A little history about us...

   The Melbourne United Methodist Church has been located in Melbourne Arkansas for 127 years. The first church building was built in 1879 on land donated by John R. Richardson at the junction of highway 69 and 9 across from the present location of Tate Lawrence Chevrolet Dealership. The church building was destroyed by a tornado in 1883 and was rebuilt on the same land and the congregation worshiped there until 1930 and the church was torn down and rebuild on the present location at the corner of Lunen and Olive streets.

   In 1803 Bishop Francis Asbury appointed circuit riders to minister to the people that were moving west. In 1835 the Batesville District of the Methodist Church was formed. The Melbourne church is listed in the Archives of Hendrix College as existing in 1877 as the Melbourne Circuit with J. C. Carter and then Thomas Vincent appointed in 1878 as ministers with a membership of 400 congregants. Previous to this worship was conducted in members homes.

   Until 1939 the church was the Melbourne Methodist Episcopal Church South, then it became the Methodist Church, when it united with the Protestant Methodist Church Episcopal South. On April 1, 1968 with the union of The Evangelical United Brethren Church and The Methodist Church, we became The United Methodist Church. First United Methodist Church Melbourne is in the North District of the Arkansas Conference and has had over eighty pastor serve and the names of some of them: S. L. Cochran 1879-1881, M. B. Umstead 1883-1884, Doyle Berkefeldt 1989-1995, Denzel Stokes 1995-1997, Richard Stegall 1997-2000, Glen Hicks 2001-2004, Rev. Terry L. Sager 2004 to the present. The Melbourne United Methodist church continues to serve the community with 100 members on the roll.