Bethlehem United Methodist Church celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2010! BUMC is a church that many say may be the oldest in Wilson County and traces its beginnings to the early 1800’s when a Methodist Society was established. The church has been in the same Hickory Ridge area for 200 years and at its present site since 1846.
A brief history of the church said the Hickory Ridge area was settled in the 1790s by a group of frontiersmen from North Carolina and Virginia and was about 4 miles west of Lebanon along an early pioneer Lebanon/Nashville Road now called Hickory Ridge Road.
The original Meeting House of the church was built in 1810 in the Hickory Ridge community, and it had eight corners and a fireplace and chimney built from hand-hewn cedar logs.
The church hosted the Tennessee Annual Conference in October 1815 giving it place in American Methodist history because it was the last conference presided over by Bishop Francis Asbury before his death. During this conference, Asbury was entertained by the William Babb family in what today is known as the Asbury-Babb House.
The Asbury-Babb House, one of the oldest in Wilson County, is located behind Bethlehem United Methodist Church. The house is owned by the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church and is undergoing restoration. The Asbury-Babb House was featured in an article in The Wilson Post on July 29, 2009.
Bethlehem hosted the first Women’s Missionary Society in the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1858, and a monument marking the event is located in front of the church today.
John Powell and Alex G. Winford who were members of Bethlehem United Methodist donated one acre each of land in 1846 so that a permanent church building could be constructed. Shortly after the Civil War, a small church was constructed which faced the east on the property. The building was torn down in 1914, and a new one was built facing the turnpike. In later years, the columned front porch, the educational wing that included restrooms, a kitchen and fellowship hall were added. The steeple and stained glass were also added through the years.
However, due to structural deterioration in the sanctuary and classrooms, the members were forced to rebuild the church with the exception of the fellowship hall. An article from the June 24, 2005 edition of The Post said members held their final service in the old sanctuary on June 26, 2005. They met at the Lebanon Senior Citizens Center on Coles Ferry during construction.
The new Bethlehem United Methodist sanctuary remains on the two acres donated by Powell and Winford in 1846. Its street address is 2102 Lebanon Road, Lebanon. The new building features a large room upstairs where the youth of the church gather. There is also additional space, and all the rooms are painted in bright colors. The fellowship hall includes a large kitchen and eating area.
When construction began on the new building, the boxwood shrubbery planted in front of the old church and believed to be the original plants, were dug up so they could be protected and were replanted when the structure was completed.
Bethlehem is part of the Cumberland District of the United Methodist Church. The church building now in use was rebuilt about seven or eight years ago replacing the structure that had been constructed in 1914. All that remains of the 1914 building and which remain in use today in the new facility are the fellowship hall, the original pews and the stained glass windows. Some of the wood from the old building was used in the construction of the new one, including some used to build the new sanctuary and the vestibule.
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