About God
We believe in one God who created all things, who rules over all things, who always was and always will be. God exists in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one. God is all powerful, all knowing and is present everywhere. God is perfectly pure and just, without sin. Out of His great love, God created humanity and made a way for us to spend eternity with Him.
Son - Matt 17:5; God/man - Phil 2:6-9; Conceived/virgin - Luke 1:30-35; Sinless - 2Cor 5:21, Heb 4:15; Savior - Matt 16:16-17; Voluntarily/cross - Jn 10:18, Phil 2:8, Ro 3:25; Rose - Jn 20:1-9, 27-29; Ascended/return - Acts 1:9-11; Luke 21:27; Judge - Rev 20:11-12; Reign - Eph 1:9-10, Luke 1:32-33; Loves - Jn 10:11, Ro 8:38-39
About Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, both fully God and fully human. He became a man by being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. He lived a perfect and sinless life. He is the Savior promised by God in the Bible. Because of His great love for us and His obedience to the Father, He voluntarily paid for our sin by dying on the cross. He physically rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our intercessor and advocate. One day He will return to Earth to judge the living and the dead. He will reign over all things forever.
Sent - Jn 14:16,26, 16:7; Convicts/draws - Jn 16:8-11; Live in/guarantee - Eph 1:13-14, Ro 8:16; Transforms - Ro 8:1-4; Fullness/power manifested - Eph 3:16-19
About the Holy Spirit
We believe in the Person of the Holy Spirit, fully God, and sent by the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin and judgment and draws sinners to righteousness in Christ. The Holy Spirit comes to live in believers from the moment of spiritual birth and guarantees their inheritance as God's adopted children. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit transforms believers into the likeness of Christ and equips and empowers them for spiritual growth and obedient service. The fullness and power of the Holy Spirit is manifested in the believer's life by faith in God and obedient surrender to Him.
Sent - Jn 14:16,26, 16:7; Convicts/draws - Jn 16:8-11; Live in/guarantee - Eph 1:13-14, Ro 8:16; Transforms - Ro 8:1-4; Fullness/power manifested - Eph 3:16-19
About the Bible
We believe that the Bible is the living and active word of God, received as the Old and New Testaments, and inspired by God in its original writing. Its teachings are entirely trustworthy, are our highest authority in faith and life, and endure forever. The word of God is powerful and judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. In the Bible, God reveals Himself to humanity. The Bible also reveals the way to be made right with God and the way to live a life that pleases Him.
Inspired - 2Tim 3:16; Matt 24:35; Active/powerful - Heb 4:12; Reveals - 2Tim 3:15
About Human Beings
We believe that we, as human beings, were created male and female by God in His own image and for His good pleasure. God gave us free will and dominion over all creation. Through the willful disobedience of Adam all humanity fell under the power of sin, and became separated from God. Apart from God, we cannot be made holy, and deserve God's righteous judgment.
Created - Ge 1:27; Dominion - Ge 1:28; Adam - Ro 5:12-14; Apart/judgment - Ro 3:10-20, 30, 1Jn 1
About Being Made Right with God
We believe that in order to be made right with God we must recognize, confess and turn away from our sin, and have faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ as the means to be reconciled to God. We can do nothing to earn our salvation; it is solely a gift of God's grace, received exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Jesus Christ has been graciously credited to all believers. Only Jesus is able to rescue us from the eternal consequences of our sin.
Recognize/faith - Ac 2:37-38, Ro 3:22-26; Gift - Eph 2:8-9; Credited - Ro 3:25, 1Pe 3:18; Only Jesus - Ac 4:12, John 14:6
About How We Are to Live
We believe that God has called us to be disciples and imitators of Christ, surrendered to live in obedience to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and love others as we love ourselves. Our lives should be characterized by worship, evangelism, fellowship, service and moral purity.
Imitators - Ro 8:29, 1Co 11:1, Phil 2:5; Love - Mark 12:30,31; Characterized - Eph 4:17-5:6, 2:10, 1Cor 12:7, Ro 12:3-5, Matt 28:19; Eph 1:12
About the Church
We believe that the Christian Church is the community of all true believers under the lordship of Christ. The Church functions as the body of Christ, composed of many members, each different, all essential, unified and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The members of the Church are like living stones, built together to become a temple where God lives by His Spirit. Christ loves the Church as a bridegroom loves his bride. He gave Himself for the Church, to make her holy and clean, and will come again to take her to Himself. Christ commissioned the Church to proclaim the gospel to all nations, making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey Christ's commands.
