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History of Jerome Church
The history of Jerome Church dates back to 1835
when a “Methodist Class Meeting” was organized in the log house of Henry
Beach. The class was soon attached to the Worthington Circuit and
services were held in a nearby school house.
The congregation grew rapidly and in 1842 the
first church building, constructed of logs, was erected near the old
cemetery at the corner of Jerome and Brock Roads. In 1851, it became a
part of the Dublin Circuit. In 1860, a second building was constructed
at a site on Town Street. About that time, the church became a part of
the Plain City Circuit.
In March of 1891, the construction of the
present sanctuary was completed, with much of the labor and timber being
donated by church members. The dedication of the congregation is
symbolized by a man, named Ashford Shover, who kept fires going in the
church stoves for 41 nights to keep the new plaster from freezing.
In 1955, a small education building was
erected behind the church. It was completely renovated in 1986. A new
parsonage was built at 7762 Brock Road in 1975.
The 150th anniversary of the church
was enthusiastically celebrated in August of 1985, and the 100th
anniversary of the church sanctuary was celebrated in 1991.
A major building project was completed in 1993
and includes a fellowship hall/gymnasium, narthex, kitchen, restrooms
and accessibility ramps for those with limiting physical conditions.
Another building addition, with 12 classrooms, 2 offices and restrooms
was completed in 2001. In addition, a stage was built in the fellowship
hall.
Jerome Church has always been known as an
active church where people care about their neighbors, as well as their
faith. We believe that tradition continues today, and will for many
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Jerome United Methodist
Church celebrates its 175th Anniversary!
We invite you to join us
for the Jerome UMC 175th Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, October 24.
There will be two worship services that day at 8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
A "Church Family" picture will be taken at 10:00 a.m. in front of the
church.
From 3:00 p.m - 6:00 p.m. that afternoon the
celebration will continue at the church with games for adults and
children, music, pony rides, a corn hole tournament, food and a silent
auction. The Jerome Fire Department and members of The Ohio State
University alumni band will be here as well. There will be a Farmer's
Market at the 175th Anniversary. We are in need of pumpkins, gourds,
Indian corn, homemade jellies and jams, fall crafts, candy apples and
cider. There will also be a pie judging and cake decorating contest.
Buckeye Guy will be joining us in the afternoon! He will be one of the
judges at the pie contest along with Jerome Church’s Elvis and Pastor
David Cady! Prizes will be awarded to the winner.
All proceeds from this event will go toward
Ian Burkhart's medical expenses. Ian is a 2009 graduate of Dublin Jerome
High School. He attended Ohio University last year. He was injured in
a diving accident this June and was treated in a hospital in Atlanta for
severe neck injuries, but returned to Dublin Saturday, September 25.
Ian's mother attended one our women's Bible Study a few years ago and
many people in our church including the teens and young adults know Ian.
He is well known in the Dublin Lacrosse Community.
Please call Denise Gorden at 614-873-8851 if
you have questions about this event or would like to donate a silent
auction item. Please call Joel Altafater 614-282-2504 or the church
office if you would like to enter a corn hole tournament team. If you
haven't entered the pie tasting or cake decorating contest call Barb
Keith at 740-881-0853. If anyone would like to donate pumpkins, homemade
jellies or Fall Crafts to the Farmers Market they can call Dawn Stanko
614-336-3708
We hope friends and family of Jerome UMC
who live close and those who have moved away will join us as we
celebrate all things Jerome UMC has done in the past, and to look
forward to what God has planned for the future of Jerome UMC and the
community we serve.
Please pass on this invitation to friends and
neighbors. Updates can be found on our Jerome Church facebook page.
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COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
ABOUT THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
What is the structure of the United Methodist
Church?
There are over 40,000 United Methodist Churches
scattered all over the United States. The UMC is made up of local
churches, districts, and conferences. The local churches are organized
geographically into entities called “conferences.” Each conference is
then split up into “districts.” There are eight districts in the West
Ohio Conference. Jerome United Methodist Church is in the Capitol Area
North District of the West Ohio Conference.
How does Jerome get its pastors?
United Methodist pastors are “itinerant,” meaning
they are appointed by the Bishop and Cabinet (all the District
Superintendents) to the local church. Each church works with the bishop
and cabinet to receive or remove a pastor. Church members don’t vote on
these issues. There is a committee of lay people (the Staff-Parish
Relations Committee) who work with the pastor and conference to get this
job done.
