Community Corner
Zoar UMC Celebrates 200 Years
Snellville congregation comes together for a bicentennial homecoming.
On Sunday morning hundreds of people attended to celebrate something special that goes all the way back to 1811.
The Methodist church is known for what they would call circuit riders. They were preachers in the early 1800s who would ride a circuit going from town to town preaching at little communities. Sometimes the circuit riders stopped in towns once a month; other times it could be once a year. Some would go as far as to South Carolina, Tennessee and back.
“The Methodist Church got started that way,” said Kelly Brisendine, senior pastor of Zoar.” They would go on a preaching tour. They would just go to a town and start preaching.”
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From this communities would begin a church. They’d have their own Sunday school classes each week, but they’d only have preaching once a month.
Zoar United Methodist Church initially met on Everson Road, about two miles away from the current location. It was in a pine log cabin situated near where a Kroger is today.
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In 1875, George Campbell and John Wesley Clower signed a deed for the land it currently sits upon on Zoar Church Road. Zoar UMC came to the location in 1877.
During the recent Sunday’s service Terry Freeman, a church member, did a presentation dressed and in character as Campbell. From Campbell's point of view, Freeman told stories of the church's beginning, one in particular was about a church member named Charles Puckett. Charles was a slave at that time but many times the preacher would ask him to stand and pray at the end of the service.
“No one had heard anyone pray like him,” Freeman said. “He was a fine man.”
After the civil war he became a free man and continued going to the church until he passed. He is buried in the church cemetery.
Bishop Mike Watson of the North Georgia Conference gave Sunday’s sermon.
“We are celebrating 200 years,” Watson said. “But the Lord is not done with this ministry yet. This ministry is alive and on fire, diverse and energetic. This is the church of Jesus Christ.”
Because the church was celebrating its rich history, the bishop went over the three core rules of the Methodist Church. These rules were set in place by John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, in 1743. They are to:
- Do no harm
- Do good
- Attend to the ordinances of God
After the service the congregation lined up outside the front of the church for pictures, and then they celebrated with lunch afterward.
The church has a history book called “Story of Zoar.” The original was written in 1974 by Dr. Nathaniel G. Long. Freeman added to it making it a bicentennial edition just released this year. It will be available on e-book at Barnes and Noble within the next week.
Today the church has a traditional service at 8 a.m. and a contemporary service at 11 a.m. on Sundays. They also offer various Sunday schools and bible studies, as well as outreach ministries.
One of their upcoming events is their annual Fall Festival. It will be held on Sunday, October 30, and it begins about 5 p.m. The church ask that the public donate $5 to help cover costs.
“Our motto is 200 years serving God and community, and we have served for 200 years, but we hope to only see that as the beginning,” said Brisendine, the church's senior pastor. “We are also looking forward to serving our community in the name of Christ for the next 200 years."
Visit Zoar’s website at www.zoarumc.org
