About Us

Around 1888 to 1889, a group of Methodist ministers began monthly services in the homes of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Hoffman and Mr. and Mrs.Wilhelm Schmale in the Western Washington County community of West Union. The first minister on record to have officially organized a congregation in the Hoffman home was Rev. Abraham Hager of the Milwaukie area. Rev. R.H. Luecke continued the services during the 1890s; and the attendance apparently grew, because the congregation needed to move from the Hoffman home to the Schultz Church, a Free Methodist church, that was located across the street.

In the years of 1893 to 1896, attendance increased dramatically under the ministry of Rev. J.W. Beckley. It became clear that the growing congregation -- officially incorporated on March 25, 1895 as German Methodist Episcopal Church -- needed its own building; and so land was purchased from Mr. John Rothschberger; and the construction began on the church structure that still stands today.

But there's one thing they wouldn't have been surprised to see in this rapidly changing community -- the church building still standing in the same spot over 100 years later. Nor would they have been surprised to still hear the same eternal, life-changing message being proclaimed that first motivated them. They would have fully expected to see such things, because the same Lord Jesus Christ whose love first inspired them is just as active today as then; and because the same message of salvation through faith in Him that they proclaimed is just as relevant and life-changing in our world as it was in theirs.