This is how one of our pastors, Rev. Judy Stevenson, describes the speed of the Holy Spirit leading our new church plant. We should be exhausted, but I just can’t explain the energy that comes from gathering every single Sunday and all the times in-between. Let me share just a few stories….

How we started: A team of lay prayer warriors faithfully gathered over the last several years on Wednesday nights asking, surrendering, submitting, grieving, celebrating, listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Lord, let Your will be done.
Now: A team of lay and clergy prayer warriors continue to faithfully gather every Wednesday night alongside 33 prayer partner teams praying in-person weekly for each other as individual disciples, for our new local church to stay within the Holy Spirit’s navigational beacons, for our amazingly talented leadership team to lead in unity and without fear, and for our denominational leadership to stay the course no matter the hardships and distractions. The Christian community around the world is cheering us on as we courageously start and follow this new awakening of faith and revival.

How we started: Due to the great generosity of a local funeral home, we’ve been offered spaces every Sunday morning, and other times as previously scheduled, for business meetings and special worship services such as Christmas Eve since Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. The Sunday morning immediately following the Saturday afternoon the super majority were denied disaffiliation, folks gathered for small groups at 9:30am, then picked up their little people going directly to the funeral home across the street to celebrate God’s goodness and His faithfulness as a new congregation at 11am. Because a small group had prepared and talked through multiple scenarios, they even provided a paper bulletin in less than 12 hours. Because there were no inherited spaces nor culture, we started from a sacred scratch and the excitement is contagious.
Now: We have teams for hospitality, greeting before and after services, security, a fantastic database, keeping ministry safe policies implemented, cleanup routines, livestream, blended worship services, 33 prayer partner teams, the overflow room (pray-ground) is overflowing every week, usher teams, teaching teams, a volunteer coordinator, we break into song and prayers aloud at business meetings, we prayer nap our pastors before worship (even the Bishop last Sunday!), operate a nursery with leaders and a servant rotation, and the youth have the only spaces permitting food so they can enjoy donuts on Sunday morning. We gratefully submit to the ask of no food anywhere else which is why serving our first Holy Communion as a church happened at Campfire Christmas, a family worship event in 40 degree weather in a barn before our new pastoral team was secured. The first time our pastors served Holy Communion on a Sunday morning, we served and received it outside with ice in the juice ‘cuz it was 12 degrees.

How we started: Only current leaders who were compliant with Safe Sanctuary over the last year serving children, youth, and vulnerable adults could continue to serve in those capacities.
Now: The Global Methodist Church, has partnered with Ministry Safe to provide free, professional, online training along with documents and sample policies acceptable to our insurance company to roll out for all. We pay only for background checks which are offered at a deep discount as an example of the Global Methodist Church’s commitment to keeping ministry safe.

How we started: Because spaces are limited, we quickly outgrew our youth space. The 1.5-2 hour midweek gathering for youth would also need to adjust as the numbers kept growing.
Now: Since all the adult Sunday morning small groups graciously agreed to study The Class Meeting (it was the most Wesleyan thing we could do to prepare us for the common language necessary to move forward as a new body devoted to transformation), three classes received high school youth as members of their classes for the 8 weeks of the study. High school students were assigned in their friend groups yet not to classes where their parents/grandparents were. The wins: Multigenerational practices reminded previously formed groups how to receive new members well; Multigenerational practices showed our high schoolers that working through our faith through sanctification is a life-long process (adults don’t have it all together, yet modeling we are better together in Christian community); common language; new relationships and deeper multigenerational relationships. After the 8 weeks, the high schoolers will return to the youth space on Sunday morning which will be one week before moving into our new, permanent location. For the adults and the youth who fully participated there is already more interest, respect, honor, in sharing life in a multigenerational Body of Christ. Handing over the keys to younger leadership, interest, and input will be so much smoother because of fully submitting to this process of making new friends in the Lord. Everyone had already done the most awkward thing ever by leaving their home-church and starting another. Feelings abounded, yet the Holy Spirit provided this platform for a more rapid chance of sharing voices, perspectives, dreams, and developing trust. 

A generous family opened their home for the mid-week youth gatherings, so we tightened the time to 1 hour (so this family didn’t have people in their home for HOURS every Wednesday night with food set up/clean up and more and we wouldn’t overstay our welcome) and I’m meeting at the coffee shop around the corner with parent(s) wishing to chat and read/discuss scripture at the exact same time. This coffee shop time has offered a platform for parents to share their dreams of what a new youth group experience could look like since we are starting from a sacred scratch in all areas. We’ve booked some local mission trips this summer through SAMs (Sunday Afternoon Missions) and a week at Smoky Mountain Outreach with our new pastors leading the trip. Did I mention that before our new pastors served Holy Communion to our congregation on a Sunday, they served the youth first on the Wednesday prior? We may not be as shiny or able to do everything, but our leadership has made it clear by repeated word and deed that our youth are a priority and a multigenerational Body of Christ is the goal. The youth leaders? They are solid disciples of Jesus. The organizational structure of these lay leaders devoted to ministry with youth includes multiple layers of communication.

How we started: The best advertising is a t-shirt so a local friend with a Cricut machine and an Amazon account prepared swag to give to our new pastors and several of us who ‘office’ in public spaces. 
Now: An apparel design company I’ve been doing business with over the last 18 months has opened up an online store for us just this week to order t-shirts, pullovers for littles and bigs. This way we don’t have to unwisely purchase an unknown amount of product blindly. A simple design and they are taking on the money part since we’re just getting started. Everyone looks good in navy blue.

What we’re working on now…

  • Branding logo to tell our story, identify who we are, and stir a curiosity to know more. 
  • Multi-shared space allocations moving from the gracious funeral home chapel to a permanent location nearby.
  • Laity-led ministry and mission navigated and coached through a lay-volunteer coordinator.
  • Still learning all the ins and outs of a new and useful database.
  • Designing a youth Confirmation Cohort for the fall. 
  • Just found out that two men have been travelling to South Georgia to participate in the inaugural class of GMC lay speaking classes.
  • Five New Member Classes to make clear what church membership is and what it is not in spaces shared by a nearby GMC.
  • Training for multiple new Class Meetings all over the community, because COMMUNITY is in our name.
  • Though a permanent location has been arranged within 102 days between the first worship service at the funeral home to the current closing date of the new space, we will further navigate a consistent presence in public, community spaces for worship, service, office, etc.
  • This week is Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day. Since we rented a local subdivision clubhouse for the day for $75 to offer an imposition of ashes service at 7am, we’re offering a drop-in time for all ages and stages in the afternoon from 2:30-6pm with painting, prayer, and activity stations to celebrate Lent and God’s unfailing love. Ashes will also be offered midday with a short service at a local antique mall, then at the funeral home that evening. May we be marked as Christ’s all day, every day, in community.

As of this writing, we’ve been worshipping and serving together for 87 days including the worship service at 5pm the evening of the special conference. The Lord made clear our marching orders. May we be found faithful to tell the stories as His gathered and redeemed. (Psalm 107:2-3)

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14