The Bethlehem Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1839 with the following charter members: Elzia Arterburn, Eleanor Boles, Martha Chism, Nathan B. Chism, Clancy Daniels, Jane England, Nancy Eubank, William B. Eubank, Quincey Fitzgerald, James Johnston, Sarah Johnston, Elizabeth Lane, Martin Payne, Catherine Ray, and Jefferson Turner. In 1840, John and Elizabeth Johnston donated land for the first church building. Their deed of gift named Elzia Arterburn, Samuel Ray, and William Turner as the three original trustees of the new church. In 1845, the congregation changed its affiliation to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and remained so until the Methodist Church was reunified in 1939. In 1870, James and Elizabeth Lee and G. W. Smith deeded the initial gift of land for a "burying ground" for the church, which became Bethlehem Cemetery. Numerous gravesites here with death dates before 1870 suggest that the Lees and Smith might possibly have recorded an earlier Deed of Gift that had been destroyed in the courthouse fire (1863) during the Civil War, unless burials were simply granted by informal consent of the landowners prior to 1870. In 1872, church members authorized the addition of a second floor to the meeting house to accomodate a Masonic lodge. In 1953, this original building was sold by Bethlehem Methodists to Henderson Lodge #515, F&AM, and moved across the road to make way for a new brick church building. In 2016, this original log building of Bethlehem Church was dismantled and sold by Henderson Lodge to make way for a new Lodge hall, and the logs relocated by the new owner to Bethpage, Tennessee. On June 8, 2021, Bethlehem members decided to terminate their affiliation with the United Methodist Church and 182 years of Methodist heritage, and became an independent community church. Bethlehem Cemetery has been for many years a community cemetery overseen by an independent committee and maintained by public donations.