Greenfield United Methodist to celebrate 60 years of current building

GREENFIELD — Members, leaders and friends of the Greenfield United Methodist Church will celebrate the good feeling of reaching 60 years of being a church in its current building Sunday, Aug. 29.

The building, located at 108 SW 5th Street, near the west end of West Iowa Street, opened in 1961. The congregation’s current pastor is Melinda Stonebraker.

Past and future

According to Stonebraker, a lead theme throughout the celebration Sunday will be the idea of “past and present.” Those from the past will be present — former pastors, former members, and some of the eldest members of the congregation — but those of the next generation will also play a part in the day.

Past

Iola Lovely, who now resides in Winterset with her daughter, was at that first service in the new GUMC facility.

Lovely was featured after her 100th birthday Nov. 5 in this newspaper. She joined the church in April 1935 after her family moved to Greenfield from the Pitzer vicinity in western Madison County. She began volunteering as the one who made the bulletins each week, then later, she became the permanent church secretary. She was serving in that role when the new church building opened and they moved from their former location at the corner of SE 2nd and Jackson Streets, where the post office is now.

Lovely noted that the old church had steps to enter and steps to go downstairs to the fellowship hall. Unlike the new church, there was seating on two levels in the sanctuary, however she’s almost sure the new church holds more people. When it was built, it was said to hold 300.

“When we moved into the new church, I remember where I sat and everything. We had a full house, that’s for sure. We had a building committee that got together and I think we built a good church,” Lovely said. “[An advantage to the new building] was no steps and everything was on the one floor. There’s a nice kitchen and a nice fellowship hall we can use as overflow for people to sit there. There were many advantages to moving from the old church. We were able to get it paid off in a short amount of time.”

Over the years, Lovely said it has been enjoyable and enriching to be a part of various groups, though attendance, membership and participation have dropped off through the years. A 1951 womens society booklet she found showed 300 women belonging.

“Of course, in those days not many women worked away from the home,” Lovely said. “The church and a local club were their contacts with their neighbors. It’s changed a lot.”

Future

A group of five of the church’s youth group members of varying ages, including Leah Stonebraker, Mallory Russell, Gavin Shoemaker, Kaiden Shoemaker and Hope Kading, met with the newspaper to talk about their role as the next generation of the church, no matter where they end up in life, say, 60 years from now.

When asked about memories of growing up attending church at GUMC, some spoke of the lessons learned and the fun had in Sunday School. Others spoke of the impact going on mission trips has had on their worldview. Others, like Mallory Russell, spoke of the “kindness spread everywhere” among those there.

Gavin Shoemaker is one who spoke of the impact mission trips have had on him.

“It encourages me to come back and keep learning about God, and spread His word to other people,” Shoemaker said.

Leah Stonebraker, who will be an eighth-grader, said that while she has only lived here for a short time, she has grown to love her friends at school and the church.

Kaiden Shoemaker, who also recently went on a missions trip, said that the most notable part of it for him was helping the people his group encountered along the way.

“The main part of it is the people and how they’ve impacted me in both good and bad ways,” she said. “I’m glad we came here. I feel like I have a better life here. I feel like when I moved here, I felt a lot of positive energy.”

Kaiden Shoemaker, who also recently went on a missions trip, said that the most notable part of it for him was helping the people his group encountered along the way.

Kading said she’s excited to make connections Sunday of those from previous generations in the church and how that can impact her generation going forward.

“I think it will be really interesting. There are a lot of people who have been in this church since near the start, so seeing memories they have, and how they’ve grown up in the church, is pretty cool to reflect on,” Kading said.

Celebration

The 60th anniversary celebration will include worship at 10 a.m. with a party from 3 to 5 p.m. Part of the celebration will be a car show, pie and ice cream social, a fashion display, photo gallery, guided tours of the building, a hymn, sing and more. There will be a special presentation with special greetings and interviews on the front lawn at 4 p.m.

The worship service will include a prayer of rededication and some of the same hymns from the dedication service in 1961.

“I think it’s important to look back on what God has done and look forward to what God is going,” Stonebraker said. “It’s to give thanks and to note [60 years]. I’m excited to meet people who will be here. I think it will be fun and a good reminder that God has done work here but isn’t done and we’re not done.”