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WELCOME!Acworth UMC invites you to join a faith community begun over 160 years ago. Many have gone before us in faith. Now is our time to take up the yoke of Jesus Christ and offer his love to current and future generations.
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Beginnings 1858-1905
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The church, formerly called Acworth Methodist Episcopal Church South, was started in 1858 by South Carolina settlers.
Constructed of timber hauled by night from Burnt Hickory Ridge, it stood at the corner of Dixie Avenue and Lombardy Street. The church building served as a hospital during Sherman's march to Atlanta. Sherman was said to have no compunction about setting the torch to church buildings in his path. He gave orders to spare Acworth Methodist Church not because it was ministering to the wounded, but because the Masonic Lodge Hall was located on the second floor. When Sherman set off for Atlanta, Acworth Methodist was the only church left standing in the town. The foundation of the building was on the receiving end of a cannonball strike, leaving a large hole which was never repaired. When the building was finally razed for new construction, bulldozers turned up human bones, uniform buttons and other artifacts which attested to the fact that some of those who suffered death in the Civil War were buried right on the grounds. The bricks from the old building were ground up and used to fill in the site for the new building. |
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Growing Strong
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Discovering the Hill of the Lord
1958-1967
In the early 1950s plans to relocate or acquire adjacent property for an addition began to evolve as the age of the automobile provided congregants from a larger area, but no parking to accomodate them. Credit is given to Mrs. Ray Harrison as being the first to think of the present site as suitable for a new church. On May 23, 1957, the 85th Congress approved the sale of 7.4 acres of Army Corps of Engineer owned land situated high above Lake Acworth with a commanding a view of Allatoona Lake.
On the present site, named "The Hill of the Lord" by WP Sprayberry, the largest church building in the city was constructed.
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The first building on the current site was a sanctuary at one end of what is now known as Building C, the Education building. This was used as a temporary sanctuary until Building B (today's McClure Hall) was built in the 1960s. Today it houses conference rooms and offices.
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In the mid-1960s, the Chapel of Prayer was constructed on the shores of Lake Acworth. This charming place of worship was renovated in the mid 2010s and is still used by the church today.
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Making a Home On the Hill
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Not long after the Chapel of Prayer was dedicated, it became obvious that Acworth UMC needed more space. In 1967, today's Building B, or McClure Hall, was built as the new sanctuary. |
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In 2015, a massive renovation transformed the space into a beautiful multipurpose worship and meeting area. McClure Hall is named in honor of Charlotte & Fannie B. McClure, lifelong members of the church and prominent area school teachers.
Not long after the new sanctuary was constructed, Building D, known as the Family Life Center was built.
Making Disciples For the Transformation of the World
1996-Today
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Ground was broken on today's sanctuary, Building A, on September 18, 1994. Construction delays occurred due to rainy weather and a steel shortage as Atlanta prepared for the 1996 Olympics. On December 10, 1995, members toured the new building and held a moving first worship service at 6pm in the unheated and unfinished sanctuary to praise the Lord and to ask God's blessings on this house of worship.
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Pastors of Acworth United Methodist Church
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1861 Andrew J. Deavors
1868 William J. Scott 1871 James R. Mayson 1873 William A. Simmons 1874 TSL Harwell 1876 WR Foote 1877 Miles W. Arnold 1878 Joseph J. Singleton 1880 David J. Weems 1881 William J. Scott 1882 HM Quillian 1884 OC Simmons 1886 QL Qoorwn 1888 WW Oslin 1889 JM Owens 1892 WT Caldwell 1894 HL Edmondson 1895 MD Smith 1897 EH Wood |
1899 WA Simmons
1903 WA Farris 1904 Oscar L. Kelley 1906 WG Crawley 1909 AC Cantrell 1910 WD Parrish 1911 George W. Barrett 1913 EA Ware 1915 JR Speer 1916 SH Dimon 1919 Frank E. Jenkins 1920 CF Hughes 1923 Harvey C. Holland Sr. 1927 William Greenway 1927 JW Lee 1930 Walter Millican 1933 AG Shankle 1935 R. Parks Segars 1938 Charles L. Allen |
1940 JM Guest
1943 Barrett Lee Barton 1945 GB Henderson 1948 Rev. Henry Oscar Green Jr. 1951 Charles D. Read 1954 Rev. Lewis Cass Davis Jr. 1958 Hunter J. Bassett 1960 Rev. Willie Mack Tribble Jr. 1966 Rev. Rudy Rich Baker Jr. 1970 Rev. Nathaniel Harrison Long 1975 Rev. Roy Allen Green Jr. 1977 Rev. Charles Douglas Brown 1979 Rev.James Hughes Lowry Jr. 1991 Rev. Dr. Terry Eugene Walton 1995 Rev. Max Carter Caylor 1997 Rev. Dr. Medwin Thomas Roach 2005 Rev. Dr. Mike Lee Cash 2008 Rev. Brian Thomas Butler 2011 Rev. James Ray Gwin |