Our History
- The early years...
During the early months of 1965, the clergy and laity of the First United Methodist Church of Red Bank (FUMCRB) held discussions about the need for further ministry in the Middletown Area. As a result of those discussions and the movement of the Spirit to bring certain dedicated persons together embracing the same hopes, the congregation to be known as Middletown United Methodist Church came into being.
Under the leadership of Rev. Gordon Lowden, Sr. Pastor of the FUMCRB, and Rev. Paul Friedrich, Northeast District Superintendent, the Southern New Jersey Annual Conference enabled the purchase of the 7.3-acre plot on Middletown-Lincroft Road for the church building and the house and land on Marcshire Drive to become the parsonage. The Rev. Wayne Conrad, Associate Pastor of FUMCRB was assigned the task of building the congregation. The first service was held on October 10, 1965 in the All-Purpose Room of the Nut Swamp School attended by a group of members of the FUMCRB who became the nucleus of the new congregation.
With light snow falling, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new church was held on November 19, 1967, Rev. Paul Friedrich presiding and Dr. Franklin Buck, Conference Program Counselor, attending. A piano was dedicated which had been donated by Mrs. Brasch in memory of her husband Edward Brasch from who the church property had been purchased.
The Rev. Williams Abrams, appointed the second pastor in 1967, guided the development of the congregation as it struggled to meet the financial needs of a new building. During his pastorate, new programs were launched, including:
- MUMC's first Cooperative Vacation Bible School
- The chartering of a chapter of United Methodist Men
- A Couples' Club
- The beginning of MUMC's association with the Spanish Mission in Keyport, NJ.
In 1971, The Rev. Donald Phillips Jr. marked his pastoral tenure by deepening the congregation's spiritual experience as the result of a Lay Witness Mission. He envisioned MUMC's cooperative work in Central Monmouth Inter-Church Ministry and enhanced MUMC's music program with the purchase of an electric organ.
In 1975, the Rev. Richard Wilson became the fourth paster of MUMC who worked dilligently with the committee responsible for carrying out the Church plan to sponsor a refugee family from Vietnam. MUMC maintained a close relationship with the Nguyen family and ultimately sponsored their citizenship in 1982.
Click here for our complete pastoral history.