Six generations of Deborah Wilson’s family have worshipped at Poplar Springs United Methodist Church in Adairsville.
Her great-grandparents are buried in the church cemetery across the road.
Her daughter said her “I dos” in the church.
Her mother’s funeral was held there.
So it’s especially painful for Wilson that her beloved church will hold its last service on Sunday.
“It’s really like saying goodbye to a relative,” said Wilson, a 60-year-old retired bookkeeper and the church’s finance chairman. “It’s heartbreaking. It can’t be a part of our lives anymore and we can’t be a part of it. I’ve known this church my whole life. I matured in Christ here.”
The church, located right off I-75, about 60 miles north of downtown Atlanta, was founded 179 years ago. At its height, it had roughly 80 members. In recent years, its membership has dwindled to 19. Members died. Some moved away. Other left to join other congregations.
A few of the devoted, like Lynn Smith, stayed.
Smith and her friend Wilson were baptized on the same day in Fite Casey Lake.
“I grew up here,” said Smith. “I was saved when I was 9 and now I’m almost 58. This is home. There’s nowhere else but here, and now it’s being taken away from us.”
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It was almost lost before. In April 1981, a 28-year-old mentally disturbed woman hitchhiking from Florida broke into the church and started a fire that destroyed 80 percent of the church. Members held bake sales and yard sales to scrape together enough money to build a new sanctuary. They borrowed about $5,000.
Dina Manning recalls being on her hands and knees ripping up linoleum from the basement and she and her parents picking out all the replacement stained-glass windows in the new church.
“We were devastated,” Manning said as she wiped away tears. “We were out trying to get people to join to reboost the church.”
Since 1960, the church has had 11 pastors; the most recent one left last year. Since then, lay ministers have led the weekly services.
“A church closing is always painful,” said Sybil Davidson, a spokeswoman for the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, which decided to close the church. “Our hope is that each member will find another loving congregation.”
Last year, eight churches of 830 churches in the conference closed their doors.
Davidson said that when keeping a church open is “no longer sustainable, our denomination has guidelines in place to direct the congregation and its leadership through the process of closing. That process has been followed and the church will celebrate its final worship service in June. The Board of Trustees of the North Georgia Conference will determine the best way to utilize the property going forward.”
Davidson said several UMC churches in the North Georgia Conference close each year, “but overall the story of the United Methodist Church in North Georgia is positive. There are creative new ministries beginning and strategic decisions are made year-round about how to be the best stewards and servants in our communities.”
Smith said the church was asked whether they wanted to merge with another Methodist church in the area, but it’s not something members of Poplar Springs really want.
They want to remain a spiritual family — perhaps growing in the future.
“We have a lot of wonderful memories,” Manning said.
There has been talk about starting an independent nondenominational church.
Wilson said members were told they were not bringing in enough to pay a full-time pastor. Still, many of the remaining members think the church, which is on prime property, is closing to make way for commercial development. It’s right off a busy interstate exit with fast-food restaurants, a truck stop and gas stations.
They talked about renting the church property. “We were willing to do just about anything to keep it open,” Wilson said.
“If we were out in the country, no one would care,” said Smith. “We want to start another church that no one can take away from us. We need a miracle.”
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