First Methodist Church Anahuac

09/06/2026

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Communion Sunday
"Be in Debt to No One, but Indebted to Everyone"

08/23/2026

August 23, 2026
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
God's "Young Riders!"

08/18/2026

Some minor improvements to freshen the place up. Thanks Kevin Boyer.

08/16/2026

August 16, 2026
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
"Care of the Called"

08/16/2026

💦☀️ Back to School Bash for our middle & high school youth group! A waterslide & hamburgers 🍔 were perfect for a hot August afternoon! 💦☀️

08/15/2026

08/09/2026

8/9/2026
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
"So, the Church is ______! Right?

07/30/2026

Too funny

Falling asleep during a long sermon once came with a rude surprise. In some English churches, an official known as a “sluggard-waker” watched the congregation for anyone nodding off. The role was often handled by the parish clerk, who quietly moved through the aisles during the service.

Sluggard-wakers carried long wooden staffs. Some had a solid k**b or fork for giving male worshippers a sharp tap, while the other end had a fox’s tail that was used to tickle sleeping women awake. The same official sometimes worked as a “dog-whipper,” keeping animals from disrupting the service.

Old church accounts show that the unusual job really existed. In 1740, a church in Barton-on-Humber recorded paying a man named Brocklebank two shillings for “waking sleepers.” At Castleton, a sluggard-waker received ten shillings for performing the same duty in 1722.