The history of our church can be traced back to the original Methodist Episcopal congregation in the Gaithersburg area in 1844. It was originally called English’s Class, named for the class leader, Thomas English, and later known as the Middlebrook Class. The first class meetings were held in Mr. English’s and other members’ homes, often conducted by circuit-riding preachers from the Rockville Circuit of the Baltimore Conference. As the  group expanded, it met in the St. Luke’s Presbyterian Meetinghouse, a small two-story building that looked more like a home than a church. The Middlebrook Class survived intact during the Civil War – most of the members were Southern sympathizers, although the original class leader, Thomas English, favored the North. When the war ended, the Baltimore Conference, the Rockville Circuit, and many of the individual congregations split. Most joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which was formed the same year as the Rockville Circuit. In 1867, 60 Southern-sympathizing members of the Middlebrook Class built what was to become our parent church on Frederick Road, where the Forest Oak cemetery is now located. Its official name was the Gaithersburg Methodist Episcopal Church, South, although it was more commonly referred to as the Forest Oak Church. The northern sympathizers who withdrew formed Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church.
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About Grace 
