The Lorena United Methodist Church was organized in 1881 with the Rev. E.R. Barcus as pastor, and its congregation first met in the Baptist Church building. In 1886, trustees Herbert J. Hudson, A.J. Pool, and H.C. Williams bought the site and supervised construction of the sanctuary. Its distinctive architecture came from plans from the home church of trustee Hudson, a native of Cambridge, England. A devout Methodist layman, Hudson came to Lorena in 1877 and operated a store and private bank. Bishop A.W. Wilson dedicated the original church in 1887. Later changes included replacing the wooden roof with asphalt shingles, removing tower louvers that had attracted nesting birds, adding stained glass windows, erecting a classroom annex in 1922, and joining it to the sanctuary with another unit in 1950. These later additions followed the style adopted in 1886. The annex has been open to many public gatherings as the congregation has taken an interest in Lorena’s civic life, and, besides the successive pastors, leaders in the church’s work included members of the Hath, Holey, Hooper, Rucker, Stanford, and Stewart families.