An historic church in Lenexa celebrated 100 years of worship at its building in Old Town Lenexa.
At a re-dedication ceremony on Sunday, the sanctuary of Lenexa United Methodist Church was packed as people gathered to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
While the church’s sanctuary was built and dedicated in 1925, the church itself is much older. Lenexa United Methodist Church was founded by five women in 1869.
Over the course of the entire 20th century and beyond, the church has watched history unfold, with its members passing down stories of the past and making 100 years feel like a short amount of time.
“When you look back … it sounds like, ‘Oh, it’s 100 years.’ But then we talk about our members who’ve been here for 60 years, we talk about our staff, who some have been on for almost 30 years, and there’s so much history, not only in the books … but within each one of these peoples’ stories,” Rev. Lori Patton Aguilar said.
The sanctuary was built in 1925
The church was founded on July 18, 1869, by Catharine Allen, Clarissa Allen, Sarah Bradshaw, Elizabeth Ransom and Elizabeth Stinson.
In 1870, it was incorporated as The Lenexa Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first church founded in Lenexa, it also happens to be the first faith-based organization to build a church in the city.
Through the decades, as its congregation grew, it went through several different spaces, including a schoolhouse, before erecting its first church structure, a white frame building, in 1878.
Recognizing in 1924 that it needed an even bigger space, the church, led by a group of mostly volunteers, started construction on a new $25,000 structure, which contains the sanctuary the church’s congregation still worships in at 9138 Caenen Lake Road. On Nov. 15, 1925, it was dedicated and open to the public.
Since then, the church has seen many changes, said Linda Stokes, a member of Lenexa United Methodist since 1983 and author of the book “Methodism in Old Town Lenexa”. Some of those changes include new additions and upgrades to the church’s building, but also the ebb and flow of members of its congregation.
Even the sanctuary itself, which had a major remodel done in 1969, still has touches of the first design, including its original stained glass windows.
“To think that that same sanctuary that we worship in today, they’ve been worshiping in for 100 years, it’s just awesome to think about it,” she said.
The church honored the past
Throughout the celebration on Sunday, the church paid homage to the original dedication of its sanctuary 100 years ago.
During the service, church leaders led congregants in re-creating the pledge drive that funded the building. The choir sang songs, like “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” like it did at its dedication service in 1925. Church members honored previous pastors with a wall of photos that lined the main hall. And attendees gathered for a community lunch similar to the one that occurred 100 years ago.
Two guest speakers, Rev. Jin Cho, Northeast Kansas District United Methodist Church superintendent, and Bishop Rev. David Wilson, spoke highly of the church’s history and its commitment to continue helping people grow in their faith.
“We thank (the Lord) for the pastors, leaders and members through the decades who taught your word, served their neighbors and loved your people deeply,” Cho said during a prayer at the service. “For every baptism, every wedding, every funeral, every Sunday preaching and every prayer whispered, every mission launched, and every life touched, and every story we created together, we praise you.”
Inclusion is part of the church’s mission
Downstairs in the church is a room dedicated to the church’s history. Curated by Stokes, it features photos and biographies of previous pastors, as well as historic photos, documents and ephemera.
In several binders, Stokes has captured the church’s history, with more recent events, like the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, getting their own book because of how much it has defined the future of the church.
“(In 2020), we were shut down for 13 weeks two different times. That’s 26 out of 52 weeks,” she said. “That had never happened in 150 years and so, we’re, like everybody else, still coming out of it.”
In 2019, the United Methodist Church denomination had a split, largely based on how the church considers LGBTQ ministers and congregants, according to PBS News.
This prompted Lenexa United Methodist Church to let people know where they stand: That everyone is welcome.
“We sort of went the next step and said, ‘(LGBTQ+ people), you are welcome. You are included. But so is everybody else. It doesn’t matter race, gender, any other thing.’ We wanted to make that message known that everybody has a home here,” Stokes said.
New pastor is leading church into the future
With Patton Aguilar coming aboard as pastor in 2024, she is the first senior pastor with young children in the church since since Rev. Charles E. Schneeberger in 1951, Stokes said. Under Patton Aguilar’s leadership, the church has renewed sense of energy and purpose.
“It’s an exciting time for the church,” Stokes said.
As she honors the church’s history, Patton Aguilar said she’s happy to be a part of it, as well as help it lead by example in the city.
“We’re trying to figure out how we can be intentional about being in relationship with our neighbors here in Old Town and partnering with ministries like Project 1020 and with our elementary schools, and making sure that we’re not a church that’s a silo. We’re a church that reaches out and connects with our community members to partner together and to try to make the world a better place,” she said.
