The History of our Church
From The Chapel to Sharon Methodist to Sharon United Methodist Church
1904 – 2023
Sharon Church began as a vision on June 2, 1904, when Nathan Poyner and his wife, Lula, deeded an acre of land for a church for the residents of Poplar Branch (formerly called Van Slycks), and Josephus Baum deeded two and one/half acres of land for a parsonage. The residents of the village must have felt the need to have a more active Christian fellowship. The nearest Methodist churches were Ebenezer at Aydlett (2 miles to the north) and Mt. Zion at Grandy (3 miles to the south). Mostly farmers and watermen lived in Poplar Branch and at that time, when transportation was either by horse drawn vehicles, by boat, or on foot, the distance of five miles was quite a long way.
Many of the children did not attend services at all, and they were growing up with very little religious training. During this time, the religious spirit was kept alive through the efforts of Wilse Lindsey, who was Superintendent of the Sunday School held in the Odd Fellows Hall, and by Mark Gregory, who was a Baptist. Apparently they did not always see eye to eye on religion, so Mr. Gregory went to Poplar Branch Baptist Church and Mr. Lindsey remained with the little group at the Odd Fellows Hall. It was because of his patience and perseverance that the Chapel was started.
Dates are very sketchy so it is not certain when the first Chapel building was constructed. It was probably around 1907 because in that year the Chapel was reported free of all debt except $58.00 owed to Kramer Lumber Company in Elizabeth City. Money was scarce and the building of the Chapel, as well as the Parsonage, were possible because of the combined efforts of the people of the community. They gave timber and other materials but most importantly, they gave their time. The ladies held box suppers to raise the money needed for the buildings.
On October 3, 1926, The Chapel became a part of the North Carolina Conference with a recorded 46 charter members. At that time, it was officially named Sharon Methodist Episcopal Church South. It is not recorded how or why the church was named Sharon. It was first called “Lindsey’s” or “Wilse’s” Chapel because of Wilse Lindsey’s guiding force that pushed the church from a vision to a reality.
From 1926 to 1939, Sharon was a member of a four point charge with one pastor who rotated from church to church: Kitty Hawk, Hebron (Jarvisburg), Mt. Zion (Grandy), and Sharon. From 1939 to 1951, Sharon became a part of the Moyock Charge: Moyock, Pilmoor Memorial (Currituck), Ebenezer (Aydlett) and Sharon.
September 14, 1944 is recorded as the day of the Great Atlantic Hurricane with wind of 110 miles that damaged Sharon Church so badly that it could not be used. The church met in Poplar Branch School and in their Agriculture Building. In January, 1947, construction began on the cinder block building with a sanctuary, four classrooms and inside plumbing. The church was completed and dedicated in 1950 under the pastorate of The Reverend Jimmy Miller.
On Christmas Eve of 1952, the furnace warming the sanctuary for a Christmas Eve program, caught fire and destroyed Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church South in Aydlett. All of the records were destroyed, but not the faith and spirit of the people, many of whom transferred to Sharon. In 1952, Sharon became a member of a three point charge with Hebron and Mt. Zion.
The 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s were growing years for Sharon. The church sanctuary was enlarged, classrooms were added, central heating installed with a furnace room, and two bathrooms were added. The entire building was brick veneered. New pews and pulpit furniture were given as memorials, the envelope system of giving was adopted, and various commissions were established. In 1974, Bishop Robert Blackburn dedicated the new Education Building with a kitchen and additional classrooms.
In 1976, Dr. Bob Wilson of Duke Divinity School was commissioned to do a study with a recommendation that would best serve the three congregations on the Lower Currituck Charge (Hebron, Mt. Zion and Sharon). One of the suggestions from his study was that Mt. Zion and Hebron become a two point charge and Sharon become a station church. Under the guidance of The Reverend Clarence O’Briant, Sharon’s Administrative Board appointed a committee of Stanley Watkins, Susie Spruill, Faye Mathews, and Paul Fairley to study the possibility of realizing the dream of becoming a station church. Bishop Robert Blackburn honored a request to meet with the Sharon committee and Pastor O’Briant at First UMC in Elizabeth City to discuss the options. Bishop Blackburn decided that Sharon Church was prepared to take over the added responsibilities of a station church and declared that Sharon would become a station appointment at Annual Conference of 1978. With this new opportunity came many projects including providing a parsonage and being prepared to absorb all of the expenses of a full time minister.
