In 1996 a new educational unit was put on the church. This would provide an additional five rooms to the church. The endeavor took a lot of planning and dedication of the church family, but it also made the church more user friendly as the Sunday School would not need to be in the Fellowship Hall any more and things like “Coffee Fellowship” were instituted as a means for gathering after church for bars, coffee and good fellowship which continues as part of our Sunday morning schedule.
Many programs have continued during this time span like the Father/Son Banquet, Mother/Daughter Banquet, many UMW events during the year, the food stand at Western Days, Operation Christmas Child, the support of a missionary at Red Bird Mission, the Sunday School Christmas programs and the Christmas Eve Candlelight service just to name a few. Therefore, the church has remained very active.
One new program was the making of 40 quilts started by three ladies of the church. They put in a lot of hard work and then on two Saturdays, a dozen or more gathered to tie them and get them ready to be given out. Another newer event is our Western Days ‘Float’ created in 2003 as part of the community celebration of Chatfield’s 150th and has been in the Western Days parade since. It is a way of being visible to community and being involved in the community.
The church over a number of years has hosted the Lion’s Club clothing drive and sale. Also, the church has hosted the Bloodmobile for a number of years as well. Due to the accessibility into our fellowship hall it makes it very useable by various groups and the church is glad to respond.
2006 has been the celebration of our 150th year. We have had a number of events. It started with an “Old Time Service” in January. Then there was a “Fish Fry” in February (you don’t see many of those in winter), and then the Mother/Daughter and Father/Son banquets. In June we had our annual Church Picnic at Chester Woods and in July a “Community Hog Roast & Carnival” were held to celebrate our 150th. August found us in the food stand again and in the parade with both emphasizing the many years of ministry. We are now down to the last event – a Banquet and a Worship Service.
The banquet will be held Saturday, October 28 at 6 pm and a great meal is planned with entertainment by the group “Christian Crossings”. The worship service will be on Sunday, October 29 at 9 am with Rev. Michael Wuehler preaching and past pastors taking part. It should be a fitting conclusion to a great year of celebration.
During this time 1996-2006, two pastors have been appointed to this congregation.
| Dennis Cox-Townsend | 1996-2002 |
| Jack Smith | 2002-2011 |
We hope you have enjoyed the historical updates during the year. We hope to put them in a booklet for the Sunday Celebration on October 29. We wish to thank all the members and friends of Chatfield UnitedMethodist Church who throughout the years have dedicated themselves to presenting the “Gospel of Jesus Christ” and serving Him as “Lord and Savior”. May we continue to serve God for the next 150 years.