Learn More About Our Church
Find out what to expect, what we believe, and our history at Three Crosses – United Methodist Fellowship of Butler, Ohio.
What to Expect
We want you to feel comfortable in our church, with our congregation, and with our Sunday service.
Our worship services have a warm and welcoming feel and are usually about an hour long. Our goal is to maintain an attitude of praise and honor to our glorious God and Savior. The pastor’s teaching is Bible-based as she encourages, guides, and challenges us in our spiritual walk.
We have a blended combination of classic hymns and contemporary music, and our family-friendly services include a children’s time as part of the worship service. Some wear dresses and suits, some wear jeans – come as you are!
At Three Crosses, we maintain an atmosphere of genuine love and authenticity, value the ideas of others, and always encourage service to the community and beyond.
What Our Methodist Church Believes
“In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.” This much-quoted saying seems to strike the right balance regarding Christian doctrine. There will always be peripheral beliefs upon which committed Christ followers disagree, and we welcome dialogue on many of these important doctrinal issues that are not essential for union with Christ. However, we recognize the importance of having a framework around which we relate to one another as a maturing community of believers, and we hold the following essentials to be at the core of who we are and what we believe:
About God
We believe in one God who eternally exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present Creator and sustainer of the heavens and earth. God is not limited by time and space, and no facet of His multi-dimensional character diminishes another. In other words, His mercy and justice, grace and wrath, love and jealousy all work together for good. Our finite human minds cannot always fully understand the attributes of our infinite God.
About Jesus
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, chose to set aside some of His divine prerogatives, and through the virgin birth, took on human form. He became truly and fully human without ceasing to be truly and fully divine. He humbly lived a perfect, sinless life, worked miracles, and gave us an example to follow. Allowing His own persecution, He innocently suffered to the point of criminal death on a cross in order to pay the penalty for our sins. He then bodily rose from the dead to free us to be reconciled to our Creator. Christ paid a debt He did not owe to free us from a debt we could not pay. Now, He sits at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us.
About the Holy Spirit
We are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. The filling of the Holy Spirit is meant to be a continuous experience for us as we submit to His controlling authority and power. The Spirit’s function is to help us grow into Christ-likeness as He guides, comforts, convicts, and seals us as a member of the family of God.
About Man
We were created in the image of God to glorify Him, have community with Him, and represent Him on earth. However, through a rebellious act of disobedience, we were separated from Him. Now, all human beings are born with a sinful nature, willfully “missing the mark” in thought, word and deed, and unable to live up to God’s perfect and holy standard.
About Salvation
The Father sent Jesus to redeem us through an act of substitutionary atonement, which culminated in Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. In the simplest terms, Christ died as the sacrifice necessary for our sins, and this gave us the opportunity, by faith, to trade our sins for His righteousness. Now, all who repent of their sinfulness and believe in Jesus Christ are declared right before God on the basis of Christ’s shed blood. This gracious, free gift of reconciliation to God and eternal life with Him cannot be earned, as our good deeds are inadequate and have no part in it.
About Following Christ
When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are freed from the penalty for sin, and this ignites a spiritual transformation often referred to as being “born again.” In a thankful desire to be obedient to God, we then exemplify good works and an earnest desire to grow in holiness. Through thehe assimilation of God’s Word, fervent prayer, and guidance by the Holy Spirit, we mature in our faith and are progressively freed from the power of sin. Some future day, when we are with the Lord in glory, we will be free from the presence of sin.
About the Bible
Comprised of 66 books authored over almost 1600 years by 40 different authors using three languages, the Bible reveals one seamless story: a passionate and personal God on a relentless pursuit to redeem His fallen creation. The Bible is the authoritative and inspired Word of God and is trustworthy and reliable for telling us what to believe and how to live.
About the Church
The church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head of the body. The church is not a building but instead is a community of interdependent individuals who are born again, each having received from the Holy Spirit gifts which are to be exercised for the building up of the whole body. The purpose of the church is to glorify God, make Jesus known to a lost world, train up disciples, and meet the needs of those in our communities and around the world.
About the Sacraments
We celebrate baptism as a new believer’s proclamation of faith and identification with Christ’s death and resurrection. We also celebrate communion as an ongoing remembrance of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross and as a reminder of present fellowship with Christ and His body.
About the Future
In the end of all things, Jesus will reign eternally. He will judge His creation according to the character that has been revealed to us through His word with justice and mercy. Those who have found salvation through Jesus Christ will enjoy His presence forever; those who have not will be separated from God for eternity.
What Our History Is
In 2007, the Bellville, Mount Sinai, and Trinity United Methodist churches merged to create a new church in the Butler community, fittingly named Three Crosses: A United Methodist Fellowship. The name was chosen for three reasons: First, it speaks to who we are as Christians, believers in the centrality of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Second, the image of three crosses easily identifies us as Christians to the local community. Third, it applies to the new church, three joined under the one and the three aspects of our mission statement, which is to reach up to God, into ourselves, and out to the world with the love of Christ.
The three churches all had a rich heritage of sacrifice and commitment made by generations of people to impact the community with the message of Jesus Christ. In 1814, Charles Waddle and James Smith came to Bellville and organized the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first house of worship was built in 1835, and it was 30 x 40 feet and cost $90. It was the first church in Jefferson Township. Then, in April 1854, a new church was constructed, and this 40×55-foot structure on Bell Street in Bellville was a thriving evangelical house of worship for over 150 years.
The Mt. Sinai United Methodist Church originated as Mt Sinai Evangelical Church, and their church building on Main Street in Butler was dedicated on December 19, 1875, with 88 members. The church denomination changed over the years, beginning in 1946 when the Evangelicals merged with the United Brethren to form the Evangelical United Brethren. In 1968, that denomination merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church. Mt. Sinai’s 132 years of ministry were very rich, and like the place for which it was named, the mountain from which God reached out to touch mankind, the Mt. Sinai Church reached out to the community.
The Trinity United Methodist Church was organized in May 1893 with 110 charter members. The church building on Cleveland Street in Butler was finished in September 1893, as the members, families, and friends gave a helping hand in making their dreams come true. The total cost of construction was only $3000. For 114 years, many pastors, teachers, board members, and trustees blessed Trinity with their leadership, special talents, and abilities. They all carried a deep concern for the spiritual growth of the congregation. No one can remember how many Holy Spirit-empowered evangelistic services or how many fellowship meals were shared in the spirit of love.
When the churches merged in 2007, they met for worship at the Trinity church, while the Mt Sinai location was eventually used as the Clear Fork Christian Preschool and for youth fellowship and the Clothes Closet ministry. In 2008, Three Crosses, under the leadership of Pastor Keith McLaughlin, voted to build a new church, incorporating the old Trinity church into the design. The construction goals included maintaining the “country church” feel but having much more space for worship, teaching, fellowship, and service to the community. The existing parsonage, a historic 105-year-old landmark, was moved across Craig Street and continued as the home for the minister’s family.
Mother’s Day, May 9, 2010, was the momentous ground-breaking ceremony for the new Three Crosses building. The focus of the ceremony was that what was to be erected was a building, but each person who walked through the doors was the church, the interdependent body of Christ. Construction began in June 2010, and the Fellowship Hall was put into use in early 2012. The new sanctuary was the last phase of construction, and the first service in the new Three Crosses Sanctuary was on December 7, 2014. The service “Celebrating the Work of God and Dedicating the Building of Three Crosses” was on April 12, 2015.
Brandon Keck became pastor of Three Crosses: A United Methodist Fellowship in July 2015. Donna Mills became the pastor in July of 2019.