GREENVILLE — According to EUM Church history, three trustees planted the United Brethren Church. On Aug. 22, 1883, a group of nine people took a step of faith and organized a revival. In that revival, 128 men and women accepted a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Those 128 people began meeting in each other’s homes. In 1884, Evangelical Church and United Brethren Church merged and became Evangelical United Brethren Church. Then, in 1885, they broke ground on the building at the Devor Street location. In 1925, the basement and furnace were added; in 1956, the education wing was added and the sanctuary remodeled; 1965, the sanctuary was expanded and a lobby added; and in 1968, EUB and Methodist churches combined and became the Evangelical United Methodist (EUM) Church.
In 1971, the average attendance was 250 and by 1996, average attendance had dropped to 120. At this point, there was only was service being done.
It was in 1997 that church officials began making some significant changes in order to positively impact the future. Changes were made to the worship service, the maintenance and appearance of the building and the organizational structure. In 18 months, worship attendance grew from 120 to 200. In 1998, a contemporary service was added, while a second contemporary service was added in 2001.
In November 2002, attendants outgrew the Devor Street sanctuary at the contemporary services and those services were moved to nearby Memorial Hall. The traditional service remained in the sanctuary at the Devor Street campus. Memorial Hall wasn’t always available to the church on Sunday however, so for a time, they would move the contemporary services back to the Devor Strwet sanctuary. During this time, they also used an alternative location and ran concurrent services at two locations, Devor Street and Third and Walnut.
Attendance continued to grow and, by the end of 2003, attendance was well over 400 people a weekend. In the spring of 2004, the EUM Church family pledged more than $1 million toward construction of a new church facility. In August 2004, the Sater Street property was purchased.
In 2006, a Saturday night service was added at the Devor Street location.
Ground was broken for the new building on Oct. 5, 2008. The first weekend in the new building was Easter 2010. By that time, the attendance had grown to more than 650 people a weekend. There were four worship services all being held at the Sater Street building (a contemporary Saturday night service, a traditional service and two contemporary services on Sunday morning. By the end of 2011, the worhip attendance grew to more than 800, so in September 2015 a fourth contemporary service was added and moved the traditional service back to the downtown campus on Devor.
The church is currently looking to expand its Sater Street building.
Senior pastors of EUM have been the Revs. H.A. Secrest, S.W. McCorkle, G.P Macklin, W.L. Byers, J.W. Kilbourn, E.W. Bowers, W.J. Pruner, W.H Klinefelter, F.G. Grisby, E.C. Petrie J. M. Replogle, G.W. Self, H.F. White, D.R. Wilson. W.M. Van Sickle, S.E. Rasey, Joseph W. Wurtz, George Duckwall, O.O. Arnold, Joseph B. Henry, G.D.Letner, Demi Edwards, Earl W. Toy, John McRoberts, J.W. Spears, William Alvey, Oscar Burdette, Bill Koppert, William C. Lyle Jr. to the present Dr. Jeff Harper.
