Happy Fourth of July or happy treason day!

It is exciting to think this year we will be celebrating 250 years of our nation's independence. No, I will not bore you with a history lesson on the Revolutionary War or the Founding Fathers. I did want to note that our denomination dates back to the founding of this country. John and Charles Wesley both visited Georgia prior to John Wesley's Aldersgate experience. It was not a good experience for either one of them. Later, after John began creating house meetings, people left England and came to the colonies- some of them were Methodist. They were followers of John Wesley and the Methodist movement. Originally, it was laity. Not missionaries or evangelists. Simple people who brought their faith with them. Later Wesley would send Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury. I am descended from an early Methodist minister who came to Virginia in the late 1780s. As Methodists, we can celebrate not only the founding of our nation, but also the early founding of the Methodist movement here in the United States by laity. Laity have always been at the heart of the Methodist church. When circuit riders could not be at a church, laity stepped in to lead services and preach. My own great-grandfather often preached on the Sundays when the preacher was at the other 2 churches on their circuit. Lay leaders, the laity are the backbone of the local church. The conference has been hosting lay leader training sessions across the conference. If you feel God calling you to step into leadership, please see me. Helen, our lay leader, has done lay leader and lay speaker training. Our churches cannot survive without the laity running and leading. 

I hope you have a blessed independence day.

Shalom, 

Pastor Stacy

What I See Coming up:

July 12- Administrative council meeting following service