Our Blessed History
The church was started in 1875, in a small community on the west bank of the Oostanaula River, known at that time as DeSoto - named for the famed exploreer supposed to have camped on that spot. On the corner of Avenue A and West 10th Street. then known as Mill Street and West Fourth Street, people of DeSoto began meeting in the unfinished home of John Hunt who had invited the Rev. James A. Clement from Forestville (now North Rome) to hold services. At the first meeting only six people were present. But one month later the congregaton had doubled.
At the beginning of 1876, DeSoto Methodist Church was placed on a regular cirucuit and the Reb. F.F. Reynolds was appointed to be its first pastor. His salary was a whopping $104 for the first year.
He was succeeded by the Rev. Sam P. Jones, a man at that time sufering from alcoholism. Rev. Jones, with the help and prayers of many friends, was able to overcome his drinking problem and went on to become an evangelist of national renown.
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Under the leadership of the Rev. Jones the church began to expand and it was through his efforts that, in 1877, a small frame building was erected on the present site.
A Rich Heritage
The great flood of 1886 did considerable damage to the building foundaton and, because membership had outgrown the small building, construction of a new building was started. The church’s pastor was the Rev. C. C. Cary. The church was designed in the form of a cross and in 1888 was dedicated by Bishop Warren A. Candler. The church was renamed Second Methodist Church. Three stained glass windows in the front of the building donated by a group of young girls known as the “Pansies” are the only features of the building that have not been replaced in any of the renovation programs.
The old frame building that had been the church was purchased by a congregation member and moved to North Fifth Avenue, where it remained until the 1970’s when it was torn down to make room for apartments and the Baptist buildings (now the Trinity building).
Trinity Methodist Church
It was during the pastorate of the Rev. George Stanley Fraser, 1914-1916, that the name Trinity was given. Membership grew so rapidly that ten years later a new education building was erected at a cost of $20,000. A centeral heating system was included in the renovation. A second education wing costing $23,000 was complte in 1949, allowing the sanctuary to be enlarged into its current cross shape.
Sanctuary renovations have occerured in 1952, 1961 - when air conditioning was installed -1964, 1977 and 1998. The Memorial Entrance from the parking lot to the sanctuary was completed in 1980.
A new educational building was completed n 1971. This building includes Mobley Hall, named for the Rev. Lavern Mobley who was pastor at Trinity at the time of construction.
By 1982 an influx of young adults made necessary additional church school facilities. To provide these, an additon was build which became an office suite. The upstairs offices were made into classrooms. Along with this addition of space, the existing education building was restored and a parlor and kitchenette were provided.
Between 1976 and 1982 the entire facilities at Trinty were restored at a cost of approximately $220,000.
In 1992, the vacant Church of Christ building, across Avenue A, was purchased. It was at first called “The Annex,” but was later named the “Martha King Building.” The King Building serves as a youth and activity center.
In 1997, the Trinity Building, a former bank building on Fifth Avenue, was purchased. It is now used for adult Sunday School classrooms, and additional office space for our associate minister.
Trinity’s Influence on the World
Trinity Methodist Church has twice been the starting point for a national spiritual movement. The first was an all-night prayer meeting with Sam Jones and the second was in 1963, with the beginning of the 100 Days of Love movement.
Trinity’s second pastor was Samuel Porter Jones (1847-1906). When Sam Jones was assigned to Desoto Methodist, he was known as an alcoholic. On his assignment, the bishop warned the members of the church that, “Mr. Jones has been drinking heavily.” To which a church representative replied, “Yes, sir, we know that, but God forgives him and so do we.”
A group of men from Desoto held an all-night prayer meeting with Rev. Jones, after which he gave up drink. After leaving Desoto, Sam Jones gained fame as a lecturer and evangelist. Soon he was conducting campaigns in some of America's largest cities. Wherever he preached, liquor stores closed, theaters and jails emptied, and cursing was reduced to whispers. . . .Well over 500,000 people were converted to Christ as a result of his ministry.
And in 1963. . .
Rev. Charles C. Shaw invited Dr.Tom Carruth to Trinity to preach a revival in September 1963.
On that Sunday afternoon, September 23, 1963, in Summerville Park in Rome, God gave Dr. Carruth a dream for "100 Days of Love." Beginning that night at midnight there were exactly 100 days left in 1963. Dr. Carruth wrote devotions, based on Bible verses about God’s love, which were first printed in The Atlanta Journal and The Constitution.
Following the tragic death of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, the local churches put on “100 Days of Love" programs in their area. Daily newspapers carried a Bible verse and meditation on love.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis, four newspapers carried full pages of "100 Days of Love."
In Washington, D.C., while the battle over segregation was raging, a full page of 100 Days of Love was carried in the daily paper. Full pages were carried in Jackson, Mississippi, and other cities.
In addition to his 100 Days of Love, Dr. Carruth wrote: Forty Days of Love, Fifty Days of Love, 1000 Days of Love, and 30 Days of Uniting Prayer for the President of the United States. On January 19, 1977, Congress read his Litany for Praying Together for the President of the Unted States of America.
And in September, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and Trinity United Methodist Church played a role that reached far beyond the walls of our church.
The youth from Trinity United Methodist Church, Rome, Georgia made friends with the youth group from First United Methodist Church, Gautier, Mississippi, on a youth retreat at Lake Junaluska in 1999. And for 6 years, Trinity's youth group traveled to Gautier over Labor Day weekend, to sing for their church. Each time Trinity came, the good folks of Gautier knocked themselves out to welcome us, feed us VERY well, and make sure we had a good time.
We were scheduled to sing there in September 2005, but Hurricane Katrina intervened.
The first weekend after Katrina, Trinity folks loaded up two box trucks filled with supplies and headed to Gautier to see what we could do to help. And over the next year, almost every weekend, 25-30 people from Trinity drove to Gautier and took materials, gutted houses, cleaned up, rebuilt houses and did whatever Marcia Stanley put on those yellow sheets of paper for us to do each weekend. That seemed the least we could do for our friends in Gautier.
And, in December 2005, Trinity UMC raised $14,370 for Gautier to have Christmas. When Gus and Steve Davis delivered the check to Gautier, Marcia Stanley said: "Your church was the first church here, on the first weekend after Katrina. You've had a work team here almost every weekend since. And now you've brought us Christmas."
In the church office, a notebook is kept that is a collection the emails that were sent out to Trinity’s congregation, with stories and news about the relief efforts. It’s a record of the many ways God worked in and through two churches, bound together by:
- God’s prevenient grace,
- a mutual desire to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a broken world,
- and a love of good food (jambalaya and gumbo in particular.)
This history is based on a history of Trinity, written by Robert Candler, and the introduction to 100 Days of Love, by Dr.Tom Carruth, and church emails from 2005-6.