Building Faith Church in Mt. Hebron, Virginia, marks 175th anniversary of its building

Building Faith Church at Mt. Hebron will celebrate the 175th anniversary of its building on Sunday with a 10 a.m. service at 1444 Mount Hebron Road, west of Toms Brook. The nondenominational congregation purchased the building from the former Mt. Hebron United Methodist Church last spring, and the celebration will mark the building’s history under several church communities.

The building first housed Mt. Hebron Church of the Brethren, beginning on Oct. 31, 1847. It became Mt. Hebron United Methodist Church in 1966 and welcomed its third church community in 2020, a nondenominational congregation. Pastor Bobby Funkhouser said the congregation’s aim is to keep the building in use: “We are preserving the church, keeping the doors open, serving Christ.”

Mt. Hebron closed in 2020, and its remaining membership joined Christian Newcomer United Methodist Church in Toms Brook. Funkhouser said the combination was made so the congregation would not have to fold after losing members before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funkhouser had been a member of Toms Brook UMC for nearly 45 years and served the church for many years as a certified lay leader, worship leader and council leader. He said that in 2020 he began leading his own nondenominational church, then called Building Faith Together, after a disagreement with the pastor at Toms Brook UMC. He started the congregation in September 2020 in the Toms Brook Fire Hall, where he and other members met for seven weeks before he learned of the vacancy at Mt. Hebron. That fall, the congregation moved into the former Mt. Hebron UMC building. It was incorporated as a church in January 2021.

After Mt. Hebron UMC fully disbanded in June 2021, the building returned to the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church in Richmond, which transferred it to the Harrisonburg District. Funkhouser said the conference accepted the congregation’s offer that June, though the paperwork was not completed until April 2022. The church has since rebranded to reflect its shared past with Mt. Hebron UMC and is now called Building Faith Church at Mt. Hebron.

The anniversary program will include a 10 a.m. service and a catered lunch afterward at the Mount Olive Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 12180 Back Road, also west of Toms Brook. Several past ministers were invited, but Funkhouser said several had died and the only one the church reached had another engagement. Former pianist Ruby Stickley, of Strasburg, will attend the Sunday service. A dedication that day will include a sign bearing the date Oct. 31, 1847, and a bench made from reclaimed wood from the church property, a sign of passing the faith to the next generation (Psalm 78:4).

“It’s a tight-knit community,” Funkhouser said. “We’re continuing the history of Mt. Hebron.”

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