First United Methodist Church is situated in the heart of downtown Dallas. Their ministry includes an active arts and music program. The church, built in the second decade of the twentieth-century, has a large nave with balcony seating on three sides of the room. The pulpit-centered chancel has space for a large choir behind the pulpit platform. The console is in the center on a lift, which is lowered during worship or may be raised for musical performances. The console also is
movable for additional flexibility in placement for recitals and performances with choir and orchestra.

FUMC has three adult choirs:
Chancel Choir (Adults) - Sings for the 11:00 Worship Service.
First Men’s Chorus (Sr. High - Adults) - Sings periodically throughout the year.
First Women’s Chorus (Adults) - Sings periodically throughout the year.

Variations Youth Choir (Grades 7-12)
Variations members come from all over the Dallas metropolitan area, representing a variety of public and private schools. They sing in worship services at least once each month, televised Christmas services, and perform a musical variety show to raise money for their annual summer tour.

FUMC has many outstanding handbell choirs to fit a variety of ages and skill levels. In addition to providing music for worship, some of these handbell choirs travel to regional and national handbell conferences.

FUMC has two adult handbell choirs:
Alleluya Ringers - Rings periodically for worship.
Celebration Ringers - Rings periodically for worship.

Our youth handbell choirs play for worship services on a regular basis. They also ring for other special events both inside and outside the church, and have toured independently of Variations on occasion.
Carillon Ringers (Grades 10-12)
Tower Ringers (Grades 7-9)

First Church has many ongoing children’s programs including a graded choir program for children Kindergarten through Sixth Grade, and two handbell choirs for children in 4th - 6th Grades.
Counterpoint Choir (Grades 4 - 6)
Cantate Choir (Grades 2 & 3)
Carol Choir (Grades K&1)
Orff Class (Grades 2 & 3)

Handbell Choirs
First Church offers two handbell choirs for older elementary children. These choirs ring for worship several times each year.
Steeple Ringers (Grades 4 - 6)
Cymbala Ringers (Grades 4 - 6)

At First United Methodist Church of Dallas we are very excited about the new pipe organ which has been installed in our newly renovated sanctuary. We are truly excited about the energy, vitality and beauty that this instrument brings to our worship services and to our Music and Arts Ministries.

The organ speaks directly into the nave from the organ loft
that is located above and behind the choir. A new Gothic-style façade was designed to replace a plaster grille and façade pipes from the previous instrument. The organ is based upon the sixteen-foot principal chorus of the Great division and includes a significant number of eight-foot stops giving it a warm, full sound. All of the pipework and mechanism of Opus 3828 is new with the exception of thirty-two pipes of the very large-scale Open Flute 16’ stop in the pedal division. The pipes of this impressive stop date to the church’s 1928 Pilcher
organ and have been retained for their robust bass sound, which provides a sturdy foundation for the full ensemble of the organ.

The Chancel Choir has several CDs and cassette tapes of past performances available for purchase. Visit our web site for more information or contact our church office. Also on our web site, live video of our worship service, along with video and audio archives of our worship services.