A Family Church in Riderwood, Approaching 250 Years
Tucked along Old Court Road at the intersection with West Joppa Road, Hunt's Memorial United Methodist Church sits in Riderwood, just west of Towson, Maryland. The stone sanctuary is approached through a parking lot that fills twice on a Sunday morning, and the bell tower above the roofline has been part of the skyline since a 1933 rebuild. Members describe Hunt's as a family church, a place where children grow up through Sunday School and Confirmation and return to lead the service as seniors. The congregation is now approaching its 250th year, a milestone that places it among the oldest Methodist gatherings in the country and the first on the Greenspring Valley circuit.
Hunt's identifies as a Reconciling congregation, a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, and it celebrates that identity with the line "Everyone is welcome here." Its mission statement is built around the words of John Wesley: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." That motto, the long pastorate list, and the nearly twenty mission programs all point to a church that takes both its history and its neighbors seriously.
Two Sunday Services, One Congregation
From September to June, worship is offered twice each Sunday morning. The 8:30 AM service is a contemporary gathering led by the Hunt's Praise Band. Guitars, drums, bass, keyboards, and voices drive upbeat praise songs, and the service itself is described as "an informal time of singing praise and worship songs, prayer, hearing, and reflecting on God's Word, and timely messages for daily living and spiritual growth." Casual dress is welcome.
At 10:00 AM the tone shifts. The Traditional Service combines "traditional prayers and liturgy with scripture, powerful faith-based messages for daily living," along with the Chancel Choir and favorite hymns. The service begins with an acolyte, usually a child, lighting the candles. The pastor offers a welcome, a hymn is sung, and after the children's message, elementary-aged students are invited to Sunday School. Prayer concerns, the sermon, and the benediction close the service, and the congregation then moves downstairs to VanMetre Hall for refreshments and fellowship.
Worship is also livestreamed on YouTube, so members and friends can join from afar. The music program is built around three ensembles: the Chancel Choir, which rehearses Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 PM during the school year and sings at the 10:00 service; the Hunt's Praise Band, which rehearses on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 PM and leads the 8:30 service; and the Bell Choir, which rehearses Sunday mornings after the traditional service and rings several times throughout the year. A Children's Choir sings in the traditional service at various points in the church year. A bell-ringing background is not required, the church notes, and anyone with a desire to learn can be taught.
The Hunt Family and the Birth of a Circuit
Hunt's is tied closely to one family, the Hunts, and to the early Methodist circuit riders of the late 1700s. The land beneath the church sits on part of Beall's Discovery, a tract acquired by Walter Smith in 1730 and later divided among his widow, Elizabeth Chew Smith, and her second husband, Job Hunt. After Job's death in 1753, Elizabeth returned to Baltimore County with her three younger sons, Job, Samuel, and Phineas, buying 500 acres of Valley land from her eldest son Walter Smith Jr. Phineas eventually settled on the acreage between present-day Brooklandville and Riderwood, and his home, the residence that came to be called Hunt's Meeting House, still stands as a private residence just northwest of the church.
Methodist circuit riders preached at Phineas Hunt's home as one of about thirty appointments on the Baltimore circuit. Francis Asbury recorded preaching there on September 3, 1773, and on three more occasions in 1777. In 1773, at the age of 22, Phineas was named class leader, a role he held for the next 64 years, and he came to be called "Father Hunt" by his class members. The first paid circuit riders earned sixty-four dollars a year plus travel expenses, and classes met in the homes of designated leaders when no preacher was present.
By 1780, the Hunt family parlor had grown too small, and Phineas gave part of his land for a log chapel. Four years later, at the Christmas Conference of 1784 at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, American Methodists formally broke from the Church of England and became a separate denomination. On September 4, 1786, the Hunt society, now organized as a Methodist Episcopal Church, officially bought three-quarters of an acre of Beall's Discovery from Phineas for twenty schillings, with trustees William Stone, Samuel Hunt, Michael Kramer, Josua Bowen, and Daniel Isgrig taking title. Phineas asked that the chapel be called "Look Together," but the congregation kept the Hunt family name. The 1786 deed is preserved in the Baltimore County Land Records.
A Sanctuary Built and Rebuilt
By 1826, the log chapel had outgrown itself, and a second, larger log building was erected facing Joppa Road. Phineas Hunt died in 1837 at the age of 86, and his wife Suzannah in 1847; all three of the original Hunt siblings are buried in the family graveyard, just west-northwest of the church and east of the original Hunt house, surrounded by a stone wall with a large inscribed marble marker. A century after the first log cabin, in 1874, the cornerstone was laid for the gray stone sanctuary that still stands at the core of the building. It was completed in 1877 and faced Old Court Road, then a narrow red clay lane called Hunt's Lane.
