With a rich heritage and legacy, our congregation is rooted in faith and dynamic in service. Sunday school is at 10 a.m. and worship at 11 each Sunday. At Allen-Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the history of rural Georgia, and a connection with China going back to the 1860s converge. Prospect Methodist Church was founded on Liberty Hill Road, but moved to the curr
ent Allen-Lee site in 1844 when William Owen Lee gave the land. Young John Allen (1836-1907) had a dramatic conversion experience at Prospect in 1851. John Wesley Yarbrough, the church's first pastor, preached a message that so convicted Allen of his sin and need for salvation that the boy jumped from the window and fled into the woods. Allen returned to the church, made his peace with God at the altar and began the steps that would take him to the mission field. In 1858, he married Mary Houston of Grantville, and they departed for China with their infant daughter later in 1859. In China, Allen was involved in preaching, writing, publishing and in education. He returned to Lone Oak several times over the years, but ministered in Shanghai until his death. Dr. James Wideman Lee (1849-1919) also grew up attending Prospect Methodist. His father, Zachry James Lee, was a Confederate soldier and a brother to William Owen Lee. James W. Lee's mother, Emily, is buried at Allen-Lee. James Wideman Lee served as pastor of Park Street Methodist Church and Trinity Methodist Church in Atlanta before going to St. Louis where he was pastor of St. John's Methodist Church for several years. Lee was chaplain at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis from 1916 until his death. He also was a prolific writer, and his books included "The Making of a Man," 1892; "Christ the Reason of the Universe," 1893; and a biography of Georgia journalist Henry Grady. Lee's son, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, is considered the founder of public relations and his grandson, William Seward Burroughs, was a novelist who appeared on the cover of a Beatles album and in a U2 music video. Two early pastors of Prospect Church, George W. Yarbrough, son of the founding pastor, and William Jasper Cotter, were memoirists who recalled early days in this section of Georgia. When the current building was completed in 1939, it was named for Young J. Allen and J.W. Lee. The church has a history room with rare photographs and documents and a collection of items related to the Allen family's years in China. The cremains of the youngest Allen daughter, Alice, are buried at the church. Allen-Lee remains a vibrant church welcoming all!
