The History of McKendree UMC

For more than 100 years, McKendree UMC has been the center of the community. In 1883, a small community resolved to gather for worship, originally meeting in a brush arbor. The church was part of a circuit of churches. One acre of land was donated by Mrs. Martha Wellmaker and one by M. B. Montgomery.

The first meeting house was erected in 1884 and was used both as a church and a school. In 1915, they built the white frame church on the hill, Lockridge Chapel, now the youth center.

The church was named after Bishop William McKendree, who was the first American-born bishop of the Methodist Church. It was part of the circuit, in which a pastor would serve multiple churches.

We currently occupy three facilities – the “Main Building” (where we worship), the Education Building, and the Lockridge Center (the white frame chapel and fellowship hall building on the far side of the cemetery).

In the 1980s, the church convinced the North Georgia United Methodist Conference to invest in the church rather than build a new church in the fast-growing Gwinnett County. Since then the church has grown from 35 people attending Sunday worship to over 300 in person, worship online, home to a preschool of over 200 students, scouts, and a wide variety of church-related ministries.

Led by the Risen Lord, this body continues to grow, not just in numbers, but also in spirituality, as we forever seek to praise, learn, and serve as directed in the Scriptures. Whatever your interest, wherever you sense God is leading, you are sure to find it here.