After several months, services moved to the cafeteria/auditorium of Booker T. Washington Elementary, the neighborhood school near the church’s future building site. Sunday School classes were held in the cafeteria (noisy!) and later in individual classrooms.

The first building on our own campus (the hexagonal “C building”) was consecrated in September of 1977.  It has been home to thousands of hours of church services, classes, studies, circle groups, VBS, variety shows, Scout meetings, youth dances, craft bazaars, potlucks, receptions, and church dinners.  Our Sanctuary and Music/Education building were consecrated in 1986 and our D building in 2002, providing more space for worship, choir rehearsals, classes, and meetings.

For many families, the kitchen is the heart of the home, and St. Matthew is no different: we have prepared tens of thousands of meals in our kitchen, including choir “dinner theaters,” Easter pancake breakfasts, and “All-Daughter luncheons,” along with evening meals for migrant farm workers back in the ’90s, Friday dinners for the UMOM New Day Center residents in the ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s, and currently lunches for a local men’s shelter and dinners for Family Promise.

Both youth and adult mission teams from St. Matthew have traveled across the state and the country to clean, repair, or build homes and churches and to help people from different communities and walks of life.

We don’t know what lies in store over the next fifty years, but we are excited to rise to the challenge and continue our ministry!

The stained-glass windows depict slices of a desert scene with a river flowing across them, under beams of light issuing from an unseen sun. While the building was still in the planning stages, the congregation was encouraged to offer ideas for images and colors to be included in the future windows. Artist Maureen McGuire designed and constructed the windows based around those ideas.