A History of the First United Methodist Church Dalton, Georgia

FLAGSHIP IN THE FOREST: A History of the First United Methodist Church Dalton, Georgia Horton Hassell Herrin FLAGSHIP IN THE FOREST: A History of the First United Methodist Church, Dalton, Georgia INTRODUCTION In a 2011 interview with Dr. Robin L Lindsey, Senior Pastor of Dalton First United Methodist Church, I asked him if there had been anything about this church of which he had been aware before being assigned here. He said yes, that even when he was a student at Emory University in 1978, Dalton First was recognized as a flagship church. Asked to clarify that term, he indicated the reference is to a church, not necessarily large, but which has a regional presence. Similar comments had been made earlier. Dalton First was a flagship of the conference. “It was the largest congregation north of Cobb County, and west of Gainesville,” wrote Senior Pastor J.B. McNeil in his report in 1994. He cited its leadership in membership, financial support of ministry locally, the conference, and general church ministries. The report mentioned the finest facilities to be found. “All goals were being met or worked on,” he continued. Flagship churches have a history of significant pastors. They clearly know that an assignment here is a positive career statement. This continues even today. A flagship, in naval parlance, is one on which the commander of the fleet has his headquarters and staff. The flagship is the leader of the fleet, giving command and control to all subordinate units. To carry this analogy a bit further, the Senior Pastor sets the course of the Church. It is his hand at the helm. While not giving direct orders as would a naval admiral, the Senior Pastor’s guidance and leadership is what keeps the ship off the shoals, in deep water, and on the true course set out by the Lord. 1 An admiral has subordinates to help steer the ship and conduct its operations. So, too, the Senior Pastor has had a number of helpers over the years. In the early days, leadership may have been solely that of one pastor, with help from some devoted volunteers in the congregation. Over time, paid assistants in the way of associate pastors, secretaries, and others with critical skills in music came aboard. Still, those talents cannot do all that is needed in today‘s church. Even with the most updated equipment and training, the ship or church, needs the deckhand. In our case, that is the member who does the best with what he or she has to offer. They teach, take up collections, seat members and guests, sing and play musical instruments, and anything else when the need arises, even writing histories. We will try to show what previous pastors and their crews have done over the years which have led us to our present status. Sadly, many documents have been lost to the passage of time. Some things just may not have been documented. We may see some things we think are new, but which were formerly known by another name. And maybe some which just did not fly. When John Wesley first brought Methodism to the thirteenth colony, Georgia was basically wilderness. There was some European settlement and civilization along the coast, but not inland. So Georgia, for the most part, was sparsely settled forest land and our flagship yet to be launched. Years later the Methodist Church in America began to send out preachers across our country. They were called Circuit Riders. Eventually they reached our community. The original forests have been cut down and replaced by brick, mortar, and asphalt. Our flagship church has grown from a small raft in the early years to a huge vessel in the voyage for Christ. Dalton First UMC is now a flagship for Christ, in a forest of indifference, secularism and the unchurched. This work is dedicated to the Glory of God, and to the memory of my 2 mother, Margaret Sprayberry Herrin (1908-1986,) and father, Horton Burnett Herrin (1904-1983). They were able members on the crew. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister in the North Georgia Conference, and longtime member of this church, while he was a longtime member of this and another Methodist congregation. 3 CHAPTER ONE--Root Stock A hybrid is defined as the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock, especially offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different species or races. This is how we get the many different colors of flowers, such as roses. So, too, is Methodism a hybrid religion. It is a combination of the formal, high church services of the Anglican Church of John Wesley, and the street preaching of George Whitefield, for whom Whitfield County is named despite the difference in spelling. Both were Anglican priests, but Wesley was the hybridizer. Our roots trace to him. Methodism first began in the year 1738, when the Wesley’s were influenced by the Moravians. This led to an emphasis on conversion and holiness. These Wesleyan roots stretch back to 