According to their website "The birth and growth of Saint Paul United Methodist Church is an exciting story of God's faithfulness and Christian obedience! "
Grace United Methodist Church had been housed on Moore Street in Searcy since the 1950's. In those days it was the newest United Methodist Church in town. By the 1990's the church building was landlocked and the membership had plateaued. The membership recieved a challanged from the North Arkansas Annual conference to start a new church on the west side of Searcy. After "much prayer and discussion, the church decided overwhelmingly to accept the challenge". The Grace UMC building was sold and, land was bought and the congregation worshipped in the Senior Citizen's center until the new church could be built.
For nearly four years, the church worshiped at the Lightle Center, setting up and breaking down chairs, room dividers, and sound systems every Sunday. Co-pastors, Rev. Dee Edwards and Rev. Jan Edwards, helped provide the vision of what SPUMC could become.
The first major act as a new church was to buy land on Beebe-Capps Expressway. Although the Annual Conference provided some financial help, the members of the congregation dug deep into their pockets to accomplish the purchase and construction of our current buildings.
In 1999, Dr. Luke Conway was appointed as pastor of SPUMC. On Easter Sunday of 2000, the congregation worshiped in their new church building. In the spring of 2002 Iva Light donated money for the construction of a education wing was constructed. The education wing served the Christian education department on Sunday and Wednesday, and the Little Saints Child Development Center during the work week.
In June 2002, Rev. Tom Letchworth was appointed as pastor.
On February 26, 2006, the congregation witnessed the 'burning of the mortgage' and on the same day, broke ground for a new 11,000 square foot Christian Education building. The new building "will serve as a multi generational, multipurpose discipleship center." An important feature of the new building will include the Jonathan's Child Sunday School classroom, which will accommodate the special needs of families and children with autism, Charge Syndrome, Downs Syndrome and other challenges. Construction was completed by December 2006.
Quotation are from the Churches Web Site.