This church began with a group of German Evangelicals who came to Missoula in the 1920’s.  They worshipped together with some Baptist and Congregational Christians with German backgrounds in the Franklin School for a time.  After the three groups had each formed their own congregations in 1927, the Evangelicals purchased the old Methodist Chapel on South 8^th Street West and Russell.  18 Charter members organized the church on July 16, 1927. Our name at that time was the Zion Evangelical Church.

In 1929 they purchased the four lots where the church is now at $20 a lot.  They tore apart the old chapel for materials and also used lumber from a discontinued German Lutheran Church in the Bitterroot Valley.  Even so the new facility cost $7000and by 1930 we had moved to the current location at South 10^th Street West and Garfield.  It was at this time also that English began to be used more than German in the services and we had to find English-speaking teachers for the church school so that we could join the Montana Conference of the Evangelical Church. Through the 30's a first service was conducted in German and then was repeated in English.

The church building was enlarged in the early 40's.  In 1946 the Evangelical Church and the United Brethren Church in Christ formally united to become the Evangelical United Brethren Church (the EUB’s).  During the early 1950's our education building  (which we still use) was constructed. Rev. David J. Graff arrived in time to dedicate the education building and stayed on as pastor for the next 20 years.  It was also in about 1957 that we began operating two booths at the Western Montana Fair, one serving only drinks and the other serving food and drinks.  That traditions continues today (we have shared the Food Booth with First United Methodist Church for the past few years).

In 1968 the Methodist Church and the EUB’s  united to become the United Methodist Church.  It was than that our name became Grace United Methodist Church.  This was a challenging time, as many people did not wish to belong to the new denomination and withdrew from our church to form another church and denomination.  Many of these people had been leaders in the church and they were sorely missed, but the rest of us rallied to the challenge and the church moved forward.

In 1970 a fire destroyed most of our original building and a new ‘Church-in-the-Round’ design facility was built in 1972.   Only a few years later, in August of 1975, an arson-caused fired gutted the beautiful new facility.  The sanctuary was rebuilt and the parsonage moved a half block away and parking space increased.  We held the first service in our "new" new facility on March 28, 1976.  The ‘Church in the Round’ design is still very ‘contemporary’ almost 30 years later.  Our relatively compact space can allow a lot of caring people to feel an intimate part of the family of God.

 In the fall of 1974 the St. John’s Methodist Church disbanded and many of the members, their pastor, and some of the assets (including the present parsonage) transferred to Grace church. 

We continue to serve in Christian ministry to our community and to our world, while providing a save and caring place where people of all ages can worship, study and enjoy each other’s company.