First United Methodist Church of Jupiter-Tequesta has called itself the "Church by the Sea" since its earliest days, and on any given Sunday morning the claim still holds. The congregation gathers at 815 East Indiantown Road in Jupiter, one block from the Atlantic Ocean, on a five-acre campus that includes a sanctuary, a fellowship hall, a chapel building, and the Children's Enrichment Center preschool. Located on the north side of Indiantown Road between US Highway 1 and Alternate A1A, the church is an easy landmark for anyone traveling through northern Palm Beach County. The congregation's own invitation says it best: visitors will find "all types of dress during worship from flips flops and coastal casual to dress shirts and ties."
Where Dreams Become Reality: A Sixty-Year Story
The congregation's story opens in 1965, when ten families who had been worshipping at the Juno Beach Methodist Church began looking north for a place closer to their homes. Jim Sparger, Coles Goodner, and Jim Bowman were appointed to scout a location in Jupiter. The first separate services were held in the Vogel Funeral Home, then moved to Salhaven Auditorium, the same property that would later be developed into Jonathan's Landing. By 1966 the church was formally chartered by twenty families.
Two years later the same men began searching for property to build on. The founders were deliberate about their identity: they did not want to be a Tequesta church or a Jupiter church, but rather a "Church by the Sea" for people in both communities. They chose five acres on Indiantown Road, broke ground, and held the first service in the new sanctuary in 1970. The organ for that first worship space was a gift from their sister church in Juno Beach. A fellowship hall followed, and the mortgage on both buildings was burned by 1978.
Growth demanded a larger sanctuary, so in April 1981 a building committee was appointed. That December, ground was broken after nearly half of the financing had been secured. The transition into the new sanctuary is remembered as a processional: the light of Christ was carried from the original sanctuary to a new Christ Candle in the larger space, marking a new era for the people of First UMC Jupiter-Tequesta. Across more than fifty years of ministry, the church has had nine senior pastors, two of them women, and now carries that founding vision into a new season in Jupiter and Tequesta.
Sunday Worship at 9:30
Sunday worship happens once, at 9:30 a.m., in the sanctuary. The order of worship is projected on a screen at the front so that visitors can follow along with responses, prayers, and lyrics. Announcements scroll across the same screen while the organist plays music before the service begins. A meet-and-greet time at the start gives worshippers a chance to stand, wave, and greet their neighbors.
Communion is served on the first Sunday of each month and on special occasions such as Ash Wednesday, the Reenactment of the Last Supper, Easter, and Christmas services. The table is open: anyone is welcome to come forward, including visitors who are not United Methodist, not Christian, or simply walking into a church for the first time. The bread is paired with nonalcoholic juice, and gluten-free wafers are available. If a worshipper cannot come forward, an usher will bring communion to the pew.
For those unable to come to Indiantown Road, services are livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, and a digital order of worship is updated each week. Earpieces for those with hearing assistance are available at the back of the sanctuary in the sound booth.
Children, Youth, and the Church by the Sea Preschool
Children begin worship with their families. The Children's Director calls all the children forward early in the service for a children's moment; afterward, those who wish can move to the Children's Room for Children's Church. Pre-K through 5th grade is welcome there, with singing, games, crafts, and a curriculum designed to deepen a child's love for God and serving others. Children are checked in through an electronic system and signed out directly from the room at the end of the service.
For the youngest members, a nursery for infants and toddlers is staffed by experienced, professional caregivers. All nursery, children's, and youth staff and volunteers complete annual Florida Conference United Methodist Child Protection Policy training, and local and national background screening is required.
Children in 2nd through 5th grade can join the acolyte program, learning the significance of bringing the Light of Christ into the sanctuary. A required safety training begins the process.
JUP Youth, the middle and high school ministry for 6th through 12th graders, meets in the chapel building on the west side of the campus during the 9:30 worship service. The group uses Bible study, games, technology, and conversation to deliver a weekly lesson. On the first Sunday of each month the youth attend the worship service as a group and serve in roles like liturgist, greeter, usher, communion helper, choir, and media shout. Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. are reserved for mid-week JUP Youth meetings in the fellowship hall.
Confirmation is offered as a spring semester for 6th through 12th graders and is built directly on Acts 2:42-47: learning together, fellowship together, eating together, serving and sharing together, and loving God and others together. Each fall the youth participate in a retreat at the Warren Willis Camp and Retreat Center in Fruitland Park, the largest gathering of United Methodist youth in Florida, traveling together by charter bus.
The Children's Enrichment Center, known as CEC, has been a ministry of the church since 1983 and runs a Christ-centered preschool on campus. Classes are offered for two-year-olds, three-year-olds, and four-year-olds, and the preschool's reputation typically means a waiting list, so the church encourages families to register early.
Music Ministries
Music is a long-standing tradition at First UMC Jupiter-Tequesta. Linda Jordan directs the music ministry, which includes both adult and youth choirs. Children's Choir begins right after Sunday worship in the choir room from 10:45 to 11:20 a.m., with the Youth Choir following from 11:20 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Older youth are encouraged to attend the children's time as well, assisting younger singers and earning community service hours along the way.
