Zoar United Methodist Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, traditionally the oldest African American congregation within the United Methodist Church, was founded in 1794 by eighteen free African-Americans, fifteen men and three women. The founders had separated themselves from the white-dominated St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church but chose to remain in Methodism with its traditions of early opposition to slavery, evangelical style of preaching, and ministering to social needs. The early members first worshipped from house to house, then met in an abandoned butcher shop at Brown and Fourth Streets in the Campingtown area of Philadelphia. Originally known as African Zoar, a church was constructed near the site and dedicated on August 4, 1796 by Bishop Francis Asbury.

Although Zoar was mentioned as a separate church in the records of the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as early as 1811, it was administered by St. George's, which supplied its pastors. Zoar established two mutual aid societies, the Beneficial Philanthropic Sons of Zoar and the Female Beneficial Philanthropic Society of Zoar in 1826. During this period, a number of members left Zoar to join Richard Allen in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1832, a “plan of separation” from St. George's was adopted to take effect in three years. In 1835, the “Covenant of Assumption” made possible the assignment of Zoar's first African-American pastor, Rev. Perry Tilghman, who served until 1844. Zoar was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on June 14, 1837. During the 1830s and 1840s, the Church was presumably a link on the Underground Railroad along with other African-American Methodist churches in Philadelphia.

A series of conferences of Colored Local Preachers held at Zoar in the 1850s and 1860s resulted in the creation of the Delaware Annual Conference by the 1864 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Delaware Conference was comprised of twenty-one African-American Methodist churches from Philadelphia, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Its creation allowed for the ordination of local preachers and travelling elders and gave African-American congregations greater control over their own affairs.

The records of the first meeting of the Delaware Conference list 140 members of the Zoar congregation. As the membership grew throughout the 1870s and 1880s, larger facilities became necessary. At a sheriff's sale in June 1883, a benefactor, Joseph M. Bennett, purchased the red brick Reformed Episcopal Church at Twelfth and Melon Streets for $3200 and donated it to the congregation. Zoar Methodist Church was incorporated in 1885. The title to the property was still subject to the payment of ground rents, a perpetual lease often held and assigned by a separate owner. By 1889, however, Zoar purchased the ground rents from Girard Life Insurance Company and its title became free and clear. In 1896, it purchased a building at 1310 Parrish Street for use as a parsonage. The Parrish Street house was replaced by one at 3849 North 18 Street (purchased in 1945) and was sold to tenants in 1956.

The first Usher Board was organized in 1886. Under Charles H. Dorsey, it became a model for other congregations and a forerunner of the National Church Ushers Association, founded in 1919. In 1897, under Pastor James H. Richardson, the Church underwent extensive remodelling, financed by a mortgage and loans from the Methodist Church Board of Home Missions and Church Extension. The first Layman's Association and Missionary Society were organized at about that time. After a period of internal dissension and financial difficulty, final payment was made on the mortgage in 1917. Four houses at the rear of the Church, 1203-09 North Street, were purchased in 1920 for Church use as well as rental income. Additional remodelling and modernization of the Church and the addition of a community center took place in 1926.

During the 1920s, Zoar began a Day Nursery, a Mothers and Babies Clinic, Parents Association, and a Mother's Club and Welfare Foundation. A Zoar Community Building and Loan Association was organized in 1924 to provide mortgages for African Americans unable to obtain them from banks. The Armstrong Association (Urban League) worked out of the new community center. The onset of the Depression resulted in a decrease in the Church's income although it contributed to unemployment relief for parishoners.

With the merger of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant Church in 1939, the African-American conferences were organized into a separate unit, the Central Jurisdiction. The Jurisdiction existed until the mid-1960s when it was dissolved into the mainstream geographical structure of the United Methodist Church. The churches of the Delaware Conference, including Zoar, were transferred to the Newark, Philadelphia, and Peninsula Conferences of the Northeast Jurisdiction in 1964 at the centennial meeting of the Conference held at Zoar.

Zoar's longtime pastor Rev. Joshua E. Licorish (1911-1987) was Secretary of the Conference. He served as pastor of Zoar from 1957 to 1981 and played a role in urban renewal and civil rights issues in Philadelphia during the 1950s and 1960s. Licorsh participated with the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan in the late 1950s boycotts of Philadelphia corporations and subsequent meetings to end discriminatory hiring practices. He also oversaw additional renovations of the Church in 1959 and the organization of the Zoar Community Development Corporation in preparation for the construction of low income housing. During Licorish's administration, the membership of Zoar numbered about 900. Licorish was succeeded by Rev. Clyde Henry, who was succeeded by Rev. Ralph Banks in 1985.

The trustees of Zoar also acted as trustees for the St. John's Methodist Church of Spring Lake, New Jersey. The Church, founded in 1887 and open only in the summer months, served members who were employed at the resort hotels of Spring Lake or as domestics for summer residents.