This was a milestone in Sharon Church history. Following the pattern and footsteps of those, who many years before, had fixed box suppers to finance the building of a small church in Poplar Branch, the people of Sharon joined together with their time and talents to provide a parsonage for the new pastor. Carlton Hampton, son of Mrs. Dollie Hampton, loaned her home place to Sharon to be used as a temporary parsonage. He waved monthly rent in lieu of the church taking care of all maintenance of the house.
The men shingled the roof and did the carpentry work. The women cleaned and painted. Youth painted the bedrooms and stairs. Children helped clean the yard. Women who were not physically able to paint or clean, cooked delicious meals and brought them to the work site. No one was too old or too young to do something and no job was too small or too large to be done in order to prepare the home to serve as Sharon’s parsonage. After almost six months of constant work, the parsonage was ready for occupancy. In the fall of 1978, Bishop Blackburn appointed The Reverend Lewis H. Dodson to minister as our first pastor, serving 3/4 time. For three years, the Conference reduced apportionments and appointed a 3/4 time pastor to help Sharon live into their new financial commitments.
In 1983, Bishop William R. Cannon appointed The Reverend Susan C. Lindblade to pastor Sharon Church. Not only was she the first women to serve Sharon, she was also the first full-time pastor. Susan resided in the Camden UMC parsonage with her husband, The Reverend Eric N. Lindblade, Jr., Camden’s pastor and their infant son, Eric A. This allowed Sharon to be able to build a parsonage without the added housing expenses associated with a full-time pastor. It was the last obstacle in the quest to be a station church. Susan’s youthful enthusiasm and spiritual leadership sparked the congregation and community. While the church and Sunday School grew in numbers, the dream of building a parsonage loomed large.
A parsonage committee, chaired by Ralph Saunders and Ernest Brickhouse, Trustees chair, began plans for building. In March, 1985, Mark and Edna Doxey graciously deeded an acre of land south of the Aydlett Post Office on Aydlett Road and in June of 1985, the United Methodist Women began sponsoring First Saturday of every month Fried Chicken Dinners to add to an existing Parsonage Fund of $40,000. The fried chicken dinners became a Currituck County social gathering each month with neighbors throughout the county coming to support our cause. The men of the church manned the chicken cookers and the women cooked to provide generous portions of homemade potato salad, fresh canned green beans from the garden, along with delicious cakes baked by some of the best cooks in Currituck County! Each portion was precisely calculated by Thetis Forbes, long time Cafeteria manager at the Griggs School, and it was an absolute culinary orchestration!!
Parsonage Groundbreaking: L-R: Mark Doxey, Mike Doxey, Edna Doxey, Unknown, Ida Lee Saunders, Ralph Saunders, Faye Mathews, Tom Collie,
Ruth Hampton, James Guard and Susan Lindblade (pastor)
On a Sunday afternoon in January of 1986, the church family, neighbors and friends braved frigid wind gusts off the Currituck Sound to gather at 535 Aydlett Road to break ground on an $86,000 brick ranch home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, living/dining room, den, kitchen, laundry/pantry and one car garage. It was a time of great rejoicing as the congregation watched God bless the long time vision of a home for its pastors taking place before them. The Sharon Church family paid off the parsonage mortgage of $46,000 in two years, thanks to the spirit of generous people and the profits of fried chicken dinners. The dinners continued to raise funds for church mission and improvement, long after the parsonage mortgage was paid. Seeds of cooperation and unity were planted during this time that continues to grow at Sharon even today.
During the tenure of The Reverend Steve Hall, renovations were made to the sanctuary in 1989 to accommodate stained glass windows for the interior wall behind the choir loft. These windows were given as a gift to the church by Glen Bunch with other members of the Bunch and O’Neal families.
At about the same time, The NC Conference of The United Methodist Church sold the Ebenezer Church property for $10,500, which had been held in trust since the 1952 fire destroyed the church. With this money, Sharon had the opportunity to purchase approximately one acre of property that bordered the original property on the church’s south and east boundaries.
During the tenure of The Reverend Steve Castle, a modular building was purchased in 2006 to serve as a Community Learning and Youth Center. Drawing on tradition, monthly fried chicken dinners helped raise funds for this building.
