150th anniversary.
A Longmont church is preparing for a very special year.
Like many faith communities, Heart of Longmont United Methodist Church chose to have its services go virtual because of the pandemic.
Looking through a computer screen on Sundays, Tricia Grafelman, a Longmont resident, lay leader and member of 15 years, said her feeling of connection to the church didn’t wane, despite not being able to share the same room with congregants.
“During COVID, we found out that church is not necessarily the building,” Grafelman said. “Church is the people.”
This is testament to the church’s strong tie with its members and mission to engage the Longmont community — tools that likely have helped the Heart of Longmont survive for nearly 150 years.
This year, alongside the city’s 150th anniversary, the Methodist church also will celebrate the milestone birthday.
Grafelman and her fellow members said they are proud of the church’s storied legacy and influence in the Longmont community. As they celebrate the congregation’s past, they also will be looking to the future and what they can do next to better their Longmont community next.
Anyone who steps inside the church at 350 11th Avenue is likely to hear Ann Yoder say, “You have to see the sanctuary.”
Yoder is the church’s historian. Even after 44 years of attending the church, the Heart of Longmont’s west side “Miracle Window,” made of multicolored stained glass, still conjures awe in Ann and her husband, Gordon.
As parents to three children, the couple said it was the youth program that first drew them to the church.
Providing services to youths continues to be a focus of the
church. In fact, the church is credited with sponsoring Longmont’s first Boy Scout Troop in June 1921 and the city’s first Head Start program in 1968, according to a Times-Call article featuring the church’s 125th anniversary. Today the church continues to provide a home for a preschool program for children from low-income families.
The church, which welcomes the LGBTQIA+ community, is also part of the Reconciling Ministries Network. The church’s website says the network seeks the full equality of “God’s lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender children.”
Helping local nonprofits is also rooted in the Heart of Longmont’s history. The church has collected food for the OUR Center and has been a warming center for people using services in Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement. This holiday season, the church provided meals for HOPE to serve to people.
When asked what’s kept her coming back for 44 years, Yoder said it’s the bonds she has created with those who attend the church.
“We formed many friendships and became very involved in serving on the various committees and boards,” Yoder said. “It’s home now. (The church) is home to us.”
The Rev. David Burt, who has served at the church’s helm for 2½ years, said while the church’s name, which was changed in 2012, and location are different, its mission never wavered.
“Knowing that in 1871 there was a dedicated group of people who wanted to bring the Methodist movement to the new town of Longmont excites me,” he wrote in an email. “And knowing that movement has shaped lives, helped create and transform policies, established connections for people’s spiritual and physical lives over all those years is thrilling.”
Yoder also loves her church’s history in the Longmont community.
Originally named the Methodist Episcopal Church, it first organized on June 21, 1871. On July 9, 1871, when the first Sunday service took place, 32 members gathered for worship at the old Library Hall on Pratt Street, according to a Times-Call article.
The Rev. R.J. Van Valkenberg, who had been a circuit rider preacher, is credited as delivering Longmont’s first ever sermon, Yoder said.
As to whether the church is the first to be established in Longmont, Yoder said there’s “some controversy on that.”
Longmont Museum curator of history Erik Mason said there is a diary entry from Seth Terry, a member of the Locating Committee of the Chicago-Colorado Colony, on March 5, 1871, mentioning that he attended church and listened to a sermon by Van Valkenburg.
“Since that is only one month after the colony was incorporated on Feb. 2, it is the earliest record I am aware of regarding a church service in Longmont,” Mason wrote in an email.
A certificate of incorporation for Methodist Episcopal Church of Longmont from Aug. 19, 1871, lists Terry one of the founders, according to the Times-Call article.
One local church, Central Longmont Presbyterian Church, has roots that predate Longmont’s founding. It was founded in 1869.
Heart of Longmont has been at its current location since 1959, according to the Times-Call article.
To celebrate its 150th anniversary, Heart of Longmont plans to host a series of special guests, including former pastors, during its regular Sunday services.
The celebration will culminate on July 11, the closest date to the church’s first service, when Heart of Longmont hopes to host an inperson potluck and invite people to dress in period costumes. The event will be in-person on if pandemic conditions improve and it’s safe for people to gather.
Although the church’s membership has fallen since the 1970s, from 1,500 to about 300, Yoder said the congregation’s story has many more chapters ahead. “It’s amazing what we can still accomplish,” Yoder said.