UPCOMING EVENTS
"And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."
Acts 2:42
Sunday Supper
First Sunday Each Month: An Old-fashioned Potluck Dinner
125th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
CHANGE OF DATE!!
Bonita will celebrate our 125th anniversary on October 25, & 26.
Contact info@bonitamethodist.church for more information.
OUR HISTORY
Bonita Methodist Church can trace its earliest history to the late 1800’s when farms and pasture land dotted the landscape of what would later be called Central Heights. The 1895 church records state Adkin Corley represented the Red Oak Church at the Quarterly Conference meeting at Pine Grove, a gathering of the San Augustine District of the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
Meeting in the Red Oak School, the group was served monthly by a traveling circuit rider preacher. Sunday school and worship services were conducted by the men leaders on other Sundays. Children sat upon pallets on the floor and most men sat separated from the women in the “Amen Corner”.
A pivotal point in church history came when Adkin Corley married Sarah Marshall Campbell, the granddaughter of Reverend Clemens Smith Means, who pastored Rock Springs Presbyterian Church for 31 years. The Corley and Campbell families were joined by others in planning the first church building. November 16, 1900, Adkin’s son Roe, having been given 78 acres of family land, deeded two acres to built the church. Upon completion of the one room structure in 1901, Adkin Corley suggested the church be called Bonita because it was such a pretty place.
The 1925, consolidation of the Mahl and Hickory Flats schools became the Central Heights School System, the community we know today. Bonita constructed a second building next to the new school. Still in use today, it houses the 35-year-old Bonita After School Program, a vision of Reverend Lynn Settlemyre (1989-1995) serving children of the community.
The growing church added the present sanctuary in 1951 and bricked it in 1973. Ground was broken for the “Christian Life Center” in 1993 which was dedicated February 15, 1998. A note burning ceremony was held September 27, 1998.
Bonita, in the heart of the Central Heights community, continues to thrive. In 2023, Bonita United Methodist Church disaffiliated with the United Methodist church and joined the Global Methodist Church (GMC). Members felt they needed to continue in the Wesleyan tradition. They were led by the Reverend Richard Anderson (2013-2022) and are currently served by the Reverend Brad McKenzie, an elder in the GMC.
As a community of faith, serving God and others, Bonita Global Methodist Church continues to be a vital part of the Central Heights community. Its witness extends into all of Nacogdoches County and far beyond.