With the tenure of each new pastor to follow, a vision has been cast and Sharon has grown as a true community church with outreach and ministry making a difference in the life of the Poplar Branch/Aydlett community. Growth of new subdivisions began to pop up where fields once stood. New people have brought new ideas and experiences to the table and Sharon Church has ministered to our community for many years or simply for a season in the areas of School Partnership with Dr. W. T. Griggs Elementary, youth and scouting ministry, Disciple Bible Studies, after school care, The Sharon Church Annual Golf Tournament to benefit projects at the church, community Manna meals and United Methodist Women.
Due to an unexpected series of events, Sharon Church found itself without a pastor in September of 2021. In typical Sharon fashion reflecting the extraordinary faithfulness of its people, the congregation kept things going, but the need for pastoral leadership was still there. In an unprecedented appointment in November of 2021, The Reverend Susan C. Lindblade returned thirty-eight years after having served in the 1980s to serve as Sharon’s pastor.
Susan, who retired from North Raleigh UMC after forty years of service in The North Carolina Conference in 2017, happened to attend the funeral of a Sharon member and in conversation with the District Superintendent David Blackman, heard of Sharon’s need. “If you could give me six months here, it would be a tremendous gift,” Blackman said. A commute from Raleigh to Poplar Branch would certainly change the copacetic retirement of leisure and travel she and Eric had carved out. However, Sharon Church is the church Susan credits with teaching her how to be a good pastor. So, she called Eric from the road to hear his take on this idea. His response, without hesitation, was “I think you should do it.” So, like the old Maxine Nightingale song, “Welcome Back, Kotter,” popular during the time she first served Sharon in the 80s, she faithfully followed the Bishop’s call to “Go right back to where I started from.” She considers it a treasured professional privilege to serve Sharon Church and help it renew its spirit and ministry.
We now celebrate paying Conference apportionments in full each month, attendance is building back, new members have been received into the fellowship sharing their own unique sense of vitality into the church, and in December 2022, Sharon was selected as one of six NC Conference churches and six from the Western NC Conference to be a Connect Church through the N. C. Rural Center. In 2023, a church team has been busy working with a Rural Center coach to discern new ministry avenues to meet present and future needs in the Poplar Branch/Aydlett communities. This process has caused us to think outside of the box like never before in challenging us to seek God’s will for our church and community. At the end of 2023, our new ministry goal will be announced and a $10,000 grant from Duke Endowment will be seed money to start this new ministry. We believe this will be a pivotal point in Sharon’s long history.
In February 2023, our Church Council met and approved for Sharon United Methodist Church, to become a Lighthouse Congregation of The North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church in partnership with The United Methodist Collective and the Office of New Faith Communities. In doing so, not only do we commit to remaining a part of the United Methodist Church, but we also commit to serving those who have lost their church homes through disaffiliation or closure. We will partner in this work in the following ways: Worship, Mission, Sacrament and Pastoral Care.
Living into our 2023 mantra, TAKE YOUR CANDLE...GO LIGHT YOUR WORLD, Sharon Church understands the privilege to serve the good people of Lower Currituck County and to be a sacred trust in the same spirit which led Wilse Lindsey and people called Methodists throughout the years in Poplar Branch.
As we chronicle 120 years of history at Sharon United Methodist Church, we see clearly from the events and each new name associated with its history, that Sharon Church is people – not a building. We are Christ’s body on earth – Christ’s hands, feet, heart and soul. A grateful people brought together by the Spirit to love God and our neighbors with no exceptions. May we be found ever faithful as we work to bring God’s kingdom into closer view.
Submitted by Rev. Susan C. Lindblade
Sources taken from:
- The Heritage of Currituck County
- The History of Sharon United Methodist Church (1984) by Faye Mathews and Daphne Yon
- 2008 Homecoming Booklet by The Rev. C. Renee Edwards
Contributors:- Faye Mathews and Daphne Yon (1905-1985; 1905-2008)
- Staff of the 2001 Church Directory (1985-2001)
- Susie Gregory Spruill (2002-2008)
- More Than I Expected, Much More Than I Ever Deserved: The Personal Ministry Journals of The Rev. Susan Clayton Lindblade (1979-2023)