Truckin' on the Western Branch

Jolliff United Methodist Church In 1773 Methodist missionaries sent by John Wesley, founder of Methodism, formed a Methodist Society on what is now Jolliff Road. Local lore claims landowner James Jolliff welcomed the missionaries and the new society that erected a log church on the site about 1798. Camp meeting revivals were held there from the 1820s. After a fire destroyed the church in 1921, the congregation rebuilt and by 1940 replaced the oil lamps with electric lights. They added a Sunday School wing in 1949 and an educational building in 1955. The congregation continued to refurbish the old buildings, adding a new steeple and, in 2009, completed a new multipurpose addition. That same year the church, perceiving a community need, opened a day school with a faith-based curriculum for 100 children from preschool to fifth grade.

“We filled the registrations in one day,” said Rev. Dr. Waverly C. Smith III, pastor.

The church’s membership of more than 400 includes numerous military families.

“We believe in hospitality over evangelism,” Smith said. “We never want to be a megachurch.”

Rev. Dr. Waverly C. Smith III. Image by Sheally

Jolliff United Methodist Church. Image by Sheally

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