The History of Lincoln Chapel
     "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2 (New Revised Standard Version)
     The family of Lincoln Chapel United Methodist Church has an interesting history. We know that as early as 1781 circuit riding itinerant preachers began visiting the area (now known as western Union County) as part of the Northumberland Circuit. They later began meeting in school houses in Hartleton and Glenn Iron. John and Hannah Lincoln built their farm house in 1826. The spirit of the Great Awakening of the late 18th century that was transforming England and spreading across colonial America touched the Lincoln family and others in the valley.
     The Lincoln family name carried by the Chapel has ties to one of our nation's most famous, if not best known president, Abraham Lincoln, who served from 1861 to 1865. A family tree is provided showing the relationship:
     Mordecai Lincoln (born in 1657)
     John Thomas
     Abraham Michael
     Thomas John (Hannah)
     Abraham (President) Richard
     John Lincoln was a second cousin (once removed) to President Abraham Lincoln. Richard Lincoln, John Lincoln's son, had a personal interest in history and became a valuable historian of the Buffalo Valley. His work is preserved by the Union County Historical society to this day. There is evidence that Richard and President Abraham Lincoln had regular contact.
     By 1835, Henry Tarring was appointed to the Northumberland Circuit and this route became permanent. By 1852 a Board of Trustees was recorded for the class meeting held at the Glenn Iron School house with the following listed as Trustees: Thomas Church, Samuel Corl, John Diehl, Christian Gann, Samuel Knight, John Lincoln, and Josiah Showalter. On December 30, 1852 a deed (still on record in the Union County Courthouse today) was recorded to purchase land from Hannah Lincoln at the corner crossroads which is today Paddy Mountain and Lincoln Chapel roads. Purchase was for $1.00.
     During the summer of 1853 Enoch Miller was hired as an architect and Joseph Boop as a carpenter and a church was built and land was dedicated for burial purposes. This church was built just 20 to 25 feet south of the existing Lincoln Chapel United Methodist Church today. The original foundation is still present and can be seen if one digs through the south lawn. It is important to note that an 1868 Atlas of Union/Snyder County contains a map that is dated 1868. This map locates the chapel on the northwest corner of the crossroads. Some speculation has suggested the original church was located south of the road, likely because this was the site of the "outhouse". It is certainly understandable why the people located their restroom facilities "down wind" for we are certain the wind has not changed direction much in the last century.
     By 1890 the original church no longer met the needs of a growing congregation so a new church was built in 1891 which stands to this day. Oral history that is still currently alive mentions that the beautiful internal wood work was all hand crafted. The beautiful stained glass windows were added later. Two checks on record: one dated June 4, 1923 to Watsontown Door and Sash Co. and one dated July 9, 1923 for $40.40 was earmarked for a memorial window. John Josiah Showalter wrote this check to Charles M. Showalter who was a Church Trustee at that time. These checks indicate the windows were being gradually added through the 20th century.
     Harry Bingaman, Pastor Emeritus and Church Historian for the later 20th century, writes this concerning the growth of Lincoln Chapel:
     In 1947, the basement was excavated and kitchen facilities were installed for social purposes. As the Sunday School increased, it became necessary to find room for additional classes. In 1986, the basement was enlarged and classrooms were added above and below, with an elevator installed for easier access to the downstairs area.
     In 1999 the existing sanctuary was renovated, a new floor was laid, new carpet installed, light refinishing of all woodwork, and full attached upholstered foam seats were added to the pews. In addition a "state of the art" sound system was purchased and installed. In 2000 a Baldwin C-355 Electric Organ was purchased from Manning, Organs, Inc.
     Why do we exist? Harry Bingaman answers this question with a response that rings as ageless as the toll of the Sunday morning bell and can serve any generation that seeks the crossroads at the crossroad of life.
     Lincoln Chapel stands on a hill, as a symbol of service to God in this community, as well as to all humanity everywhere. To minister to all in need, physically and spiritually, and to allow the Lord's living love to show and flow through all of us who are part of this church, and thus, bring Glory to God, our Creator and Sustainer.
     It is important to preserve the past to look back to see from where we once came. History and tradition provide strength and stability. But history reminds us that even more important than preserving the past, is resurrecting the pioneering spirit. Faith is adventure and trust!
