ROGERS – Don’t let the building size fool you, the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church on Pancake-Clarkson Road has had a resounding effect on the area for the last 200 years.

The church will celebrate its bicentennial anniversary with a special service at 11 a.m. Sunday, with special speaker the Rev. Dan Bryant, superintendent of the Mahoning Valley District.

A rededication ceremony will be held immediately after the service at the newly refurbished bell tower to honor church members who have recently passed away.

A covered dish dinner is scheduled for 12:30 p.m., with musical entertainment beginning around 1:45 p.m. A historical display will also be featured for those interested in the church’s history.

Pastor James Rhodes, who has served the church since the retirement of Lester Hickman, has spent the last year researching the church’s history, which includes the establishment of other Methodist churches in the county.

In a press release announcing the celebration service, he said the church’s origins date back to sometime before 1815, and began when local farmer Amos Stevens opened his home to Methodist “circuit riders.”

According to the history, Amos’ home became a regular preaching stop, and eventually land was set aside for the first church structure. First known as the “Stevens Meeting House,” the church took on the name Mt. Zion after a building was constructed in 1865.

“While the congregation has been a relatively small one throughout most of its history, it has helped nurture many others who have carried on the work of the gospel. In 1834 or 1835 Amos Stevens moved west, where he continued to serve as a Methodist preacher in Crawford County, Ohio,” Rhodes said in the release.

Around that same time John Burt, an early convert and trustee of the congregation opened his home in northeastern Middleton Township to become an additional preaching stop on the circuit, the release stated.

That stop became known as “Burt Church” and was a direct predecessor of the current Centenary United Methodist Church in East Palestine. Two of Burt’s sons, Sylvester and Mark, subsequently entered the Methodist ministry, Rhodes said.

The church’s impact was also extended through Amos Stevens Billingsley, son of Middleton Township pioneer Robert Billingsley, another early trustee. Amos Billingsley entered the ministry as a Presbyterian, serving first as a pastor in East Palestine, according to information provided by Rhodes.

Amos Billingsley later became a missionary in the early West, serving as chaplain to the Colorado House of Representatives and later to the 101st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. On April 20, 1864 he as captured at Plymouth, N.C. and held prisoner at Libby Prison in Richmond, Va.

Rhodes said Billingsley wrote about his experiences as a Civil War chaplain in a book called “From the Flag to the Cross.” He finished his ministry as a pastor to freed blacks in Statesville, N.C.

Rhodes also said in the release that several members of Mt. Zion living nearer to Fredericktown became the nucleus of a new Methodist church following a successful revival in St. Clair township led by the Rev. Harlan Appleton in 1885. A decade later, Frank R. Guy, a lay preacher active at Mt. Zion, became instrumental in the founding of the Brush Run Methodist Church in Beaver Falls, Pa.

“Mt. Zion fell on hard times between 1936 and 1953, opening and closing intermittently or operating primarily as a Sunday school until it was rechartered as a Methodist congregation in 1955,” he said. “Today, as throughout much of its history, it remains a congregation whose vitality exceeds its size.”

Church member Nancy Michaels, who has attended since she was 3 years old, said the church has a dedicated congregation.

“There are still a lot of members that have been members for quite a long time. It’s a small country church. It’s a very spiritual church, a lot of faithful people, good people,” she said.

Hickman, who served as pastor for 23 years until his retirement three years ago, also still attends, she said.

Donna McComas and her husband Herb have attended the church since 1965 after purchasing farmland in the area. The couple relocated from East Liverpool and lived on the 33-acre property for many years. They now share the property with Herb’s brother Ray McComas, who also attends the church with his wife Marie.

Familiar with the church’s history, Donna McComas said the church is a place to “find your roots, find your connection with God.”

“We’re just thankful, thankful that we have been able to keep it open through the years,” she said.

The church is located at 49255 Pancake-Clarkson Road in Rogers and more information is available online at www.mountzionrogers.org.