The History of Trinity United Methodist Church
Plymouth, IN
Trinity Church began in 1867, first meeting in a school at the intersection of Nutmeg and 11B roads. The first church building was dedicated in 1874. That building was moved into Plymouth and still stands on Pearl Street, a couple of blocks west of our present location.
Our congregation outgrew the little building and constructed a brick church in 1894, which still stands two blocks south of our present structure on Michigan Street. The conference record indicates that the annual conference met there in both 1894 and 1895. We kept growing and eventually sold that building to our Methodist cousins, the Wesleyan Church.
We moved to our present location in 1926, the sanctuary section was constructed for $43,000. The education section was added in 1959. The annual conference also met here in our new building a couple of times in the 1940’s, apparently because we not only had the space, but we had an outstanding pipe organ, which was installed in 1946.
The United Brethren Church was formed in 1800 with Phillip William Otterbein as the first bishop. Jacob Albright became the first bishop in 1807 of the Evangelical Association. These two churches worked side-by-side for a hundred years among the German settlers, and spread westward side-by-side from Pennsylvania, to Ohio, and into Indiana, and on west. Their leaders explored various methods of cooperation and even full denominational union throughout the entire 19th century and into the 20th century. Finally the UB and the Evangelical Churches merged in 1946. Throughout this same period of time, the Methodist side of the church family carried on endless discussions of re-uniting their churches. That day finally came nearly 100 years after the break, in 1939, as the Methodist Evangelical Church, the MEC South, and the Methodist Protestant Church, united. Finally, in 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church united to form the present United Methodist Church.
All of our predecessor churches had their roots in European churches which had bishops. However, the spirit of colonial America raised much opposition to this traditional form of church government. Today, of course, our conferences are half clergy and half laity.
Our predecessor churches, along with most other Protestant churches, launched world missions in the second half of the 19th century in the decades after the Civil War. In many congregations it was the women who led the movement. The Women’s Foreign Mission Society, the Women’s Home Missionary Society, and the Ladies Aid, all worked to support missions around the world, across the country, and in the local community. Trinity can be proud that we still support missions today that were started by the UBC in that era including Redbird Mission in Kentucky, McCurdy Mission in New Mexico, Broadway Christian Parish in South Bend, and Operation Classroom in Africa.
One of the most critical issues facing the church today is evangelism; not only for our UMC, but for all American churches. We are failing to reach the next generation. We are failing to reach those outside the church who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. We persist in the notion that if we just open the doors, people will come in. We maintain sentimental attitudes about evangelism rooted in the frontier church which conducted camp meetings and revivals. The next generation of Christians will be won to Christ, not because we preach at them, but because we listen to them and help them discover how Christ meets them in terms of their unique spiritual needs. Trinity has made the decision to set reaching young adults and young families as our goal for the next few years.
God has been good to his United Methodist children over the last two centuries. God has used our Methodist, Evangelical, and United Brethren forebears to reach millions of people for Christ. Trinity UMC has the confidence that God will continue to grant the children of Wesley and Otterbein that same Spirit in the years that lie ahead. We believe that God has a mission for Trinity in the Plymouth community and that God will bless our effort with the power of the Holy Spirit.