The sanctuary has been rebuilt several times. A 1905 renovation added electrification, and a parsonage was built next door early in the twentieth century. A fire in 1924 gutted the interior and prompted the addition of a basement with a furnace room, kitchen, and meeting room, plus a first-floor meeting room and stage. Another fire in 1933 again destroyed much of the interior; the rebuild added a stained glass window, a new bell tower, and a steeple. A 1962 fire partially burned the sanctuary, and the repairs that followed reshaped the room once more. In 1982, the sanctuary was expanded and an elevator was installed. A fellowship hall and classrooms were added in 1987, and in 1992, the church bought the stone house next door, now called the Agape House, to serve as the church office. The sanctuary itself remains on the second floor, an unusual layout left over from the original 1874 design.
Children: Nursery through Elementary
Children are welcomed into every part of Hunt's life. Nursery Care is offered during the 10:00 AM service for children under the age of five, with a team of rotating volunteer care providers in a classroom full of age-appropriate toys. Visitors arriving for the 10:00 service can ask an usher to be directed to the nursery. Sunday School for elementary students in kindergarten through fifth grade meets during the 10:00 service, with age-appropriate lessons and activities, and a major milestone comes in third grade when each child receives a Bible.
Two annual fall events anchor the year for young families. The Fall Festival, hosted jointly with the Preschool, fills the grounds with games, face painting, arts and crafts, a moon-bounce, and an ice cream truck, and is open to children from babies through fifth grade. Trunk or Treat, hosted the same way, transforms the parking lot into a safe alternative to house-to-house trick-or-treating, with congregants decorating their cars and neighborhood children visiting them. Vacation Bible School is held each year in late June or early July, and is open to children in the community as well as church members. The week focuses on a religious theme, with classroom studies, music, arts and crafts, and recreation, and ends with a program and cookout for parents.
A Children's Choir, led by a member of the music staff or congregation, rehearses at various points in the church year and shares its music during the Traditional Service. All adults working with children, youth, and vulnerable adults at Hunt's are required to follow the Safe Sanctuaries policy, which includes a background check and training, renewed every three years, plus an annual questionnaire.
Youth: Confirmation, Mid-High, and Senior High
Three programs serve young people from middle school through high school graduation. Confirmation is offered to middle school students in a class that meets once a week on Sunday afternoons, led by Rev. Carissa Surber. Confirmands are matched with adult mentors in the church and work through Bible study, discussion, and the occasional field trip. In 2022, nine young people were welcomed into the congregation through Confirmation. A new session is offered when a group of students is ready to participate.
The Mid-High Youth Group is open to students in grades 4 through 8 and meets Sunday evenings at 6:00 PM. Its program combines games, activities, and lessons drawn from the stories of the Bible, with community involvement and outreach projects throughout the school year. The Senior High Youth Group, for students in grades 9 through 12, meets on Sundays from 6:30 to 8:30 PM during the school year in VanMetre Hall. Membership is open to teens from the wider community, not just church members. Trips throughout the year have included camping, skiing, lake weekends, bowling nights, amusement parks, progressive dinners, and Orioles games. The Senior High also runs an annual Super Bowl Sub Sale as a fundraiser, with subs handmade by the youth and picked up the weekend before the game.
For more than fifty years, the Senior High has led a spring worship service of its own. The youth group picks a theme, all members write about their experiences, and graduating seniors share their meditations with the congregation. Many of the songs are contemporary or adapted to fit the theme, and the service closes with a gathering of alumni in song and a time of fellowship. The Senior High also takes an annual mission trip to Camp Hope, an Appalachian service project in Allegany County, Maryland.
Adult Fellowship and Study
Adults at Hunt's find a number of ongoing groups. The Funhunters meet monthly, usually on the second Friday of the month, for lunch at a different restaurant in the area. The Men's Fellowship gathers weekly for coffee in the Agape House, with discussion topics chosen by the group and ranging from books of interest to current events. The Women's Fellowship meets for breakfast to discuss contemporary topics, hear guest speakers, and take on projects tied to missions and outreach.