     Hannah Lincoln was a woman of faith and vision. Her love for the mission of Jesus in the west end of Union County inspired her to give a portion of land from their farm to be used for a church building. At a time when the land was more wild and free, people were few, and transportation was limited, she sensed a need for a church for people to worship and experience the love of Jesus. What a woman! John and Hannah's bodies were laid to rest in the Chapel Cemetery and their tombstones are still located just north of the Chapel today. The fire in Hannah's heart continues to live on and God only knows what is next for us in this pilgrimage of faith!!

What is the History of the United Methodist Church?
     The United Methodist Church was created on April 23, 1968 by Bishop Reuben H. Mueller of The Evangelical United Brethren Church, and Bishop Lloyd C Wicke of The Methodist Church. It shares its roots with other Methodist and Wesleyan bodies. John Wesley (1703-1791) and his brother, Charles (1707-1788) were missionaries through the Church of England at the colony of Georgia in March 1736. This was the only visit the two men would make to America. Charles returned to England in December 1736 and John in February 1738, both disillusioned and discouraged from their unsuccessful trip. Both of the brothers had transforming religious experience the following May. In he following years they succeeded in leading a renewal movement in the Church of England. As this new movement grew, the Methodist movement, they realized their ministry would spread to American colonies as some of the Methodists made their way to the New World. Among the earliest leaders of the new lay movement, Robert Strawbridge, an immigrant farmer in Maryland and Virginia, his cousin, Barbara Heck, from New York, and Captain Thomas Webb, were instrumental in Methodist beginnings in Philadelphia in 1767.
     John Wesley sent two of his lay preachers, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore, to America in 1769. Two years later Richard Wright and Francis Asbury were also sent to help in the growing American Methodist society. Francis Asbury, the most important figure in early American Methodism, was devoted to the principles of the Wesleyan theology, ministry and organization, thus shaping the Methodism in America in a way that no other person would. Some Methodists in the colonies answered the call to become lay preachers during this movement. In 1773 the first conference of Methodist preachers was held in Philadelphia. During this meeting, the ten preachers present took several important steps. They upheld Wesley's leadership, agreed not to administer the sacraments since they were only lay persons, encouraged strong discipline among the societies and preachers and set up a system of regular conferences of the preachers.
     After the American Revolution, Thomas Coke arrived in America to superintend the work of Asbury. Also traveling with Coke were Richard Whatcoat and Thams Vasey who were ordained by Wesley. Coke brought The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America prayer book and Wesley's revision of the Church of England's Thirty-Nine Steps of Religion which would ultimately allow the Methodists in America to become an independent church. In December 1784 a Christmas Conference of preachers was held in Baltimore at the Lovely Lane Chapel to plan the future course of the Methodist movement in America. It was at this conference that the movement became The Methodist Episcopal Church in America.
     Following the Conference, the Church published the first Discipline (1787), adopted a quadrennial General Conference (the first one held in 1792), wrote a constitution in 1808, refined its structure, established a public meeting house, and became an passionate advocate of revivalism an camp meetings. During this time, two other churches were being formed. They were composed with a majority of German-speaking people in the beginning. The first one was founded by Philip William Otterbein and Martin Boehm. Boehm was a Mennonite pastor while Otterbein was a German Reformed pastor but both preached an evangelical message and experience similar to the Methodists. Their followers formed the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in 1800. The Evangelical Association, the second church formed, was begun by Jacob Albright in 1803. Albright was a Lutheran farmer and tilemaker from eastern Pennsylvania who had been converted and nurtured by the Methodist teaching. These two churches united in 1946 and then again with the Methodist Church in 1968 to form The United Methodist Church. By March 1816 (Asbury's death) Otterbein, Boehm and Albright were already deceased. The churches they began survived the struggles of early life and began to expand in numbers and in geography.
The Second Great Awakening (1817-1843) in the first half of the nineteenth century was the dominant development of Protestants in the United States. This period consisted of revivals, camp meetings, circuit riders and lay pastors. The Methodists, United Brethren and Evangelicals like this style of Christian faith due to its emphasis on experiences. During this period memberships and the number of pastors increased dramatically. Lay members and preachers were expected to be seriously committed to the faith, possess a second conversion and divine calling, and demonstrate the gifts and skills required for an effective ministry. Their pay was meager and their work was urgent and demanding.
     The deep commitment of the members was shown in their willingness to stick to the standards of conduct and spiritual disciplines outlined by their churches. Methodists were to be strictly guided by the General Rules adopted at the Christmas Conference in 1784 and are still printed in the United Methodist's Book of Discipline. Members were urged to avoid evil, to do good, and to use the means of grace supplied by God for this was serious business.
