Although their journeys are not exactly a straight line, the First Evangelical Church organized in 1841 and the United Brethren Mission established in 1865 eventually merged on farmland south of Dayton in 1962. The two early churches for the most part served the German population of east Dayton.
Steve Miller of Beavercreek and Nancy Renz of Springboro are longtime congregants who were raised at Wayne Avenue Methodist Church. Miller can trace his roots back many generations. “My great, great, great grandfather was Absalom Shafer, a circuit rider pastor and missionary who founded the church that became the Wayne Avenue church.”
In 1884, a group of young members of Raper Methodist Church were meeting in a store room on Wayne Avenue owned by a Mr. Billet. At the same time, young people from First Evangelical Church wanted to start an English-speaking church and became interested in the Billet Mission project, which sought support from the Methodist Church but was denied. The group appealed to the Evangelical Conference for aid and received it. In 1888 a church was dedicated.
“As the need for a German-speaking church lessened, merger discussions began and in 1927, the First Evangelical and Wayne Avenue churches met together for the first time as Wayne Avenue Evangelical Church,” said Renz.
During the early 1960s, building began for state route 35 through east Dayton taking many homes, streets and businesses. There were no longer enough families in the neighborhood to support the three United Methodist churches in the area. Because Wayne Avenue’s property was the most valuable, the church opted to sell and relocate. A Sunoco now sits on that property. Wayne Avenue asked Hope United Methodist Church to join them and the congregations merged in 1971.
Meanwhile, in 1865, the First United Brethren Church organized a small Sunday school on Allen Street in east Dayton. After 16 years, the first pastor was appointed and High Street United Brethren Church was organized. In 1910 ground was broken for a larger church at High and Richard streets.
This church was heavily damaged by fire in 1960. Shortly thereafter congregants learned their church’s location was in included in the U.S. 35 right-of-way program making future plans uncertain. A few months later, the congregation voted to accept 10 acres of land on Wilmington Pike and applied the insurance check and proceeds from the sale of their building toward a new structure, which was completed in 1962. The church’s name was changed to Christ Evangelical United Brethren Church. A remnant of the High Street fire is a beautiful stained glass window which now adorns a large room at Hope Church.
In 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren churches and the Methodist churches united. But because there was already a Christ United Methodist Church in Kettering, the name Hope United Methodist Church was selected.
Fires, mergers, construction and population shifts have not shaken the work or mission of Hope Church. Clearly, members are taking their church’s name seriously as they look forward with hope and back at the generations that came before them and helped plot their journey.
With more than 350 members, Hope Church is involved locally and globally. “We sponsor a clinic in Zambia which just completed a maternity facility with high tech equipment,” said Miller. “We support Brigid’s Path for heroin-addicted babies and the Bell Hop Café in Bellbrook.”
Rather than the usual two services at Hope Church, there will be one service Aug. 28 followed by a family picnic.
For more information about Hope Church, go online to www.hopeindayton.org.
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