In 2022 Friendship UMC and North Fayette UMC merged to become Fayette Friendship Community Church combining the legacies of both churches to create an even greater opportunity to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to share His gospel. That is what drives our church today.
History of Friendship United Methodist Church
Fayette Friendship Community Church, has a legacy going back more than 130 years.
Converted to Christianity in the late 1880s at a Salvation Army revival, Lonnie Eason and Thaddeus Lewis decided to establish a church in north Fayette County. They began with a Sunday School, meeting during warm weather in a brush arbor.
The group moved into a local store when the temperatures dropped and then, when the heating system failed, met in a log cabin. While there, they began construction of an actual church building on a donated acre of land near what is now the intersection of highways 279 and 314. The Atlanta Methodist Episcopal Church Conference recognized the congregation, with its 17 charter members (all friends), and sent John Speir as its first appointed preacher in 1890. Dedication of the completed church structure and the name Friendship came in 1894.
Multiple physical improvements occurred throughout the years. Strong winds nearly demolished the original church in 1936. Undaunted, the congregation built a new one on the same location. Later, a new wing, steeple, choir loft, stained glass windows, cemetery and parsonage were added. Ever mindful of their church’s name, members reached out to the community through such programs as scouting, a day care center, and food pantry. Membership increased to as many as 120.
But times change and with decreasing membership, the North Georgia Conference merged Friendship UMC with a church just 3 miles away, North Fayette UMC.
History of North Fayette United Methodist Church
The North Fayette congregation began as a mission congregation of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church on June 23, 1983. The Reverend Dumas B. (Dee) Shelnutt, Jr. was appointed by the Bishop of the North Georgia Conference as the founding pastor of this new work. The first gathering for prayer and worship took place the following Sunday, June 26, 1983 at the pastor’s home with six adults and two children present. Two weeks later, thirty-six persons gathered at the old Kenwood School building for Sunday school and worship. On January 8, 1984 the congregation officially constituted as a United Methodist Church, with a Charter Membership of 105 members.
During the summer of 1983, 12 ½ acres of land at the intersection of New Hope Road and Kenwood Road in northern Fayette County were purchased as the site for the new congregation’s facilities. The congregation has made its home there at 847 New Hope Road, Fayetteville, GA. since August 24, 1986 when the first Building was completed and the first services were held. Since that time the congregation has built two other buildings, a multi-purpose activities building and two playgrounds; all providing excellent facilities for worship, continuing education, activities for children and youth as well as the ability to host larger community events and gatherings.
Our new combined church, Fayette Friendship Community Church, is a congregation welcoming all who would join us for worship, study, fellowship or other activities. We open our doors to the community to host Red Cross Blood Drives, an election polling station, concerts and recitals and for other community organizations and groups. We are proud to partner with The Peachtree Wind Ensemble for concerts several times a year.
We have always been active in mission and outreach in our community and throughout the world, and we remain so today. Our ongoing vision is one of service for God and to our fellow mankind, beginning here in our own community and beyond as God gives us opportunities to serve others.
