Our History

The Lord has a long history of meeting with His people outdoors. Drawing on the stories of Israel’s sojourn through the wilderness, camp meeting revivals in the late 1700’s became a key feature of life on the American frontier, drawing families to camp out miles in the wilderness for days of preaching, corporate prayer and worship, and personal spiritual renewal. In time, these outdoor gatherings birthed the establishment of permanent campgrounds, where families stayed in cottages rather than tents and large tabernacle pavilions were erected for the people of God to gather in His Presence.

 

In the late 1800’s, the Free Methodists of the metropolitan area of Washington DC laid the foundation for establishing such a place. Our earliest known records report that their first camp meeting was held in 1889, after which they continued to pitch their tents each year to gather with friends and family, escape the summer heat, and seek the Lord’s face. In 1931, the Washington Free Methodist Church was able to purchase land in the countryside of Maryland, and on these eleven acres, the Spencerville Free Methodist Campground was born.

 

The spiritual epicenter of the campground was the tabernacle, a large pavilion able to shelter and seat several hundred souls gathered for communal worship and renewal. Over fifty family cottages (or cabins) were built encircling the tabernacle, like the Israelites of old encamped around the tent of God’s Presence. The years of revival meetings, church retreats, and youth camps have seen many testimonies of salvation, baptisms, and lives touched and transformed by the Spirit of God.

 

In time, however, activity on the campground began to decline. Though hosting the Maryland-Virginia Conference Headquarters for the Free Methodists of the DC area for a season, and later hosting visitors year-round for spiritual retreats as the Peach Orchard Christian Retreat Center and Campground, life began to fade on these grounds. For several decades, campground facilities deteriorated without the resources or manpower to maintain them, reflecting the waning of enthusiasm for the camp meetings of the old days. The Free Methodist conference of the Northeast, now known as Acts 12:24 Conference, wrestled with the future of the campground and unsuccessfully attempted to sell it.

 

The Lord revealed a new vision and purpose for the campground around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dilapidated cabins and neglected grounds were no longer merely a sad memorial to the Lord’s working in bygone days, but a powerful visual metaphor for the spiritual condition of the American church today — one only able to be renovated and restored through the power of prayer. After several years of establishing a foundation of prayer, fasting, and refining the vision, in August 2023, the Tabernacle World Prayer Center was officially born — a place to host the Presence of God, unite and renew the church into Christ’s fullness, and contend for His plentiful harvest to be gathered in!

 

We honor the spiritual legacy we have inherited, and believe this is a time the Lord has appointed for this cherished spiritual well to be re-dug — not only for the Free Methodist community of the DC area, but the whole Body of Christ and expansion of God’s Kingdom in our county, region, nation, and among all the nations of the earth. We believe the story of the Lord’s work on these grounds isn’t finished yet, and are eager to see how He will continue to write the next chapter!