Our History

Not so long ago, almost every tiny rural crossroad had a few buildings marking the community’s identity: a small store, a grange, a post office and a Methodist church. Brookfield and Immanuel are two such churches, Brookfield is located in the Naylor community and Immanuel is located in the Baden community. From their origins up until 1951, our churches were among those served by pastors, frequently called “circuit-riding preachers,” who were assigned to the Prince George’s Circuit.

Rev. Harold Milstead was our last pastor from the Prince George’s Circuit, serving five Methodist Churches from 1945 to 1951: Brookfield, Calvary, Cheltenham, Immanuel, and McKendree. After fire destroyed the Calvary parsonage in Waldorf, the decision was made that Brookfield and Immanuel would be served by a single pastor who would live in a new parsonage to be built on Immanuel property in Baden. That first pastor was Rev. Walter Zabel, and he served our churches from 1951 to 1959.

Why is our name Brookfield-Immanuel “Charge?” United Methodist churches are organized into “conferences” which serve different geographic regions, and a bishop is appointed to lead each conference. Bishops appoint pastors to serve the different churches in their respective conferences. About 40% of the United Methodist congregations are too small to support their own full-time pastor, so they are organized in to ”multi-point charges,” and each of which is served by a single pastor.

Most United Methodist churches in Maryland and Washington DC are assigned to the Baltimore-Washington Conference. You can learn more about the Baltimore-Washington Conference by exploring our conference website: http://www.bwcumc.org/. You can learn more about our charge by continuing to explore our charge website: http://brookfield-immanuel.org/. You can learn more about the histories of our churches by clicking Brookfield History or Immanuel History. If you are interested in learning more historical information, you can email our historian: Mrs. Sandra Cross.