Sunnycrest Community Church has been in ministry in Northwest Marion for over 100 years and has a rich history.
In 1905, the First United Brethren Church (now Trinity United Methodist Church) saw fit to extend its ministry through a mission congregation, the Spencer Avenue United Brethren Church. From 1906 to 1958, the congregation worshipped at the corner of Spencer and Butler Avenues. In the meantime, denominational union had created the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The Spencer Avenue congregation responded to new developments in Marion by relocating on four acres in the Sunnycrest addition on West Bradford Street. There the Sunnycrest E.U.B Church first worshipped in a house-like structure and then after 1965 in their current sanctuary, which seats approximately 200. By 1968 another name-change took place: With the Methodist-E.U.B. union, the congregation became Sunnycrest United Methodist Church. In 1977, the bell tower which enhances the entrance to the church plant took its place, restoring to use the bell from the Spencer Avenue building.
Throughout the years, our Church continues to grow. In 2015, the original Church building was taken down to allow room for a new addition to the Church including a Fellowship Hall. Later that year, on August 29, the Church celebrated its 110th birthday with a homecoming and party. We also planted an Ebenezer tree to commemorate the historic event. In October 2015, we held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new addition to the Church. The following year, we held a Consecration & Celebration for the new addition.
All throughout this history, our congregation is noted for its personal ties and family-like warmth. It seeks to continue to meet the needs of long-time Marion residents and newcomers, young and old, alike.
Each of us knows that it is not our own strength or to our own glory that we recall the many years of service of this congregation, but it is rather God's work among us in which we take pride. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians:
"...neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." -- I Corinthians 3:7-11 (NIV)