     The structure of the Methodist, United Brethren, and Evangelical Association churches allowed them to operate in ways to support, expand and consolidate their ministries. General Conferences, which met quadrennially, were sufficient to set the main course for the church. Annual Conferences which were under episcopal leadership were the means for admitting and ordaining clergy, appointing itinerant preachers to their churches, and supplying them with mutual support. Local churches and classes sprang up wherever a few people gathered under the direction of a class leader and were visited regularly by a circuit preacher. This system served the needs of town, village, city or frontier posts making the church able to go to the people wherever they settled.
     Also during this time was the spread of the Sunday School movement in America. By 1835 Sunday Schools were being encouraged in every place they could be started and maintained. This became the main source of prospective members for the church. The churches' interest in education became apparent in their establishment of secondary schools and colleges. By 1845 Methodists, Evangelicals, and United Brethren had begun courses of study for their preachers to make sure they had a basic knowledge of the Bible, theology, and pastoral ministry. To supply the members, preachers and Sunday Schools with Christian literature, the churches established a publishing system. The Methodist Book of Concern, begun in 1789, was the first Methodist Church publishing house in America. At the same time, the United Brethren and Evangelical Associations also started publishing companies. From these publishing houses came hymnals, Disciplines, newspapers, magazines, Sunday School materials, and other literature to nurture their members. Profits were used for the support and welfare of retired and indigent preachers and their families.
     By 1841 the churches had started denominational missionary societies to develop strategies and provide funds for work in America and abroad for missionary work. John Stewart's mission to the Wyandots was the beginning of the important presence of Native Americans in the Methodist Church. Richard Allen, an emancipated slave and Methodist preacher was mistreated because of his race. He left the church and in 1816 organized The African Methodist Episcopal church. In 1821 The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was began and in 1830 The Methodist Episcopal Church began. Approximately 5,000 preachers and lay people left the denomination since it would not allow representation to the laity or allow the election of presiding elders (district superintendents). This new group became The Methodist Protestant Church until 1939 when it united with The Methodist Episcopal Church and The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to become The United Methodist Church.
     John Wesley was very opposed to slavery as were many of the leaders of the early church. In the mid nineteen hundreds The Methodist Church split into separate northern and southern churches due to different opinions on slavery. The Methodist Episcopal Church suspended on of the church's five bishops, James O. Andrew because he had acquired slaves through marriage. The church would not reinstate him until he freed the slaves. Days later, a Plan of Separation was drafted permitting the Annual Conferences and slaveholding states to separate from The Methodist Episcopal Church. This plan was later adopted and the foundation was laid for The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The delegates in the southern states met in May of 1845 in Louisville, Kentucky to organize the church. Their first Annual Conference was held in Petersburg, Virginia. Bitterness became apparent between the northern and southern methodists and intensified in the time leading to Lincoln's election in 1860 through the civil war.
     The civil war was hard on The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Their membership decreased to 2/3's of what was before the war. The buildings were in ruins, it's clergy was killed or wounded, and its educational publishing and missionary programs were stopped. The Southern Methodists, over the next 50 years, grew four times its size to about 2 million. The African American membership declined in The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, during and after the war. In 1870 the General Conference transferred all its remaining African Americans constituency to The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church now). During this time Alejo Hernandez became the first Hispanic ordained preacher.
     By the 1860's The Methodist Episcopal Church was on the verge of major gains in membership. Between 1865 and 1913 the membership grew to 400 million. The Methodist Protestants, United Brethren and Evangelicals had similar increases in membership. Property values soared, Sunday school was strong and active, publishing houses flourished and higher education and the logical seminaries began. Mission work, overseas and at home, was at the top of their agendas. Home mission programs wanted to Christianize city people and Native Americans, and formed schools for former slaves and their children. Missions were effective in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Women began missionary societies which educated, recruited and funded these programs. Methodist ministries were formed among Chinese and Japanese immigrants. Kanichi Miyama was ordained in 1887 and given full clergy rights.
     The role of women and lay representation caused debates in the church during this period. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, The Evangelical Association and The Church of the United Brethren in Christ were slow to allow laity a voice in their affairs whereas the Methodist Protestants granted it in 1830. It was not until 1932 that these churches allowed it. The United Brethren General Conference of 1889 allowed the ordination of women. The Methodist Episcopal Church in The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, did not grant full clergy rights until 1939. The Evangelical Association never allowed coordination of women. Women were not admitted as delegates to the General Conferences of The Methodist Protestant Church until 1892, The United Brethren in 1893, The Methodist Episcopal in 1904 and The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1922.