Church/lordship/body - Eph 1:22, Ro 12:5, 1Co 12:12-26; Stones - Eph 2:19-22, 1Pe 2:5; Bride - Eph 5:25-32; Come and take - 1 Thess. 4:16-17; Rev. 19:7 Commissioned - Matt 28:19
About the Sacraments
We believe that the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordained by Christ as symbols and pledges of God's love toward us and of the believer's profession of faith. Baptism is a symbol of our participation by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Lord's Supper is a means to commemorate the sacrifice of Jesus' body and blood for the sins of the world.
Baptize - Matt 28:19, Acts 8:26-40, Romans 6:3,4; Communion - Matt 26:26-29, 1Cor 11:23-26
CHURCH HISTORY
First UMC has a heritage dating back to the late 1820's or early 1830's. Folklore has it that during this period the first Methodist settlers in this area gathered in the home of Jeremiah Murry, the founder of Murrysville, as did the Presbyterians. In 1832, the circuit rider Rev. Jacob Miller held services in Murrysville on the Northern Pike (Old Wm. Penn Highway) as noted in his papers. This being the earliest recording of a congregation in Murrysville, we take 1832 as the founding year for our church.
Prior to 1836 construction on a meetinghouse was started on land owned by Jeremiah Murry's son, General James Murry. In the minutes of the Braddock's Field Circuit of 1836 it was resolved "that the meetinghouse in Murrysville, now commenced, be finished and that Brother Joseph Wright, the preacher in charge be appointed to obtain a deed for said meetinghouse." This deed, in which James Murry and his wife Priscilla donate land to the Methodist Episcopal Church of Murrysville, signed December 3, 1836, can be found in Deed Book 23 Page 424. A larger building constructed in 1868 on the same property, served until 1911. The building is now Dean’s Barbershop which is west of the First Commonwealth Bank.
Murrysville was part of a Methodist circuit that at times included as many as seven other churches; notably Sardis, Delmont, and Mamont. Sardis and Murrysville continued as a two-point charge or circuit well in to the twentieth century while the others closed their doors.
A new church, part of our current structure, was completed in 1913 at a cost of $10,000 that featured a Moeller pipe organ partially funded by Andrew Carnegie. The parsonage next door, built by the Sardis congregation, (on the site of the present education building) burned in 1923; all congregational records were lost. The parsonage was rebuilt by Sardis the following year, and the Murrysville Methodist Episcopal Church grew and prospered even through the depression of the 1930s.
By the mid-1950’s, the Murrysville area was experiencing a significant population increase, due to the construction of several corporate research facilities nearby. To provide needed worship and education space, members of the congregation literally turned the church around. The sanctuary, which had faced east, was now a much larger, longer sanctuary, facing north.
In 1959 the Murrysville church became a “one point charge,” with its own pastor. A weekday kindergarten program opened in 1960 which led the congregation to expand its educational facilities; a large addition was built in 1965, on the site of the old parsonage. A new parsonage on Marjorie Drive was purchased in 1968.
The tradition of church members building together has continued through the years. Renovation of the chapel and creation of needlepoint kneelers and paraments have added to the beauty of the church. A new organ was underwritten by the congregation within a 3 month period in 1985.
In March 1998 the church doubled its acreage by acquiring from the Presbyterian Church 0.925 acres of wooded hillside immediately north of the church’s educational wing and upper parking lot. On December 26, 2000, the church expanded to the West by purchasing from the Murrysville Fire Company 0.59 acres of land on which sat the former Murrysville Post Office. The former post office, known now as the Church Annex, was renovated primarily by church volunteers in the summer of 2003 for use by the early morning contemporary worship service as well as for other church functions. The debt was paid off in the spring of 2005.
The ministry of the church has grown along with its physical plant. The kindergarten program is now the Bright Beginnings Preschool. The church now has a staff of nine who oversee ministries to children, youth, and adults seven days a week involving them in worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and mission opportunities.
The latest renovation/building project has involved making the church's main entryways handicap accessible, modernizing entryways, upgrading restrooms, installing a multimedia/sound system, elevator, and air conditioning to the main sanctuary. These renovations cost approximately $450,000.
2007 was the church’s 175 Anniversary. We can look back and recount building after building project, a story of continual progress. But, the real story of FUMC’s history is not about building but about people – people who have connected to Jesus Christ. People who have celebrated births, baptized babies, people who have grown, served, and worshipped together in the love of Jesus Christ. Our history is one of consistently proclaiming God’s salvation in Jesus Christ. A history that we are still actively writing today.
