Our History
Trinity UMC was founded in 1895, 19 years after the city of DeLand was established. In 1898, the church moved into its first home on East Rich Avenue. The church name was changed in 1905 to Grace Methodist Church. During the early 1920’s the name reverted back to the original name. The building was sold in 1926 and the First Methodist Episcopal Church South moved into the building it occupies today. In 1968, the name was changed for the final time to Trinity United Methodist Church at the onset of the new United Methodist denomination.
A brief history:
In 2009, Trinity UMC purchased ten acres of land on the west side of Plymouth Avenue and held a service of blessing on the new property in December of that year. In 2016, Trinity began a $1.3 million capital campaign for the new building and, in September 2017, the membership voted at a special church conference to approve the footprint and financial plan for new church building.
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We have met our $1.3 million goal and are now in the process of securing permits and finalizing the design of the building. With God’s help, we hope to break ground in 2021!
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The reasoning behind our decision to move and build a new facility: There are many reasons why Trinity has determined that its facility no longer meets the needs of our church. We have a large building located just off the downtown area of DeLand (1926) and First UMC DeLand is located four blocks away from our present location. We have no room to expand, since the Volusia County School Board occupies all of the remaining parcels in our block. Although ours is considered a beautiful, somewhat historic building, old churches require more expensive and extensive upgrades than new structures in order to keep up with today’s modern features and technologies.
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We have made the decision to be better stewards of our resouces and put our monies to better use, expanding programs, such as missions and outreach into the community and our world, Christian education of children, youth and young adults, Discipleship-making and witness programs. We have excellent and passionate lay leadership involvement at Trinity and are always looking for ways to better equip and train laity and we have a nice balance of age groups from infant to senior adult
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The good news is that we have already met our $1.300,00 goal and have approved the building footprint and financial plan. We are now in the process of securing permits and finalizing the design of the building. With God’s help, we hope to break ground late summer-early fall of 2020!