Lewisburg United Methodist Church
Lewisburg United Methodist which is now located at 3147 US Route 40 East, was formed by the merger of Calvary United Methodist Church and Memorial United Methodist Church. Memorial United Methodist Church began as an Evangelical United Brethren Church. And Calvary United Methodist Church began as Lewisburg Methodist Church.
In May of 1968, the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church. This merger resulted in two United Methodist churches in Lewisburg; Memorial UMC and Calvary UMC. Over the next 30 years, these two churches had many periods of time where they shared pastoral and musical resources.
In 1999, Rev. Michael Pratt was appointed to serve Calvary UMC as a student pastor. In 2000 upon his graduation, he was given a two- church appointment which added Memorial UMC to his appointment. Over the following year, Rev. Pratt led these two congregations in visioning the future for the United Methodist Church(s) in Lewisburg. We looked at what we wanted to be doing to bring others to Christ. As the two congregations looked to the future and envisioned where we wanted to make an impact, the decision for merger became apparent.
In the late summer of 2001, each church held its own Church Charge Conference where the merger vote was held. These Charge Conferences were overseen by Rev. Joyce Fry, the District Superintendent of the North Dayton District of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. Once affirmative votes occurred at each of the churches, the merger process began. On Sunday, Dec 2, 2001 the new Lewisburg UMC held its first service at the prior Calvary UMC building. The next few months were a busy time as these two congregations came together to become a new family of God.
The original plan during the merger was to worship at the prior Calvary building only until a new church could be built. The search for a building location ended when Janice Harmen gave the generous donation of the current property. Once the location was determined, a building team was identified to assist in the design and decisions of building the new church.
On Sept 4, 2005 Lewisburg UMC moved into its new home. At the closing of our last service at the old church, the cross wall was removed from the wall and paraded out of the building. The next Sunday, this same cross was paraded into the new building and hung on the wall. This symbolization of our congregation’s transition while staying focused on Christ was very moving for those present.
In the past 12 years since moving into the new building, Lewisburg UMC has been an active participant in many ministries & missions. The ministry that is dearest to many of our congregation is our Belize international mission. This mission has supported the building of homes; providing educational materials for the school, scholarship funding for children to attend high school and many other activities. Many of our congregation have made the physical journey to Belize and most have made the spiritual journey.
At this time, Lewisburg UMC has had several pastors serving our congregation. Serving as our senior pastor; Michael Pratt, Roy Mitchell, Dan Gildner, Richard Hiltibran and Don Trumball. And serving as associate pastor; Seth Schlotterbeck & Jeff Ginter.
While Lewisburg UMC is fairly young within the Lewisburg Community, it is built on the many years of rich history of its parent churches. Our foundation of faith will allow us of continue to support our community for years to come.