Written by Ben Cox – Often used as a landmark for directions in Early, “the church with big parking lot,” or “right in front of where Early Pioneer Days is held,” and so on, Early Church of Christ is often seen while driving past on the way somewhere. Its pastor and congregation consider the church a destination of its own.
Pastor James Glasscock has been in the pulpit of Early Church of Christ for six years this October and says his congregation is so much like family, “sometimes we have to wait for them to stop visiting so we can start the service!”
Raised in the church, Glasscock says a talk given by a missionary during a summer youth event spurred him into action. “A missionary who was at the Berlin Wall when it fell was talking about taking some students there, and about seven or eight thousand teenagers gave over $30,000 from their pockets to send bibles to East Germany.”
Glasscock enrolled in a program for mission work for young adults after realizing he was headed down the wrong path. “I don’t want to sound like George Costanza, but I wanted to be an architect! (laughs) I was working on a project, looked around the room and all of a sudden I realized I was in the wrong place. This isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing.” And he knew in that moment that mission work was where he was supposed to be.
Apprenticing as a missionary starting not in East Germany but New York, “which is almost as foreign to a kid from San Angelo,” Glasscock spent a year and a half in the North East before returning to Texas for seminary. His mission work lead him to various points in Europe, including Russia where he helped plant a church that is still thriving to this day, and is even planting churches itself.
Glasscock says the big changes in his life were almost never planned and often times didn’t look like it was a good idea on the surface. “We moved to Russia in January, and you don’t move to Russia in January. We moved (back) to New York when my wife was seven months pregnant, and you don’t do that either!”
The colorful shawls seen in the sanctuary are made by a group of ladies at the church, and are distributed across the area
Glasscock calls the moments that appeared crazy “God Things” because He worked in ways that did not make sense until you saw the outcome of the events. “Every move we’ve ever made seems like it’s one of those things where its as much a surprise to us as it is to everybody else.”
The 2011 bus wreck that injured several ACU students near Medina included Glasscock’s father in law. “He and my mother in law were both on the bus and she had some pretty serious lasting injuries. She was in a coma for a few weeks, and the day she went to hospice she woke up and started asking about people.”
The most surprising part of her recovery was that while she was not going to hospice to get well, but was so alert on arrival “the people working there thought they had the wrong patient. The doctor that had been treating her did a test over the phone and said he couldn’t explain it, it had to be a God Thing.”
Another accident caused Glasscock to find his way to the pulpit of Early Church of Christ, during his time visiting family after the bus crash. “The interim preacher here was killed in a motorcycle accident and they needed somebody to fill in a Sunday, so I filled in one Sunday before going back (to New York) and the rest is history.”
After being asked by his wife’s dad to help him care for her mother, the family packed up and came back to Texas. Glasscock says “it was a hard decision, but I decided that The Great Commission can be fulfilled anywhere but Honor your Father and Mother sometimes requires a certain location.”
An acoustic church, as Glasscock describes it, Early Church of Christ stays in the Church of Christ tradition of acapella praise and worship much as the first churches did. Glasscock says it is also a very friendly place to worship. “This is not a church where you’re gonna get in and out and nobody’s gonna talk to you. Maybe if you tried really hard, but they kind of pounce on newcomers!”
Church starts at 10 a.m. after coffee and donuts, which Glasscock hopes people will come early for and get to meet and talk with church members. “We really try to not take ourselves too seriously. We take Jesus seriously, but not ourselves.” Children are taught a message at that time as well. Sunday evenings they meet at 5 p.m. and on Wednesdays bible classes start at 6:30.
The church is located at 900 Early Blvd and can be reached through their website, or by calling during the week at 325-643-2504.
