Greetings, Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
With all that is going on in our denomination I have been pondering our name – The United Methodist Church. The name Methodist goes back to our Wesleyan heritage, a name that states we are a church with patterns of behavior and particular ways of doing things. These methods birthed a church that changed our country and our world. Church buildings, hospitals, schools and orphanages are just a start of what we have physically built, but changing lives through the love of Jesus Christ is the primary way that we have made our mark.
Methodist comes from our Wesleyan heritage, but United comes from our German heritage, when the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church merged in 1968. United became an important part of who we are. United we worship. United we study. United we serve. United we love. United we lead. United we are the body of Christ.
As a united body we raised enough money through the Filipino Fellowship’s “Songs of Love” concert to put beautiful new floors in our downstairs Sunday school classrooms.
As a united body we had an amazing week of Vacation Bible School, where our children were immersed in the Word through songs, crafts, games, stories and fellowship producing memories that will last a lifetime.
As a united body we served lunch to nearly 100 people in need of food, compassion and love.
As a united body we praise God through music, prayers and the Word each week.
We could not have accomplished any of this without being united, connected not by human attributes, but by the Holy Spirit that binds us together in Christian love. Let us celebrate our unity and stand behind our name that declares to the world that we are United Methodists and proud of it.
Blessings, Pastor Stacy