In late January 2023, the Sycamore Tree United Methodist Church gathered for its last worship service and subsequently closed. The church’s property, consisting of a 17,000 square foot building on a 5 acre lot at 1830 Clydesdale Street, became the responsibility of the Smoky Mountain District and ultimately the Holston Conference.

In late May 2023, the Holston Conference trustees voted to convey the property to our congregation, with the condition that 1st Church  satisfy the remaining indebtedness associated with the property. The conference trustees valued the property at $1.9 million; the outstanding debt was $213,388.

The 1st UMC Church Council and Board of Trustees met jointly at the Sycamore Tree site to see and pray over the building and grounds and to discuss whether and how our church might use this property to carry out our mission and ministry. Days later, both bodies voted unanimously to receive the conveyance and to pay the remaining debt from designated funds and strategic ministry opportunity reserve funds.  The conveyance became official in late September 2023. 

How are we using this property to carry out our mission and ministry?

There are seemingly countless ways to expand the 1st UMC congregation’s ministries into the community through the use of the Sycamore Tree campus. In the near term, community ministry partners like Family Promise, Compassion Counseling and DayBreak Dementia Respite Ministry all call 1st UMC @ Sycamore Tree home.

The hope and expectation for this ministry hub is for community help agencies and 1st Church Ministries to work together to assist the most vulnerable neighbors by gaining access to several layers of assistance in one place.

The people of 1st UMC are grateful to God for this opportunity to share blessing with the community and region in new ways. Please pray that God’s Holy Spirit will reveal the God-sized visions of how we might use this gift in the most fruitful, faithful, effective ways.