
N naturally, the tent could serve only as temporary housing. Fortunately the trustees, Rex Ward as president, located a choice piece of property and arranged to buy it. With the help of the men of the church a 40' x 30' steel Quonset-type building was acquired and erected on the property and the first service was held in it July 12, 1956. Church School classes went outdoors under the scattered pines.
On October 28, 1956, Bishop Marvin Franklin broke ground for the education building. This 80' x 44' building of Malvern tile, and valued at upwards of $38,000.00 was completed and formally opened Sunday, February 3, 1957. A portion of this building was so arranged that it might serve as a temporary sanctuary.
Though far from adequate, these facilities have enabled us to carry on a program of Scouting and to minister spiritually to an ever increasing number of people of the surrounding community. This is as it should be, for the picture Christ paints of His Church is that of a living fellowship, concerned for the spiritually hungry, and continually seeking ways to witness and to serve. But Christ deserves our best, and trying to worship in a multi-purpose room or trying to teach under noisy and crowed conditions is not our best. What is our best? What of the future?