Rev. Carissa Surber leads seasonal Bible studies and book studies on a rotating slate of topics that has included books of the Bible, prayer, life challenges, world religions, and religious archaeology. The church also hosts two Alcoholics Anonymous groups: a Monday night meeting at 8:30 PM and a Friday morning meeting at 11:00 AM. Close to twenty committees, from advertising to worship, give laypeople a place to shape the life of the congregation.
Nearly Twenty Mission Partners
Missions are central to the identity of Hunt's. The Missions Committee, chaired by Lynn Henss, oversees a portfolio of nearly twenty mission programs, some supported by donations and others by hands-on volunteering. Several are local, several are regional, and a few are international. The list reads like a map of the church's reach.
The Assistance Center of Towson Churches, ACTC, is an ecumenical food and assistance program for the poor and needy in the Baltimore County region. Hunt's supports ACTC year-round, with special food drives in April and May and a Thanksgiving bag collection each November. Baltimore County Christian Workcamp, BCCW, has been a Hunt's mission since 1984, when it was founded by two Methodist pastors, and the church has served as the workcamp's base of operations since 1992, with half of the church garage used for supplies. Each July, 150 to 250 volunteers have repaired and improved more than fifty houses in the county, and in recent years the Hunt's crew has focused on the construction of wheelchair ramps. Camp Hope, an Appalachian service project started in 1977 by the pastor of Frostburg United Methodist Church, brings Hunt's youth and adults to Allegany County and neighboring West Virginia and Pennsylvania each summer, where they stay at Frostburg State University and join other crews in worship and fellowship.
The Casserole Ministry gathers volunteer cooks once a month to prepare homemade casseroles in their own homes for delivery to Earl's Place, a transitional housing program for men recovering from substance abuse and homelessness; Martha's Place, a similar program for women; and the JACQUES Initiative, an outpatient treatment program for people with HIV-AIDS. The Prayer Shawl Ministry, also called the Knitting Ministry, has been active for more than twenty years; about twenty knitters meet five or six Sundays a year, and each shawl is prayed over as it is worked. Shawls are given to anyone who would benefit, member or not, at times of illness, grief, or joy.
Food for Thought provides weekend food for at-risk middle school students in Baltimore County, with about $3,400 in donations and 620 gift cards collected in a typical school year, and 66 weekend bags packed and delivered to Dumbarton and Ridge Ruxton Schools. The Helping Up Mission is a residential addiction recovery program for men in Baltimore; Hunt's donates 650 personal hygiene kits a year and welcomes the HUM choir and band to worship once a year, usually in late spring. The Christmas Present Project, coordinated by the Mid-High Youth Group, fills shoeboxes with gifts for children in local elementary schools. The Mondawmin Partnership, started in 2011, helps Baltimore youth prepare for college with tutoring, athletic programming, and job-skill training, and the Carroll's-Gill's Permanent Endowment Fund sponsors eight high school students' summer jobs at the Baer School each year.
Internationally, Hunt's sponsors children through ChildFund International and Unbound, building one-to-one relationships with five children in the Philippines, India, Honduras, Guatemala, and Peru, with $36 a month per child and extra gifts at birthdays and Christmas. The Sunday School offering goes toward this mission, as does a special Mother's Day offering. The church also supports the work of Miguel Mairena and Nan McCurdy in rural Mexico through the organization Give Ye Them To Eat. UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, receives regular financial support from Hunt's, and the Carroll's-Gill's Endowment made a significant contribution to UMCOR's Ukraine response.
The Start a Business, Change Your Life program is a newer initiative, a ten-month course that helps people with low incomes launch sustainable businesses, with training, mentoring, consulting from Morgan State University students and faculty, community connections, and access to micro-lending. The first cohort, in 2023, had 41 graduates; the second cohort, which started in February 2024, drew 163 applicants, accepted 51, and saw 47 complete the training.
The Carroll's-Gill's Heritage
Hunt's Memorial is the spiritual heir of two earlier congregations, Carroll's and Gill's, both of which merged into the Riderwood church in stages. Gill's Methodist Episcopal Church, near Chestnut Ridge, dates to a 1905 deed from Charles T. Cockey Sr. and the dedication of its present building in 1906, with the current structure erected in 1916 after a fire. Carroll's United Methodist Church grew out of the Brooklandville Circuit in the early twentieth century and built a new sanctuary in 1967. Gill's merged with Carroll's in 1990 to form Carroll's-Gill's United Methodist Church, and Carroll's-Gill's merged with Hunt's in June 2009. The Church of the Resurrection purchased the former Carroll's-Gill's property, and the proceeds were placed in the Carroll's-Gill's Permanent Endowment Fund, which now supports Hunt's mission and ministry, the maintenance of Carroll's Cemetery, and the youth and Christian education programs of the church.
