The Upper Room (Christianity)

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For other meanings of the phrase, see The Upper Room.

The Upper Room is an arm of The United Methodist Church which encourages prayer, piety, and Bible reading. It publishes a number of ecumenical devotional resources and is best known for its devotional reader entitled The Upper Room.

Upper Room Ministries began by publishing a daily devotional guide, which remains at the heart of its ministry. During the 1930s, a group of women in San Antonio, Texas discerned through prayer that families needed a time of worship and Bible study to sustain them through the stress of the Great Depression. They asked their church for a devotional guide -- a request that inspired the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to publish a quarterly devotional booklet to be sold in local congregations.

Grover Carleton Emmons, the first editor of the guide, determined the one-page meditation format and decided that the devotions would be written by various Christians, both lay and clergy, from around the world. The final decision, the name of the guide, came to him as he heard a speaker describe the outpouring of spiritual power among Jesus' disciples gathered in an upper room on the day of Pentecost. He telegraphed those who were typesetting the first issue, and in April 1935, the first issue of The Upper Room daily devotional guide was published.

Upper Room Ministries continues to expand in response to the spiritual needs of persons and communities of faith. The focus of the organization continues to be on personal spirituality and small group prayer ministry.