Each December brings the annual Christmas in Song production, themed "His Name is Jesus." Soprano-alto rehearsals are held on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m., tenor-bass rehearsals the following Wednesday, and full adult rehearsals on Sunday mornings leading up to the mid-December performance. Children and youth rehearse on Sunday mornings as well, and recordings of past seasons are available on the church's YouTube channel.
Small Groups, Adult Ministries, and Counseling
Stephanie Lovell coordinates small groups and adult ministries. A mid-week adult Bible study meets Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the choir room, the same time the youth gather, so families can come for dinner and programming together.
Support groups meet throughout the week as well. GriefShare is offered Tuesday evenings, with additional groups including Al-Anon, Narcotics Anonymous, and an Alzheimer's Support group on other days. WOWs Group meets Wednesday mornings at 10:00 a.m. in the chapel building. Counseling is available through the church, and a prayer chain maintained by email connects members who want to pray with those who are making requests.
Serving Beyond the Campus
First UMC Jupiter-Tequesta's mission work is organized locally, regionally, and internationally.
The Weekend Food Bag ministry packs bags of food on church property each week for chronically hungry local elementary school students. Food is stored and packed at the church and transported each Thursday to local schools for weekend distribution. The program is funded by donations from the church family and the wider Jupiter community.
As one of C.R.O.S. Ministries' (Christians Reaching Out to Society) community food pantries, the church collects non-perishable food in a red wagon in the narthex and delivers it to El Sol for distribution. The congregation also partners with schools: extra bread, pastries, and produce from a nearby Publix is delivered every Monday to Jupiter Elementary. Baked goods from that same bakery are picked up at 8:45 a.m. each Sunday and set out for the congregation after worship.
The Naomi Sewing Circle gathers on Saturday mornings to sew, knit, and quilt for those in need. Handmade clothes go to children, booties and blankets go to neonatal units, and quilted blankets are made for veterans. The Early Response Team is a trained group of volunteers ready to mobilize after disasters, partnering with the Florida Conference United Methodist Church to clean up, repair, and listen.
Regionally, the church has long supported Residing Hope (formerly the Florida United Methodist Children's Home), established in 1908 to provide homes for orphans and now serving children and families in residential, therapeutic, foster, and emergency shelter care. Internationally, the congregation has partnered with Zoe Empowers in Rwanda, a three-year empowerment program for orphans and vulnerable children. The church is currently sponsoring its fourth group, named "Abadahigwa" (Supreme Sure), covering thirty households of one hundred orphans with a projected graduation in December 2028. Two earlier groups have graduated, and a third group, "Twitezimbere," is finishing its program in late 2026.
Local service also reaches into the schools. Youth and adults have worked alongside Jerry Thomas Elementary in recent years, organizing classrooms, spreading mulch, staining benches, and helping with book fairs and other events. Julie Reed, who directs both the preschool and children's ministries, makes Sunlight, Sandals, and Service an easy rhythm for JUP families to step into.
Wesleyan Beliefs and the Way Forward
The church lives inside the Wesleyan tradition and joins the United Methodist Church's broader mission "to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." The congregation summarizes its own faith plainly: "We are followers of Jesus Christ who through the Wesleyan tradition participate in God's saving work in the world." Its vision is short and direct: "Love God. Love People." The core values include loving God with heart, mind, soul, and strength; loving one another as we love ourselves; searching the Scriptures and obeying God's Word; being Christ-centered; welcoming all of God's children with joy and openness; being a response of God's love; and serving the community and the world in tangible and intangible ways, "boldly, joyfully, and courageously."
Beliefs are summarized in the church's own words: belief in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who created the world; in Jesus Christ as fully human and fully divine, whose life, death, and resurrection reconcile the world to God; in the Holy Spirit at work in personal experience and in the Christian community; in the Bible as God's written word revealing God's character; in grace as the undeserved gift of God; in the church as the body of Christ called to live as if God's future had already come; and in the kingdom of God as both a present reality and a future hope, breaking in upon the world with peace, justice, compassion, and hope.
Visiting, Joining, and Getting Connected
All facilities are on ground level, with handicapped parking on both the east and west sides of the campus. Hospitality volunteers staff a coffee table in the narthex before and after worship, and coffee, doughnuts, pastries, and croissants are set out each Sunday morning. Connect Cards in the pew let visitors share prayer requests, update contact information, or signal interest in joining.
Coffee and Conversation with the Pastor is offered on the first Sunday of each month for those curious about membership. The church office can be reached at 561.746.8116 or info@jupitermethodist.org. Office hours are Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Donations can be given online, in the offering boxes at all three sanctuary entrances, by mail, or by text. Using the code WFB directs a gift specifically to the Weekend Food Bag ministry.
Rev. Dr. Susan Gray leads the church as pastor. Kelly Betz directs youth ministry and media, Stephanie Lovell coordinates small groups and missions, Julie Reed directs the CEC preschool and children's ministries, and Linda Jordan directs the music ministry. Together with the congregation, they carry forward the dream of the founders: to be a real church for real people, loved by a very real God, and to take that love out into the community of Jupiter, Tequesta, and the world.