When Dr. Ed Robb, son of a pastor, left the West Texas home of his youth and headed for Asbury College in Kentucky, he wasn’t setting out to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“I was always drawn toward the church and had a, shall I say, spiritual bent and an interest in Scripture,” he says, “but that had not crystallized as a call, nor had I thought of it in those terms. When I graduated college, it was like, ‘What will I do next?’”

By this point, he’d already met the love of his life, Bev, at the college, so they settled into the routine of life in Kentucky as he worked in journalism and public relations for the school. Across the street stood Asbury Seminary.

He transferred to Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas the next fall to complete his training also working as a youth director in a small country church as Bev worked as a teacher.

Eventually, a call from a bishop set his future and the life of The Woodlands Methodist Church in motion.

“It’s that bishop who said, ‘You need to start a church,’” he says. “This wasn’t something I’d sought out.”

The bishop told him they were going to plant one in a new community north of Houston. “He said, ‘There are not many people there now, but someday there will be.’ And I said, ‘Ok.’”

The family moved to The Woodlands in January 1978, and Dr. Robb immediately set about growing the church using what little experience he had.

“I didn’t know anything about how to start a church,” he says. “Nobody told me anything either. I just started knocking on doors. It was very slow growth.”

In September of 1980, the church moved into its first building phase, working on a 10,000 square foot construction on East Panther Creek Drive. Over the years, it would build on that same piece of property five times, the steady growth eventually kicking in and even defying the oil downturn of the early to mid-‘80s.

“We just kept plugging along,” he says, “building the next little building. I was always outreach-oriented, growth-oriented.”

The final sanctuary on that property was built in 1992, but the church was still growing.

Over the years since the move, the current campus has grown by leaps and bounds. Despite the tremendous growth, The Woodlands Methodist Church is still able to provide a sense of home to its congregants.

After 43 years of leadership, Dr. Robb retired as Senior Pastor. He currently serves as Pastor Emeritus in a part-time capacity. His interests are in the areas of generosity, teaching and occasionally preaching on Sunday morning.

Since retiring, Dr. Robb and Bev have a little more time to spend with their three married children and eight grandchildren.