Now arriving on track 3, Methodism in Ogden." While that wasn't the call heard in the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific passenger terminal on June 28, 1870, that was what was arriving as the Reverend G.M. Pierce conducted the first Methodist church service in the terminal. The ministry of what is now First United Methodist Church was launched on an express run that saw the congregation literally on the move for the first few months of its existence, meeting for short periods in the Ogden Theater Building at the corner of 24th and Grant ($5 per week), Cordon's Hall at 25th and Main (now Washington Avenue) ($12 per month) and Leavitt's Hall at 24th and Washington ($18 per month).

Looking for a more permanent home, in June of 1871, the church purchased property at 2364 Washington for $1700. From its beginnings as a missionary project of the Methodist Episcopal Church receiving most of its financial support from the Church Extension Society, the Board of Missions and Church Extension, and from individuals in several eastern states, the church grew both in size and in missionary spirit.