Methodism in Sparta took organized form in 1799, when the town received its first regular appointment as a preaching place on a circuit with George Dougherty as pastor. In 1802, Bishop Francis Asbury preached in the courthouse. In 1806, the South Carolina Conference, of which Sparta was a member, held its session there, and Sparta appeared for the first time as head of the Sparta Circuit. That same year, Robert Flournoy, a Revolutionary soldier, deeded a lot to John Lucas and Henry Mose, trustees of the Methodist Society of Sparta. A church built on that lot the previous year served, with necessary remodeling, for 105 years until it was destroyed by fire in 1910. Sparta Methodism celebrated its centennial in 1906, and the present building was completed in 1934. Many prominent pastors served the church, including George Dougherty, Jesse Lee, Bishop Atticus G. Haygood, and Bishop Warren A. Candler, and although Bishop George F. Pierce was never pastor there, he considered it his home church for many years.