Otterbein United Methodist Church

We could tell you that Otterbein is a United Methodist Congregation founded in 1790, active in the community in ministries of mission and outreach to our neighborhood and the greater community of Hagerstown and the world. But the simplest, and perhaps the truest answer to that inquiry is that Otterbein is a collection of young and old, men and women, boys and girls living in and around Hagerstown who worship and study, work and play in a variety of ways. We are singles, couples, families with young children, families with growing children, families with grown children and families with no children. We are farmers, factory and office workers and owners of factories and offices. Some of us have a high school degree, some have college degrees and some have degrees from the College of Hard Knocks. Some of us are on fixed incomes, some of us are comfortable and some of us are well off. In short, we are people some of whom are just like you and some of whom are nothing like you and some of whom are every sort of person in between. Are we perfect? No. There has only ever been one perfect person to walk this earth. Do we all believe the same thing about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit? No. We are each at different points in our faith journey and that is ok. Are we hypocrites, as many are quick to accuse all church goers of being, yes. And so are you. Everyone is, at some level, a hypocrite for none of us do what we know we should be doing all the time. In the Church we call that “sin” and that is one of the things that makes us one as a congregation – we are “sinners” one and all. But the other, and perhaps the most important thing that makes us one as a congregation, is that we are all followers of Jesus Christ. We are striving, according to the grace given to us, to live after his example as individuals and as families, and working to carry on his ministry as his people in this place.


We invite you to come and worship with us, work with us, laugh and cry with us for as long as you like. Our prayer is that you will come to realize that, in case you didn’t know it, you are a sinner also. That doesn’t mean that you are wicked and evil. That doesn’t mean that you are not a nice person or that we are judging you. It simply means that, as we stated earlier, you are like us, and we are like you, people who don’t always do what God would have us do and thus we don’t always live life the way God designed it to be lived. But the Good News that we have discovered, and wish to share with you is, God willingly accepts you as you are and will help you grow and change in the same way that God is growing and changing us in our life together. So why not come and see for yourself who we are, what we are about and allow God to reveal to you what YOU are and what God is calling YOU to be about?