175 YEARS & COUNTING

Surely it was not all that long ago that members of First United Methodist Church carried on foot an old rugged, wooden cross the one and a half miles from their former church building at Creek Avenue and Wheeler Avenue to the congregation’s new home at 2100 E. McGee Drive.

But time, as fleeting as it is with each passing day, has a way of distorting our recollections.

Because “not all that long ago” has actually been almost 20 years.

Such is the most recent of the significant occasions in the 175-year life of the church, believed to be the oldest of any in Sequoyah County.

“We walked from what is now Bethel Baptist, there on Wheeler, down Creek [then] across the street. At that point in time, we carried all of our altar elements and the flags, and walked straight into this building into a sanctuary — which is not the sanctuary anymore, it’s our fellowship hall — and had our first service,” recalls lay leader Debbie Bartel of the congregation’s Dec. 4, 2005, arrival at the new building.

Now beginning its 176th year, First United Methodist Church is looking to the future with optimism and excitement.

“Our mission is to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world,” Bartel says. “I think there’s excitement in this church looking to the future. And I think the fact that we participate in strategic planning has just raised that excitement for everybody. We just can’t wait to see what God has in store for us to do. It’s hard for us to be still.”

Bartel says the strategic planning activity — which involves about 60 congregation members — will also help the church realize “some opportunities for furthering ministry in our community. That’s the hope and excitement of our congregation right now, the fact that we’re in the midst of a strategic planning process to cast the vision for the next 25 to 50 to 100 years.”

While First United Methodist Church is looking forward to a hopeful future, church members point with pride to the church’s lineage, beginnings that can be traced to 1848.

“Nowhere is an exact date identified,” says Larry Oliver, a history buff, longtime Methodist and member of the Sallisaw congregation. “This all started before it was a state, before it was a county, before it was Sallisaw.”

The First United Methodist Church of Sallisaw has a long and varied history. Its roots can be traced back to the late 1830s when circuit riding ministers served several Indian tribes, including the Cherokees, who had recently been uprooted from Georgia and other Southern states. These circuit riders, who held no definite assignment, performed sacraments and held services whenever and wherever they could in the area, often times in a brush arbor.

“I’m really proud of that heritage and my connection with the Methodist church,” says Oliver, who learned about brush arbor meetings from his grandfather, who was a Baptist minister.

“We’ve survived 175 years, and are still going,” observes Anne Bottorff, who is incoming chair for the church’s administrative council.

Reliving history

While claiming a heritage dating to the 1830s would increase FUMC’s history to 185 years, an 1848 beginning is widely accepted and heralded in Sequoyah County. This “Salusaw” circuit, which was then part of the Cherokee District, continued until 1892, then became part of the Muskogee District in 1901. By that time, the community name had changed to Sallisaw, following establishment of a post office in 1879 and incorporation of the town in 1888.

About 1902, a new Methodist Episcopal Church South was erected downtown at Elm Street at Choctaw Avenue. Fire claimed that building. ARCHIVAL PHOTO

As the community grew, so did the need for a building to house the growing Sunday school. The initial building constructed in 1888 was lost to fire before being rebuilt in 1889. Then about 1902, a new Methodist Episcopal Church South was erected downtown at Elm Street at Choctaw Avenue, but fire also claimed that building. From 1924 to 1930, services were held in various buildings. Then in the early 1930s, the corner of Wheeler and Creek became the home of the Methodist church.

In 1939, three Methodist churches — Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant and Methodist Episcopal South — came together to form the Methodist Church, a union that ended splits in the church that had come about over the slavery issue before the Civil War.

It was not until 1968 that the church became the First United Methodist Church following the inclusion of the United Brethren.

By 1971, the church building expanded to provide a kitchen, fellowship hall, new classrooms, chapel and administrative offices, followed by a remodel of the sanctuary.

In the late 1990s, communities and churches began to plan for the new millennium. As it has done currently, First United Methodist Church formed a strategic planning committee in 1997 to consider the possibility of building a new church or perhaps adding onto the existing facility. In 1999, the committee recommended building a new church.

“We had a strategic committee that we formed to see if [building a new church] was even a possibility,” Bottorff recalls. “We needed to build a bigger place for the future. The building that we were in was not being able to be added to, and it had a lot of old things that could not be resurrected. Then we had land that was donated by a member of our congregation (Gilbert and Reba Green). We brought with us the stained glass from the old church along with anything that would keep the history of the church.” The four stained glass windows were a hallmark of the old church, and depict stages in Jesus’ life, from His birth to His crucifixion.

Construction of the new church began in January 2005, with the first services in the new building held before the end of the year. A consecration service was held on Jan. 8, 2006.

Then in August 2017, the church broke ground for its current 7,000-square-foot sanctuary, which was the realization of what Rev. Al Potts called a “bold move” by the congregation — a commitment to only build debt free so as not to sacrifice the church’s mission and ministry by saddling future generations with heavy debt. “A very large initial gift sparked a wave of generosity that swept through the congregation,” Potts said at the time. Within a few months, a half million dollars in current loans were retired, and more than a million dollars burgeoned the building fund.

“It was quite an accomplishment. It allowed us to have more programs,” Bottorff says of the building debt-free commitment.

Church members and church leaders affixed their signatures to a metal I-beam during construction, which was then lifted into place and serves as the main girder for the sanctuary.

As the skeleton of the sanctuary was pieced together, church members and church leaders affixed their signatures to a metal I-beam, which was then lifted into place and serves as the main girder for the sanctuary.

Present and future

Throughout its history, First United Methodist Church has proudly been recognized as a beacon for the community, supporting numerous civic activities, oftentimes without fanfare.

Bartel says the church “has been very active over the years, and doing things people don’t even know.”

A garden with a cross greets members and visitors to the church.

Youth director Natalie Johnson concurs.

“Every time we turn around, we hear about someone within our church that’s doing something to help people. We’ve never seen a finer group of people in a church,” Johnson says.

Community groups that have long met at the church include Alcoholics Anonymous, Boy Scouts of America and Cub Scouts, and included in the church’s outreach to the community is a free pancake breakfast open to the community on the last Saturday of each month.

Each Sunday at 10 a.m., the church offers a blended worship service “with contemporary music, some hymns, but still some of the traditional tenets of Methodism, which is the responsive readings and the Apostles’ Creed,” longtime member Janie Hensley explains.

Rev. James Hollifield points out, “Pastors are no more than catalysts drawing together the laity’s hearts seeking Christ and the flow of the Holy Spirit as Jesus calls us into service. Churches live or die, become great or not, by the quality and commitment to Christ of the laity.”

Refusing to rest on its considerable theological laurels, First United Methodist Church is “kicking off a new women’s group that is open to women in the church, but also in the community, to kind of focus on the needs of women,” Botorff reveals.

Citing ministries that are not uncommon in many churches, such as weekly youth meetings, Hensley foresees expanded spiritual opportunities to buttress the church’s ecumenical endeavors.

“Those are some of the things that would be constants that have always been here with this church,” she says of ecclesiastical practices. “We are excited about where those ministries that have always been here will continue to grow and affect our community, and let us take the light of Christ out into our community.”

While 2023 is the 175-year anniversary for First United Methodist Church, a busy, activities-packed remainder of the year will undoubtedly push commemoration ceremonies to 2024.

For those who may be wondering, septaquintaquinquecentennial is the word coined for an anniversary of 175 years.