In 1823, South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was involved in missionary work in Georgia. The conference sent a missionary to serve a group of people nestled between Gwinnett and Walton Counties, which established the church’s first congregation. Beginning as New Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, the congregation has changed names many times over the decades including Loganville Methodist Episcopal Church South, Loganville Methodist Church and Loganville United Methodist Church.
In the early 1900s, Evangelist Sam Jones was inspired to build the granite building Loganville First UMC meets in today. Partitions in the sanctuary formed the first meeting rooms for Sunday school classes, and the church was used by multiple congregations in the area before appointing a pastor to serve the Loganville Charge alone in 1968. Loganville First United Methodist Church became known as it is today through the Charge Conference action in 1971.
Before becoming a full time church, the congregations meeting in the building added an education and fellowship hall. As growth continued, the church built a second education and fellowship hall, office space, additional classrooms and eventually the multipurpose Family Life Center with a commercial kitchen and more meeting rooms. This expansion allowed the sanctuary to be used without partitions as originally intended.
The bicentennial celebration in 2006 ushered extensive renovations to the sanctuary including the addition of the Carillon bell system with hourly chimes programmed to play digital hymns on the hour and stained glass windows on the belfry with timed backlighting.
During its nearly 200 years of ministry, more than one hundred pastors have served the people of Loganville through this church. This long and proud heritage is certainly a “great cloud of witnesses” as Loganville First UMC expands ministries and services within the community and beyond, reaching to the world.