Our History
Frontier Fellowship began in the spring of 1988, with nine people, including Gary Goettel, the founding pastor. Gary, then the pastor at Faith UMC in Cheyenne, had a vision of a new church in north Cheyenne designed to reach unchurched families. He had some conversation with the board at Faith UMC, and the first informal worship services began in October of 1988, in the homes of various “members.” In January, 1989, the Sunday school was organized. Easter Sunday in March, 1989, was the first public worship service at Children’s University, (which is now an Allstate Insurance office) at the north east corner of Converse and Del Range. Over the years, the congregation met in each other’s homes, Children’s University, in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and at Davis Elementary School. Construction on our current building began in the summer of 1999. On February 6 of 2000, the church ended it’s days as a Fellowship, and was chartered as an official United Methodist congregation. The first worship service in our building was June 3 of 2000.
Gary served as pastor until July, 1993. Jeanne Redshaw was pastor until July, 95, and Nancy Mead served until February, 2001. Dan Nelson has been pastor since July 1, 2001.
The roots of the United Methodist Church go back to John Wesley, and his brother Charles. Both attended Oxford in the early 1700’s. They were good students but overly occupied living by the strict admonitions of Matthew 25, (feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, etc.) They and several others formed a “Holy Club” which was organized around such activities. John was 'pushed' into leadership and the Club got a reputation as being a group of ‘methodists,’ those who couldn't do anything unless they had a ‘method’ (structure) to carry it out.
Another way to talk about John and Charles’ faith at that point was works righteousness. And it is significant that Wesley felt sadly lacking in his faith until May 24, 1738. That’s when he went "reluctantly" to a prayer meeting on a street named Aldersgate. At this prayer meeting, John had a religious experience, and later he wrote about it, “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation.”
This new experience brought renewed enthusiasm and excitement to Wesley, traits that were not exactly welcome in the local Anglican churches, of which John was a part. One author says, “he preached in more Anglican churches one time than any other preacher in history.” He simply was not invited back because he was “too enthusiastic.”
Because of a lack of pulpits, John did the very thing he hope to God he would not have to do; he preached in the open fields. He would go out, find a stump or small rise, and start to preach. And amazingly, the people came. But they were not like the people that went to the Anglican churches. The people John reached very successfully were the down and outs, the “bad” people, the uneducated, the people that hardly anyone else wanted for their church.
Part of Wesley’s genius was his organization. Wesley not only preached to them, he organized them into classes, bands, and societies. The societies were like a local church. The classes were small groups. The bands were kind of an advanced course. The expectation was that you would be part of the society, and that you would attend the class meetings. In fact, you needed a ticket to attend the societies, which you got for faithful attendance and participation in the classes.
Eventually the Methodists came to America with the colonists, and started classes and societies here. You can read more about all things United Methodist by visiting the official United Methodist website.