Our Story

The history of The Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church now crosses over three separate centuries.  In 1863 E.P. Hart, a leader in the early Free Methodist movement, and his wife, Martha, were at a rural railroad station in Ida, MI on a bitterly cold January day.  The couple were pioneer church planters for the small, but growing denomination.  The Rev. Hart was discouraged by recent events, but his wife’s plucky attitude revived and inspired him as she pointed to the railroad tracks nearby and emphatically declared “While there’s a track, I’ll never go back! But go on at the risk of my all.”  These simple, but powerful words were set to music while revival fires swept across southern Michigan in the years to come.  Those revival fires were still burning strong during the winter of 1870-71 when Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church received their first pastor, A.V. Leonardson, who led services at an old stone schoolhouse a mile west of Spring Arbor, which was our church’s first home. 

Later, the dilapidated remains of a Free Will Baptist School became the new home of the little church.  The congregation continued growing.  Next, they began meeting in the Music Hall of the newly began Spring Arbor College, and then eventually moved to the chapel in the boys’ dormitory.

Finally, in 1922, under the leadership of the Reverend James G. Fortress, a lovely stone church was built just north of M-60 on Cottage St.  You can see the bell from that church on display at the west entrance to our current building.  Also, some of the beautiful original stonework from this church can be seen in the Fellowship area, as well.

The stone church, while lovely and beloved, was soon outgrown, and in 1963 a new sanctuary was constructed under the leadership of the Reverend Herbert Sebree.  Sixteen years later, in 1979 under the leadership of the Reverend John Hendricks, the sanctuary was decreased in size to become our current Chapel, and was replaced by the construction of our present sanctuary.

In 1993, a major facility update took place under the Reverend Darold Hill. The Community Family Center, the current office space for our staff, additional classroom space were constructed.

In the spring of 2010, we launched a campaign to renovate our building with some much-needed updates to better accomplish our mission to serve our community.  We’ve called this our “From This Day On” and it consists of $1.6 million of projects that we intend to complete on a cash basis over the next three years.  We’re really excited about our commitment to give a dollar to Global Outreach (which consists of World Missions and Community Outreach combined together) for every dollar we spend on our renovation.

Our desire is to match the renovation of our building with the renovation of our hearts and minds as followers of Christ. In the coming year, we will engage our people in a church-wide emphasis on Missional Living.  We have introduced a core “Encountering God” curriculum designed to lead every participant to experience the life-changing power that we have been given in Jesus. 

Today, many years after Martha Hart gave those determined words in 1863, the same spirit remains in our people:

“While there’s a track, we’ll never go back! But go on at the risk of our all.”