I heard that United Methodist pastors move a
lot. Is that true?
Churches and pastors have a lot of say as to
whether or not there will be a move. While there are churches that seem
to have a “revolving door” on their pulpit, there are many churches that
maintain long and rewarding relationships with their pastor.
Does this church have some sort of board or
committee that makes important decisions, do the pastors make all the
decisions, or is it a combination of both?
(1)
Staff-Parish Relations Committee: Acts
as the body that works out all the
details between the pastoral/lay
staff and the congregation.
(2)
Finance Committee: Sets the budget,
carries out the financial campaign each
fall, and works with the pastor and
congregation in caring for the financial
needs of the church.
(3)
The Board of Trustees: Maintains all
property the church owns.
(4)
Lay Leadership Team: Makes contacts
asking people to be on the various
Committees.
(5)
Missions Committee: Spearheads
mission opportunities locally, nationally,
and internationally – both financial
giving and hands-on mission work.
All of these committees and all the members of the
church staff are ultimately responsible to the Administrative Council,
which “OKs” every major decision of the church.
Who is on the Administrative Council?
Members of the Administrative Council are the
pastoral and lay staff, the Lay Leader of the congregation, the Lay
Member of Annual Conference, all Committee chairs and members- at- large
who have been elected by the Charge Conference as members of the
Administrative Council. |
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A BRIEF HISTORY AND INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Our Founder, John Wesley
While pursuing his education, studying to become an
Anglican Priest at Oxford University in London, England in the mid-18th
century, John Wesley felt like something was missing. Wesley did not
understand why his church seemed so “spiritually dead” and “out of
touch” with an England that was rapidly changing (thanks to the
industrial revolution). It was at Oxford that Wesley gathered his
brothers and a few of his friends for prayer and discussion of what
God’s purpose was for their lives, scriptural study, and to figure out
how they could begin to help address the real needs in people’s lives.
The group kept such a strict schedule and was so methodical in their
record keeping and organization that people began to jokingly call them
“Methodists.” In time, Wesley and the others of his small group began
to evangelize in the streets of London, calling people to begin to
practice this new “methodical” approach to spiritual development and
growth: people meeting together for prayer, supporting each other to
lead moral and ethical lives, while studying scripture and collecting
money to address the needs of the poor – all as a means to grow in God’s
grace and love. With Wesley, Methodism was born!
Methodism in America
By the end of the 18th century, the
Methodist movement had spread all over England and America. Wesley
started a spiritual renewal movement that helped thousands of people
establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Methodists were
the first to establish “Sunday Schools” (schools that taught children
working in factories how to read and write on their day off), hospitals
and missions… real ministries that addressed real needs in people’s
lives. After the Revolutionary War, American people wanted no part
of anything “British,” and so the Methodist Episcopal Church (USA) was
born! Still claiming John Wesley as his spiritual leader, Rev. Francis
Asbury, the first bishop of the ME Church, worked hard, managing
hundreds of “circuit riders,” pastors on horseback who traveled
throughout the frontier, preaching and teaching about Jesus Christ.
Following his death, it was apparent that the job of ME Bishop had grown
too large for one person, so two were elected by all the elders (full
ministers in the church) to become their leaders. Soon, as the church
continued to grow, more bishops were elected and given territories (or
conferences) to administrate the education and appointments of pastors.
The conferences were further divided into “districts,” led by
“superintendents,” who helped the bishop take care of an ever-growing
church.
A Church Divided – A Church
United
In the ensuing years after the Revolutionary War,
the Methodist Episcopal Church split for a variety of reasons. Various
cultural, political, and theological issues which divided ME lay people
and ministers alike have been responsible for the birth of many
different denominations in this country (Disciples of Christ, Nazarene,
Assembly of God, The Salvation Army, Church of God, Wesleyan, and the
AME Church, just to name a few). Various attempts have been, and are
being made to reunite all of these “disgruntled Methodists” again into
one denomination. The successful reunion of the two largest “Methodist”
denominations (Methodist Episcopal and Evangelical United Brethren) and
many other small Methodist churches resulted in the birth of the United
Methodist Church (UMC) in 1964.
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