The official membership count is 58, but active membership stands at 22. There used to be a foreign-exchange student who played the organ, but the congregation has been singing a cappella since she went back to Poland. It's really been a struggle to keep going. Until last week, church members feared they might lose their pastor. But they won a reprieve Thursday on learning that local Methodist administrators will continue assigning them a part-time minister for another year.
Demographic change accounts for most of the drop-off.
The area's African-Americans seem to prefer the predominantly black congregations nearby, politely declining invitations to join Wheatland. And a few years back, a disastrous rift occurred when a new pastor tried to introduce a nontraditional style of worship - an odd fit for the historic church, and one that drove dozens of the remaining members away. The church's only income is from member donations, weddings and rent that the private school pays for use of the church-owned school building. There was a little unexpected manna a few years back, Hudson said, when a television production company used the church to shoot a TV movie. Members are in the process of selling off a church-owned parsonage in suburban Duncanville, to pay off their debt for a new roof on the school building.