1739, when John was a student at Oxford College in London. He and his brother Charles, along with some other students, formed a prayer group. The term “Methodist” stuck due to the rules and methods used in their religious pursuits. Interestingly, the brothers were ordained ministers in the Church of England, yet were forbidden to preach from the pulpit due to their evangelistic ways. Instead, they preached in homes, on the street, and other small meeting places, wherever they could find an audience. This was due, in large part, to George Whitefield. Also an Anglican minister, Whitefield (1714-1770) favored the informal type of services of the street preacher. An evangelist, he felt this to be a more effective way to reach the un-churched. Also a leader of Methodism, some feel he should be credited as a co-founder of the denomination. He parted ways with Wesley over theological differences. Georgia was the last of the original 13 British colonies in the new world. 4 In 1735, George II set aside the land from the Savannah River to the Mississippi to be used for those in the poor houses and debtor’s prisons. It was believed that the poor could work themselves out of poverty with a new start. A group of wealthy Londoners were appointed trustees of the new colony, named for the regent, George II. They selected James Oglethorpe to lead the colony. The first group landed at what is now Savannah. Oglethorpe brought Dr. Henry Herbert, an Episcopal clergyman, with him. The Salzburghers, Austrians fleeing to escape religious persecution, had also come with Oglethorpe, and had brought a Lutheran clergyman. Thus an Episcopalian and a Lutheran became the first two ministers in Georgia, landing on March 12, 1734. Doctor Herbert was soon replaced by a Mr. Quincy. He soon became discouraged and returned home. Oglethorpe subsequently went back to England to get more colonists and a new minister. According to The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida, by George H. Smith, Jr., “The field was a hard one. The man who undertook the work of tilling it needed a soul crucified to the world.” When Oglethorpe reached London, he was told that a man at Oxford College would meet all he needed for a new minister. “He was John Wesley,” according to Smith, “mystical, rather too much for England, too strict and careful in his own conduct, and too exacting in his demands upon others, for those times, but just the man to teach colonists going to the wilds, and Indians who had never left them, the way to Heaven.” Oglethorpe offered the post to Wesley and his brother, Charles, who accepted. With this acceptance, two obscure English ministers stepped onto the stage of world ecclesiastical history and changed it forever. The root stock had taken and begun to grow. 5 While John Wesley brought the basics of Methodism to Georgia in 1734, he soon had company here in the Georgia mission field. We now think of Georgia Methodists sending missionaries to foreign lands. Then, Georgia was the receiver, not the giver. During the next sixty years, there was a Revolutionary War, our country was founded and, in 1784, the Methodist Church was formalized in America independent of British Methodism. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia online, the Moravians established a mission in Murray County in 1801. Two Moravian ministers built a school on land given by Cherokee Chief Joseph Vann at Spring Place. Religious refugees from Bohemia and Moravia, now the Czech Republic, they had come to North America around 1735. Properly known as the “Unity of the Brethren,” the group was formed in Prague in 1452, with a goal “to be pure and to follow the Master and Him alone.” This was some 50 years before Martin Luther led the Protestant Revolution. [for more information, see Moravians in NW Georgia compiled by Craig Cooper, The Voice magazine, “Count Nicholas Ludwig Von Zinzendorf” by Jonas Clark, and A History of the Moravians, by J.E. Hutton] The mission at Spring Place was aimed towards the Indians. In addition to education, the missionaries were working to convert the Cherokees to Christianity. When the Cherokees were forced off their lands for removal to Oklahoma, the Moravians went with them. According to The New Georgia Encyclopedia, Moravians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Methodists “lived among Georgia's indigenous tribes to teach them the ‘arts of civilization’ and convert them to Christianity. With conversion and the teaching of other useful ‘civilizing‘ skills such as weaving, sewing, and European farming techniques, missionaries reasoned that they could change Indians into ‘whites.’ Before true assimilation could take place, Anglo society 6 believed Indians needed to resemble white America and to become accountable and predictable.” The Indians, on the other hand, wanted to learn the English language and customs to keep from being cheated by the settlers.

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