Welcome! We are so glad that you decided to visit us at Friendship United Methodist Church in Clearwater, Florida!
We hope you'll also come to meet us in person soon! Please take your time to explore our website. We have so many things to offer our community, and we hope that you will find something that we can share with YOU! We'll help you get connected, meet new friends and grow in your walk with Christ!
Hope to meet you soon in Worship,
Your Friends at Friendship!
Our Pastor:
Pastor Herbert Lange was born in Lithuania. When he was seven years old his family, three sisters, pregnant mother, and himself stood in a line waiting to be shot. Their father had been killed previously. With death certain and moments away, his mother’s midwife, dropped to her knees and begged for the family to be spared. The baby was due. One of the partisans was moved to mercy and shouted,” Let them go.”
The Lange family escaped Lithuania and finally arrived in Germany, where they lived for twelve years before immigrating to the United States in 1956.
Herbert felt a strong call of the Lord to become a missionary and went to Asbury College where he met Sylvia, “the most beautiful woman on campus.” They were married and then he attended Asbury Theological Seminary.
While attending Seminary he was pastor of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Mackville, Ky.
After graduation in 1965 Herbert, Sylvia and their two children Mark and Monica went to Palau, in the Micronesian Islands, to do missionary work. They spent 14 years there and it was a wonderful growing experience.
After returning to the USA, Pastor Lange served two churches, Interbay and Port Tampa, for three years and then he was assigned to Pinellas Park UMC where he served six years.
From 1988 to 2002 he served the FIRST UMC of Tarpon Springs.
After retirement Sylvia and Pastor Lange went to Lithuania for five years and helped in the young United Methodist Churches there. Now he is the Pastor of Friendship United Methodist Church and loves it here.
Pastor Lange is a former Tri-Athlete, running the IRON MAN four times, and at the age of 59 he finished the DOUBLE IRON MAN. To complete the DOUBLE IRON MAN he had to swim 5 miles, then bike 225 miles and run for 52 miles in less than 37 hours.
We hope you will choose Friendship UMC to become your spiritual home.
