The History of Memorial United Methodist Church
Neptune City, New Jersey

1913-2001

Our Name is Changed

In 1939, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Methodist Protestant Church, Unified, and the name adopted for the merged churches was the Methodist Church. Because of this, the name of our church became Memorial Methodist Church of Neptune City.

In 1940, the Women's Missionary Societies and the Ladies Aid Societies of the Methodist Churches merged and became the Women's Society of Christian Service.

In 1941, Rev. Pennington and Miss Marjorie Bruschweiler were married in our church. A wedding reception for our pastor and his bride was held in the Sunday school room. The Women's Society of Christian Service was in charge of the reception, headed by Mrs. Carlton Lane and Mrs. Clifford Henry.

Rev. Pennington had been living at 2 Steiner Avenue in Neptune City, with Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Frazee prior to his marriage. The Women's Society rented a house at 56 Evergreen Avenue in Neptune City and furnished it for the parsonage to house our newly married pastor and his wife.

In February 1942, Rev. Stimson R. Smalley became our pastor. He served three years and seven months and left the church with a membership of 277, a prosperous financial condition and an active growing organization. Plans to build a parsonage had been discussed for several years and the lot next to the church on Lipman Place had already been purchased for that purpose. It was during Rev. Smalley's pastorate that a parsonage fund of $3,000 was built up. The funds came from pledges, dinners, cake sales, rummage sales and various other fund-raising activities with the Women's Society leading the project. Under Rev. Smalley's leadership considerable repairs and improvements were made. The membership was greatly increased and the finances more than doubled. The missionary giving was increased over 200%. More young people were attending summer camps, with some answering the call to prepare for full-time Christian service. Miss Janet Woehrer was now serving as a missionary in Arizona and we had begun to contribute to her support. We were also sending a boy to high school in India.

On May 3, 1944, the General Conference of the Methodist Church officially launched the "Crusade for Christ" which emphasized evangelism, stewardship and the church school. The financial phase began on December 1, 1944, with January 31, 1946, as the final closing date for payment of pledges. At the close of the financial phase of the crusade, Methodism shared with the world $26,000,000 for projects for a new world order, and world relief and reconstruction, which were part of the crusade program. Our church pledged $1,500, which was $500 above our quota, and our final contribution total was $1,676.

In the fall of 1945, the New Jersey Conference began the Crusade for Christ in the church school. Rev. Smalley wrote this challenge in his record:

On every hand we have witnessed a falling away from the church by young people and children. Indifference on the part of parents has not helped the situation. The result is appalling. We face the possibility of a generation growing up completely without the Church and possessing ideologies that are unchristian. The task is for each of us, we must not delay. Memorial will seek to double its enrollment in 1946. To do this we must have more consecrated Christian workers. It might mean sacrifice on the part of many who have felt they have little time to devote to Christian work. We must not forget that this is a crusade and no crusade is easy.

The evangelistic phase of the Crusade for Christ was completed with Neptune City again going over the top. New members were added and the membership grew to 347. We had three young men studying for the ministry: E. Jay Amey, Robert Beyer and Richard Keim. And one young lady, Janet Woehrer, was studying to become a missionary in India.