First Methodist Church celebrates 200 years

For 200 years, members of First Methodist Church have been gathering together for church services, meals, holidays, and service projects, often supporting each other through thick and thin.

This Sunday, the church will be celebrating all of those moments and more with a Bicentennial Celebration. The celebration service, which starts at 10 a.m., will be followed by lunch and music on the grounds.

Reverend Vaughn Stafford, the church’s new senior pastor, said the celebration will act as a celebration of both the church’s history and future.

“The bicentennial this Sunday reminds us of the shoulders we stand upon,” Stafford said. “Long before you and I were born, there were faithful people that were representing Christ in the world. And frankly, it also is a great inspiration to those of us who live today.”

For most of the church’s history, FMC was a part of the United Methodist Church, the second largest protestant church in the world. But in March, FMC disaffiliated with the organization.

“We voted not only to disaffiliate but to affiliate with the Global Methodist Church, which is the largest– by far and away– the largest traditional orthodox Wesleyan Methodist movement in the country,” Stafford said.

Despite the change, Safford said he is excited to welcome everyone to come to the church this Sunday for the bicentennial celebration.

Stafford called Sunday’s service a kind of homecoming, since former church members who have moved on to other places have been invited to return for the bicentennial. Stafford said 22 former pastors and interim pastors have been invited to participate in the service, either virtually or in person.

Around the service, Stafford said, visitors and church members will be invited to walk through the church’s building to see displays of the building’s history as a way to “remember God’s story and God’s impact on our story.”

Abby Davis has been a member of FMC for 21 years, but became the church’s historian two months ago. Since taking over, she has been preparing displays for the bicentennial celebration, learning new history about the church almost every day.

“A lot of the older members have held onto stuff, and now with this celebration, this milestone, they’re bringing it to ensure that the future generations get to see it,” Davis said.

FMC is lined with cases filled with its history, including the of individual Sunday school classes, community projects and more. All of these are intended to be on display around Sunday’s worship service.

Davis displayed a scale model of a log structure, which depicted one of the first buildings FMC met in during the early 1800s – Franklin Academy. But she said the church quickly outgrew the building and started establishing itself in its own buildings.

“This congregation actually built their first structure in 1830,” Davis said. “It was built where the Jewish temple is now, behind the old Baptist church. They worshiped there and then they built another structure in the same area. And then in 1860, they came (to Main Street).”

Davis said that construction of the Main Street building was interrupted during the Civil War, when the church was used as a hospital.

The second story sanctuary of the building was left without a roof during the war, which would lead congregation members to restore the room in the 1950s. Davis said the sanctuary is almost identical today to how it originally looked.

Behind the sanctuary, four expansions have since been added to the building, Davis added, including one in 1919, one in 1950, one in the 1980s and the final expansion in the 1990s to early 2000s.

Walking from room to room, it is possible to see the church’s history from the different styles of architecture and decor, Davis said. But Davis emphasized that the upcoming Sunday service is a celebration of the congregation, not a location.

“A lot of what I’ve touched on is building history and architectural history, and that kind of thing, but I think the sense of community is tremendous,” Davis said.

Emily Jones has been a member of FMC for 85 years. Five generations of her family have attended the church. She agreed with Davis that the sense of community she feels there is extremely strong, and that the church’s long history deserves to be preserved.

“I just couldn’t imagine not doing everything we can to preserve this church, with the history, just thinking about what our forefathers did to keep it going,” Jones said.

Jones said the church has “always been there for her,” even when she has gone through the loss of family members. On Sunday morning, she is looking forward to sharing the love the church has shown to her, along with the church’s history.

Stafford also said the bicentennial celebration will point the church toward the future, even while congregants remember the past.

“The historicity of the moment is significant,” Stafford said. “What I have been telling people and what I believe with every fiber of my being is that we want to celebrate all that God has done and we want to remember that God is far from done. I’m convinced that the best days of the church are ahead.”