Kelley Chapel United Methodist Church

 

Our Motto

God In Action!

Our Purpose

Love God Totally and Love Neighbor as Self!

Our Vision

• Magnifying God by bringing people into Membership, developing spiritual Maturity in all people, and equipping everyone for Ministry and Mission.
• Growing the church of our Lord and Savior by promoting love, spiritual nurturing through witnessing, worship, praising, preaching the Word, teaching the Word, praying, fellowship and outreach thus fostering total commitment to God.
• Offering the community Christ through assisting and educating the community in spiritual, political, economic, health, general awareness, safety and welfare issues.
• Developing the total youth and child spiritually, academically, mentally, morally for the future and urging young minds to follow Christ.
• Giving love, gifts of tithes and offering, time, service, presence, participation, talents and resources until our Mission of making disciples in complete and God’s blessings upon us is magnified.

 

Kelley Chapel Church History

120 years - 1898-2018

The Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was organized at the church’s General Conference of 1830. The members met for the first time in Macon, Georgia in 1831. Within a few years, the church began to struggle with the issue of slavery. Unable to reach an agreement, the church divided in 1844. The slave-holding states formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS).

In 1866, the Georgia Conference of the MECS was divided into the North and South Georgia Conferences. After much debate, the conference voted for a dividing line that ran generally east and west and slightly north of Macon.

The North Georgia Conference grew rapidly. By 1875 it had 58,500 members and by 1900 approximately 908, 600 members. This period of the North Georgia Conference gave birth to Kelley Chapel Methodist Church. On November 22, 1898, Kelley Chapel, a dream of Mr. James Thomas Kelley became a reality. Mr. Kelley and his neighbors thought that a church should be constructed in the area, and they built it on the site where the present Cobb Fellowship Hall / Senior Center is located. The church, at that time, was a white weatherboard building about the same size as the Cobb Fellowship Hall. During a conference of religious leaders, relative to the forming of a new church, Mr. Kelley agreed to donate the land and a sum of money for the building. After much consideration, the church was named in honor of Mr. James T. Kelley, thus the name, “Kelley Chapel.”

When the church was organized, it was member of the denomination known as the "Methodist Protestant" Church and remained that way until it merged with the “Methodist Episcopal” Church in 1939. Besides Mr. James T. Kelley the original trustees of the church included Mr. Dave McWilliams, Mr. Bill McWilliams, and Mr. T. L. Bankston.

The original church structure burned on Sunday, March 16, 1924 when a fire erupted at about 11:00 am in the ceiling of the church from the pot-bellied stove that was used for heating purposes. No fire-fighting equipment was available at that time and efforts were made to put the fire out by carrying buckets of water from nearby wells. The church was destroyed. Later that same day, a group of members met at the home of Mrs. Claude T. Cobb, daughter of Mr. James T. Kelly to discuss the loss. It was decided at that time to rebuild the church immediately. A building committee was formed, and construction was begun a few days thereafter. One month later, with only one “preaching” service missed the new chapel had been completed and was ready for worship.

In 1938, the MECS united with the MEC and the Methodist Protestant Church to form the Methodist Church and Kelley Chapel became Kelley Chapel Methodist Church.

In 1954, church school rooms were added to the sanctuary. The parsonage, which is the house at 3364 Kelley Chapel Road, was completed in 1961. In 1963, the church office building, located at 3399 Kelley Chapel Road, was constructed, and additional rooms were added to the sanctuary. The Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1968 to become the United Methodist Church. Kelley Chapel emerged into its present denominational name “Kelley Chapel United Methodist Church.”

In 1970, the new sanctuary (located at 3412 Kelley Chapel Road) where we now worship was completed. In 1975, due to increasing membership, additional wing structures were added to the church and the Family Life Center was constructed. In 1978, the church purchased the present parsonage located at 4225 Port Chester Way in the Kings Row Subdivision.