     The holiness movement, the rise of liberal theology, and the Social Gospel movement were debated from the time of the Civil War to World War I. The Methodist Episcopal Church adopted a Social Creed in 1908. Each denomination included in The United Methodist Church were active in the Federal Council of Churches, the first large ecumenical venture of the American protestants.
     In the years prior to World War II the church's urged negotiation and arbitration as alternatives to armed conflict until the United States entered into the war in 1917. The churches were free to once again focus energies in other directions when the war ended. The churches ask their members to abstain from alcohol and be abstinent. Also during this time, The Liberal Protestant theology was questioned. Despite the internal theological differences in the churches, they cooperated with other denominations and healed splits that had taken place in their past. The split of 1822 in The Evangelical Association was fixed in 1922 when the two became The Evangelical Church. The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Protestant Church, and The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, began in 1916 to unite. By the 1930s, they proposed six jurisdictions, five for geographically located and the six, The Central Jurisdiction, was racial. It included the African American Methodists no matter where they were located. This was opposed by the African American Methodists and some others who were troubled with the segregation. Most of the Methodist Protestants were agreeable to the union although it meant accepting Episcopal government which they had not had since their church began. The churches were united in April 1939, after overwhelming approval at the General Conferences and annual conferences of the churches. At the time the church included 7.7 million members.
     The Methodists, and United Brethren each had published strong statements against the war, advocating peace, however their strength was lost with American involvement in World War II. Throughout the war the churches continued to express their disagreement with violence and supported conscientious objection. When the war ended the churches actively work to seek world peace and order. The United Nations, founded in April 1945, established to serve as a way for the resolution of international social, economic, and political problems, was strongly influenced by many laypeople, pastors, bishops, and church agencies supporting it.
Between 1940 and 1967 there were three other important agendas that occupied the churches. First, they continued with their concern for ecumenicity and church union. On November 16, 1946, in Johnstown Pennsylvania, The Evangelical Church and The United Brethren Church united into The Evangelical United Brethren Church, after twenty years of negotiation. At that time they had 700,000 members. In 1951 The Methodist Church participated in the formation of the World Methodist Council, successor to the Ecumenical Methodist Conferences that had begun in 1881. The Methodists and Evangelical United Brethren became active members of the World Council of Churches which was founded in 1948 and also the National Council of Churches which was founded in 1950. These councils provided a means for members to engage in cooperative mission and other ministries. The two churches cooperated with seven other protestant denominations to form the Consultation on Church Union in 1960.
     The churches also showed a growing uneasiness with the problem of racism in the nation and the church. Many were upset with the way racial segregation was built into their denominational structure. The Central Jurisdiction became a constant reminder of the racial discrimination. Between 1956 and 1966 proposals to eliminate the Central Jurisdiction were introduced at the General Conferences and finely plans to abolish the Central Jurisdiction were agreed upon with the considered union with the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1968.  A few African American annual conferences continued for a short time afterward.
     The clergy rights for women were also debated by the churches. This was critical in the creation of The Evangelical United Brethren Church. The Evangelical Church had never ordained women and The United Brethren had ordained them since 1889. In order for the two to join The United Brethren accepted the Evangelical practice of not allowing women to ordination. This issue was debated by the Methodists for several years after being united in 1939. Full clergy rights for women was finally granted in 1956 but took almost a decade later before the women in seminaries and in the pulpits to grow in number. In 1968 The Methodists and The Evangelical United Brethren included the right of women to full clergy status in their plan of union. At the end of this period, The Methodist Church and The Evangelical Brethren Church were working toward their anticipated union to become The United Methodist Church.
     At the time The United Methodist Church was created in 1968 it had became one of the world's largest Protestant churches with 11 million members. The church is aware that it is a world church with members and conferences in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. Even though membership in Europe and the United states has declined since 1968, membership in Africa and Asia has increased. Increasing numbers of women have now been admitted into the ordained ministry, appointed as district superintendents, elected into positions of denominational leadership, and also became the bishops. The church has worked to become a community in which everyone regardless of race or ethnic background can participate in every level of its life and ministry. The United Methodist Church has created a refined theological and mission statement and has discussed and acted on matters of social importance such as nuclear power, world peace, human sexuality, the environment, abortion, AIDS, evangelism and world mission. It is concerned with the faithfulness and vitality of its worship; has published a hymnal in 1989 and authorized a new Book of Worship in 1992.