Level Hill church over the years.
(Editor’s Note: the following is taken from a new book about the 200th anniversary of the Level Creek United Methodist Church, compiled by Pete Fleming of Duluth. The Suwanee and Duluth Methodist churches shared the same ministers of a circuit for 60 years.—eeb)
By Lloyd E. “Pete” Fleming
SUWANEE, Ga. | Founded in 1822, Level Creek United Methodist Church located near Suwanee, on Suwanee Dam Road, celebrated its 200th anniversary on October 2, 2022. North Georgia Resident Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson delivered a message about the power of the church in the world and congratulated Level Creek on providing that power for most of our nation’s history.
Fleming
The Rev. Elaine Kelly Wilder, Level Creek’s pastor, described the church’s history and its many roles in the community. Level Creek developed a 106 page history that it made available to the more than 200 people who attended the event.
One of the oldest churches in Gwinnett County, Level Creek began when Gwinnett was a frontier with few roads and shared space for years with the Creek and Cherokee Indigenous people, a situation fraught with peril and sometimes outright hostility. The people of Level Creek Church built its first sanctuary in 1828, a three sided log structure lean-to, a little over a mile from its present location. It also established a cemetery that still exists in the Lake Forest subdivision, but now is badly overgrown. It contains 39 graves of people “known but to God.” Fifteen of the graves are of children.
As Level Creek prospered, the church launched many Methodist ministers onto very successful careers. Perhaps the most prominent and best known of these served their first pastorate at Level Creek. That person was Will Willimon, one of Methodism’s best-known ministers, authors, speakers, and bishops. He served here as a Candler School of Theology seminary student in 1971.
The church moved to its present location in 1854. It erected the present sanctuary in 1897 with clapboard siding, a high arched ceiling, and clear glass windows that opened at the top for cooling during the hot summer months. Known sometimes as the church with a cemetery, the Level Creek cemetery is a watershed of Gwinnett County history. For example, it contains the remains of many early members, and it also contains the remains of 14 Confederate soldiers and many other war veterans. It is a prominent landmark with its monuments and statues easily visible from Suwanee-Dam Road.
As the 21st century dawned, Level Creek had a membership approaching 200. It has continued a steady growth ever since numbering over 500 members today with a host of programs serving the congregation and the community. Its current pastor, the Rev. Elaine Wilder, has helped retire the church’s debt and has launched many new community outreach programs.
She also steered the church successfully through the COVID 19 pandemic launching, on-line worship services and many other alternate ways to deliver the church’s message. Under her leadership and that of the seven previous ministers who attended the bicentennial celebration, Level Creek has taken its rightful and historic place among the large community of United Methodist churches serving Gwinnett County.
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