Christ the Carpenter History
(1864 to the present)

Christ the Carpenter United Methodist Church, located on the corner of Winnebago and Morgan Street is in a historical area with a rich presence of different ethnic groups in the City of Rockford, IL.  The roots of the present church date back to South Rockford Community Methodist (1864) the fourth Methodist church in the city.  That congregation flourished and built a new brick building and parsonage on the present site.  The church was renamed Winnebago Street Methodist in 1908.  The church was influential in the area for many years;  however, a slow decline began in the 1930's and into the 1940's.  The church was yoked with Broadway Methodist and later Burritt Community.  After the end of World War II, new areas of Rockford opened up for development and many members of the church moved to those sections of the city.  There was a spurt of growth in the early 1060's only to fade away.  The building began to show signs for need of repair.  It was determined the cost of repair would be as much as to rebuild a new multi-purpose street level building.  Therefore, the brick church was razed alone with a house purchased to the south to make way for the new building.  In the meantime, the congregation worshipped in the Booker Washington Community Center across the street for a time.. A decision was made to change the name to Christ the Carpenter.  When the new structure was completed the church opened a day care center for all the community, an art program, prenatal program, and an inner city 4H Club.  These were busy times in addition to the regular worship services, Christian Education, and MYF.  Thoughts turned to church parking and a house to the south of the building was purchased.

Once again hard times hit.  The recession in the 1980's caused the day care to close and the arts program to move elsewhere.  The Prenatal program and 4H discontinued for lack of leadership.  The congregation moved on with faith.  A viable youth group was followed by a summer Apollo program for youth 17 - 21 years of age.  Sponsored by BMCR, this was one of the first satellite computer-based programs run by churches in the city of Rockford.  Men of the church razed the house adjacent to the church and a parking lot came into being.  Though there was movement of people to other cities or areas, the congregation carried on in a quieter manner.  The church was once again yoked with Broadway United Methodist Church until 2007.  During this time the church mortgage was burned.

Christ the Carpenter is the only United Methodist African-American congregation in the Rockford District of the Northern Illinois Conference of the worldwide United Methodist Church.  The congregation continues in faith and purpose to bring people to Christ where it is planted.

Pastors who have shepherd Christ the Carpenter through the years are: