Our History

College Park First United Methodist Church is a missional outpost, community outreach center, and a congregational church with more than 125 years of history in College Park, Georgia.

Our History – The Beginning Our story is one of love, grace, and perseverance, especially in recent history. But our story is much older, and some would say it’s even richer. What’s now, the city of College Park, GA was founded as the city of Manchester in 1891.  The Manchester Methodist Church was organized in September 1894, with 32 charter members.  Reverend JWG Watkins served as the church’s first pastor.  The first church building was constructed in May 1895, at the intersection of Washington Street and East John Wesley Avenue, in an area where the College Park MARTA Station now stands.  In that year the city’s population was 100, with 69 of those 100 belonging to the Manchester Methodist Church.  Interestingly, the church bell from that original building is still ringing, mounted in front of today’s church sanctuary.

The church did not remain in its then location for long.  Apparently, the building was situated on low lying terrain that after any significant rainfall became especially muddy.  In addition, in 1897 the Atlanta and West Point Railroad constructed a new train depot one block to the north, and the church, wanting to be in the center of town, followed suit.  By then the Manchester Methodist Church had become the College Park Methodist Church.

The original church building, only two years old, was disassembled and moved piece by piece to the block that is opposite the depot.  The Reverend Lundy Harris was the church pastor at the time, and while he will not be well remembered, his wife, Corra Harris, made a name for herself as a writer.  She authored the book “A Circuit Rider’s Wife,” a semiauto-graphical novel about the life of an itinerant pastor in the church’s North Georgia Circuit.  In 1951, the book was made into a movie called “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain,” starring future Academy Award winner Susan Heyward and William Lundigan

Our History – Growth and Prosperity

The church and the community prospered in the years leading up to the Depression and beyond.  The current sanctuary was constructed in 1924 when the church was known as the College Park Methodist Episcopal Church South.  Most notable from that construction are the spectacular stained glass window that tell the story of the life of Christ.

The church grew impressively during the 1940’s.  At the start of the decade, membership was 936.  By 1950, it was up to 1,788.  As membership rose in those years, so did the need for new facilities.  In 1947 the church broke ground on a new three-story education building, completed a year later at a cost of $98,000.  A new parsonage, located on Washington Street adjacent the education building, soon followed.  Completed in November, 1949, it would serve as home to the church’s pastors well into the 1980’s.

In 1955, with membership holding steady, the church again added to its facilities, this time expanding the sanctuary to include a transept area and a new choir loft, complete with a Reuter pipe organ.  A magnificent chapel, with stained glass windows containing the images of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, was also part of the project.  Dedication Sunday took place on April 8, 1956, with Dr. W. Earl Strickland preaching.  In 1970 the church expanded its footprint again when a new youth building was constructed.  About the same time, in 1968, the Methodist Church became the United Methodist Church

Our History –

A New Perseverance The 1970’s and 1980’s would not be kind to the church or to the community.  Airport expansion gobbled up entire neighborhoods, including those in the immediate vicinity of the church.  By the time airport construction was complete in 1980, MARTA had already begun work on its south rail line, which would take passengers directly to the airport’s new passenger terminal.  The line passed underground in front of the church, with its construction spanning a two-year period, from 1986 to 1988.  On June 18, 1988, the church conducted a MARTA Survival Celebration with Reverend James Sanders preaching.

When the dust finally settled over airport and MARTA construction, College Park had lost over 10,000 residents.  The 1994 Centennial History tells us that the church began 1993 with 537 members and that by year’s end the number was down to 439.  Worship attendance averaged 177 people

Our History – A New Perspective Over a ten year period that took the church into a new century, it became apparent that the church could not make it on its own.  Membership continued to shrink, and the financial burden became too great.  To offset the numbers, the church became home to a series of schools, including a Montessori school and a Fulton County Charter School called The Main Street Academy.  As a ministry to the community, the church opened its own preschool, The Learning Academy, which also offered child care for infants and toddlers.  The Learning Academy closed in 2020 after 18 much loved years in College Park.

In 2005, the first female was appointed as the church’s senior pastor.  Reverend (now Reverend/Doctor) Beth Sanders served the church from (2005 – 2012), followed by Reverend Vicki Smith (2012 – 2016), Reverend/Doctor Katy Hinman (2016 – 2019), Reverend Jeanette Dickens (2019 – 2022), Dr. Bernice Kirkland (2022 – 2023), and Reverend Kimberlyn Sinkfield, the current pastor.

Today, the size of the church’s congregation is about the same as it was in 1895, around 70 people.  Yet here we are, a testimony to God’s goodness and grace, confident that the years ahead will provide new chapters to the church’s history, chapters that will be as equally compelling as those of the past 125 years.

Thank you for taking an interest in the history of College Park First United Methodist Church! If you want to know more about our recent history, how we have been blessed to meet the challenges of change, or you’d like to be involved in the next chapter of our history, contact us today!