A little bit about where we started:
Methodist ministries who have served Yale have quite the history. Earliest records show Brockway Circuit. Port Huron District Methodist Episcopal Church with Rev. Morey Herrington organizing the Mill Creek Circuit in 1857. Brockway Centre which is now Yale was ministered by the "Elk Creek Circuit Riders," "The Mill Creek Circuit Riders" and "The Brockway Circuit Riders".
The list starts with J.H. Camburn in 1858 and Thomas Nichols in 1862 through the Methodist-Episcopal Church. A small log room was built on the present site of the McMillin Furniture store. It served as a meeting place for business and church services. It was too small to accommodate all the children. A new larger building was put up on the present site of the McMillan home in 1867. The old Cottage School as it was called was not built to handle such large crowds and the floor soon gave way. The building was shared alternately by the Methodist-Protestant and the Methodist-Episcopal Congregations. Services were then held in a barn nearby.
In 1871, the Methodist-Episcopals erected a new church just north of the current post office on Jones Street, but after a few years it burned.
The Methodist-Protestant congregation purchased property on Park Avenue and built another church in 1872 which still stands today. It was sold to the United Missionary Church and now belongs to the Church of Believers.
The current Methodist Church site was purchased from the estate of James Brown, through Henry Ohmer the Administrator. The building was finally completed in 1917 and still stands today. It was dedicated on December 2, 1917 as the Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Waldren Geach was the pastor.
In 1945, the congregations of the Methodist-Protestant and the Methodist-Episcopal became one. They were then known as the Central United Methodist Church.
In 1968, it became the Yale United Methodist Church. It has a rich history from the early logging and farming days of Brockway Centre to its Current Standing in the community today.
Methodist History:
The streams of spiritual life that came together to form the United Methodist church had their origins in the Evangelistic outreach and Ministries of John and Charles Wesley and Francis Asbury (The Methodist Church), Phillip William Otterbein and Martin Boehm (The United Brethren Church), and Jacob Albright (The Evangelical Church). All were claimed by a common faith and zeal. The authority of the scripture, a personal spiritual experience of salvation through faith in Christ, and love expressed in service to others were emphasized by each of them.
The churches that came together to form the United Methodist Church in 1968 held the same fundamental doctrines of faith. "Theological traditions steeped in the protestant reformation and Wesley Anism, similar ecclesiastical structures, and relationships which dated back almost two hundred years facilitated the union"
From each of these Pioneers, claimed by God, we have received a rich heritage that has touched almost every aspect of our lives. Since the beginning days of the "Oxford Methodist", "Otterbein People", and the "Albright People", the church that came into being through their influence has served a multitude of people all over the world and has grown to over 9.7 million members today.
Our United Methodist Discipline States:
1. As United Methodists, we have an obligation to bear a faithful Christian witness to Jesus Christ, the Living Reality at the center of the Church's life and witness.
2. Scripture. The Bible is the primary source for what we believe. Our doctrines are grounded in the Biblical story of God's self-disclosure-in creation, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in the activity of the Holy Spirit, and in the coming of God's promised kingdom.
3. Tradition. Our Christian tradition is rooted in the lives and within the works and testimony of those who have gone before us.
4. Christian Experience. Our personal experience of God's pardoning and healing love is radically different from intellectual assent to the message of the Bible or to doctrines set forth in our creeds.
5. Reason. We believe all truth comes from God.