Pitts Theology Library
Archives and Manuscripts Department

St. Matthew United Methodist Church (East Point, Ga.)
Records, 1954-2001

Historical Note

St. Matthew United Methodist Church was founded as St. Matthew Methodist Church on January 9, 1955. An initial organizational meeting had been held on November 14, 1954. The superintendent of the Atlanta East District, Nat G. Long, selected four Candler School of Theology Students to organize the church. These students were Gerry Hearin Jr. (who was appointed pastor in charge), Jack Henton, Ray Finklea, and Ernest Hogge. A fifth Candler student, Kenneth Burnett, was also active in the founding of the church, and began its first youth program.

There were 91 charter members of the church. The first prayer meeting was held on January 23, 1955, and the first evening church service on March 6 of that year. In December 1955, the church purchased its first parsonage. Worship services were held at Parklane School, site of the initial organizational meeting, until 1958, when a church building was constructed on land donated by Allen Tankersley. The building included a chapel, a nursery, a kitchen, and classrooms. Planning for a sanctuary began in 1967, and construction was completed in 1970.

Church membership reached a high of 365 in 1971, then declined steadily for the next three decades. The pastor's church conference report for 1999 reported a total of 86 members. Numbers continued to drop due to death and relocation of longtime members. The church closed in May 2001.

For a detailed, year-by-year overview of the church's history, see the narrative accounts in Series 1, Box 1, Folders 2-3.

Scope and Content Note

This collection documents the history of St. Matthew's Church from its founding in 1955 through the 1990s through administrative and historical files, quarterly and charge conference records, committee files, treasurer's reports, newsletters, bulletins, and Sunday school records. The collection does not, however, provide any documentation of the decision to close the church in 2001.

Also included is material on two women's' groups within the church: United Methodist Women and the Quilting Group. United Methodist Women, originally the Women's Society of Christian Service, was founded in 1955. The Quilting Group began in the early 1980s as a group of women who gathered to quilt and pray together. They sold their quilts and used the proceeds to support the church's mission.

The records are organized into eleven series:

Series 1: Historical Files, 1955-2001. Arranged alphabetically.

Included in this series are materials of general historical interest, such as detailed narrative histories of the church, plaques removed from the church building, guest books, news clippings, and information about the incorporation of the church.

Series 2: Administrative Records, 1955-2001. Arranged alphabetically and chronologically.

This series contains an extensive run of administrative board minutes, as well as files on the Council of Ministries, the Finance Committee, the parsonage, and several other topics.

Series 3: Quarterly, Charge, and Church Conference Records, 1955-2000. .67 cubic ft. Arranged chronologically.

This series contains the church's copies of reports filed for quarterly, charge, and church conferences.

Series 4: Building Committee, 1957-1984. Arranged alphabetically.

The bulk of the files in this series date from the late 1960s and early 1970s, the period during which St. Matthew's constructed a new sanctuary. Included in this series is documentation of legal action taken by the church against the contractor for the building project for failure to pay several subcontractors.

Series 5: Membership Records, 1955-2001. Arranged alphabetically.

This series includes membership rosters, directories, address lists, membership certificates, and a card file with information on church members.

Series 6: Education Records, 1963-1991. Arranged alphabetically and chronologically.

Sunday school attendance books comprise the bulk of this series.

Series 7: United Methodist Women, 1955-2001. Arranged alphabetically and by format.

Included are administrative records such as charge conference reports, minutes, and financial ledgers, as well as several scrapbooks. The scrapbooks provide a visual look at the group's varied activities from the 1950s through the 1990s. Also in this series are two folders of photographs, which were removed from an album for preservation reasons. The photographs were taken at United Methodist Women events, including an Easter party and a baby shower.

Series 8: Printed Materials, 1968-2001. Arranged alphabetically and chronologically.

Printed materials produced by St. Matthew's include weekly bulletins, a newsletter called The Informer, a newsletter called The Adventurer, and an untitled newsletter. There are also three folders of bulletins from other churches collected between 1974 and 1980. The significance of these items is unknown.

Series 9: Financial Records, 1972-1991. Arranged chronologically.

This series consists of monthly treasurer's reports and budget information.

Series 10: Quilting Group, 1981-1988. Arranged by format.

Two folders comprise this series. The first contains correspondence received by the Quilting Group, mainly thank-you cards and acknowledgements of financial donations made by the group. The second contains photographs of group members and their quilts. All of the items in this series were originally arranged in adhesive photo albums. They were removed from the albums for preservation reasons.

Series 11: Photographs, ca. 1955-1998. Arranged chronologically.

In this series are photographs of church events from the 1950s through the late 1990s. Many of the photographs are identified with only a date; some are undated.

For additional United Methodist church records in Pitts Theology Library, see the online subject guide.

Container Listing

Last Modified: 10/16/2015