A Reconciling Congregation
In 2019, after the United Methodist Church's General Conference voted to maintain restrictions on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage, Hunt's chose to stand apart from those restrictions by joining the Reconciling Ministries Network. The church's public statement of welcome reads: "We celebrate God's gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital, and social status, and so much more."
The Reconciling Ministries Committee, chaired by Merle Bayne, leads the congregation in living out that identity, with programming, annual recognitions, signage, and participation in community events such as Pride. After the 2024 General Conference removed the denomination's discriminatory language, Hunt's publicly celebrated the change. Its marriage policy notes that "we recognize, support and celebrate the faithful commitments of any two people who come to Hunt's to be married," and that if a pastor chooses not to officiate a same-sex wedding, the pastor will help the couple find a United Methodist clergyperson who will.
Baptism at Hunt's
Baptism is offered to children, youth, and adults. The church teaches that baptism is a two-fold symbol, including both the giving of God's grace and the faithful response, and that once baptized, always baptized: all United Methodist churches recognize baptisms performed in other Christian traditions, so there is no rebaptism at Hunt's. Parents seeking baptism for infants or children are asked to participate in worship for at least four weeks so the family can get a sense of the congregation, attend a baptism class with the pastor, and fill out an online baptism form. Older youth and adults meet one-on-one with Rev. Carissa to arrange their baptism.
The Preschool on the Grounds
Hunt's Church Preschool shares the campus and is overseen by a Preschool Committee of the congregation. The Preschool operates during weekday hours, and any visitor entering the building during preschool hours, from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM, is asked to sign in at the Preschool office and wear a visitor lanyard. The Fall Festival and Trunk or Treat are co-hosted by the Preschool and the church.
The People Who Lead Hunt's
Rev. Carissa Surber has been the pastor of Hunt's since July 2021. A lifelong United Methodist, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary, where she graduated in May 2015. She was ordained as an elder in full connection in May 2019, after serving Trinity UMC in Odenton and Severna Park UMC. She and her husband Matthew, a Baltimore County native who grew up at Carroll's-Gill's UMC, live in Idlewylde with their son Deacon and their dog Maisy.
Chase Simpson is the Music Director, leading the Chancel Choir and the Praise Band. A native of Metro-Detroit and a graduate of Central Michigan University, Chase earned a Master's of Music in Choral Conducting at Western Kentucky University and also serves as choir director and music teacher at St. Paul's School for Boys. Jackie Weavill is the Communications Manager, with a career in communications and digital ministry in United Methodist churches and Christian nonprofits across the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Nancy Williams-Nettles joined the staff in October 2023 as Accompanist, playing piano and organ for worship; she is a trained soprano, the music director of Third Wall Productions, and the Director of Accessibility at Goucher College. Vince Ray serves as Sound Engineer. Beth Woody, the Administrative Assistant, has been a key member of the staff since 2006 and is the day-to-day contact for the congregation, coordinating The Point newsletter and the weekly bulletin.
Pastor and staff are supported by a close network of lay leaders. Pegg Melfa serves as Lay Leader, Donna Sibley as Lay Member of Annual Conference, and Cathy Junkin chairs the Church Council. The full list of committee chairs includes Donna Sibley (Community Life), Jody Waters and Kathy Davis (Education), Lynn Henss (Missions), Trish Funderburk (Preschool), Merle Bayne (Reconciling Ministries), Barbara Anastasion (Worship), Kelly Heubeck and Rusty Erdman (Board of Trustees), Ted Ochs (Finance), and Jim Foster (Staff-Parish Relations).
A Continuing Story
The pastors of Hunt's, going back more than two centuries, include Burgan in 1907, Lewis in 1925, Robinson from 1946 to 1958, VanMetre from 1969 to 1983, Wicklein and Highfield in the 1980s and 1990s, Crider and Roberts in the 2000s, Sheffield-James from 2008 to 2017, and Knoll from 2017 to 2021. The list is a record of continuity in a congregation that has, for almost 250 years, gathered on the same stretch of land that Phineas Hunt once opened to traveling preachers. The stone sanctuary above Old Court Road still holds the names of those who built it, and the rooms around it still hold the work of feeding children, sheltering men in recovery, teaching teenagers, sending shoeboxes, knitting shawls, packing food bags, building ramps, and welcoming anyone who walks through the doors.