On a spring evening in Ireland in 1762, the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, spent the night with my family.
Remaining on our family’s farm in Ireland is a stump indicating where the tree used to be that John Wesley preached under along with the original cottage where our ancestors welcomed Wesley to stay while in town.
John Wesley made 21 trips to Ireland, and on this trip, he dropped by the town of Carrick-on-Shannon to preach. He had been to this area before, once being challenged two years earlier with a sword/spear by a magistrate opposed to his preaching and ultimately having his hat crushed by the same. But on this night, my “great-grandfather and great-grandmother times five” gave Wesley a place to eat and sleep for the evening.
The farm in Killukin has been in our family for 10 generations. The original stone cottage where Wesley stayed has been restored and still stands (and can be rented). After spending the night, Wesley committed one of his acts of being “more vile” and preached an outdoor sermon the next day under a Hawthorn tree. The tree was taken down in the 1960s, but the stump marking where Wesley preached remains. Before leaving as a token of gratitude, Wesley signed the family Bible, which was stolen from the home in 1925.
According to historical documents, our family members were in some of Wesley’s first “Societies” in the area. Ancestors recounted stories of hearing Wesley preach and sing locally.
My Journey with United Methodism Begins
On February 16th, 1975, in Haleyville, Alabama, I became a part of the United Methodist Church.
My mom and dad took turns taking pictures with me in my grandmother’s yard on that special day. I went to Sunday school and “big church”. We weren’t regulars, but becoming a part of a church was important to my mom.
The church bulletin was in black and white and had this great outlined drawing of the church on the front cover. When I got bored with what was going on in the service, Mom would let me fill in the spots of the church drawing with her red felt pen from her purse.
At my grandmother’s house before joining the First United Methodist Church in Haleyville, Alabama.
After getting married and moving away to suburban Washington D.C., my wife and I found a spiritual home at Centreville United Methodist Church. The church building was only a few years old, full of windows and light wood. A few of the many windows had a way of focusing the sunlight in a highlighting beam on one side of the sanctuary. You never had to wonder where the visitors were because they were highlighted by the Sunday morning sun in pews that regular church members knew to avoid.
We became friends with a young pastor at the church who was our age. Our families became friends and we often had dinner with them and other young couples at the church. We had deep conversations about Christianity. I learned much from him and benefitted from the wisdom of his Duke Divinity School background.
He inspired me to ponder the Bible and the relationship story within. He opened the door to questioning so that I could become a stronger Christian and explained how that process of seeking truth could create a more resilient faith.
Our Spiritual Home
When we moved to Riverchase in 1998, we tried several churches before deciding to become members at Riverchase. Over the years, we’ve come to make great friends there. We’ve taught and been a part of several Sunday school classes, volunteered for various events and programs, taught children’s Sunday school, and served Wednesday dinners.
I love teaching adult Sunday School classes. Teaching lets me dive in and look for new angles and perspectives to learn about and share. It lets a class take a current event, put it down on the table, and then walk around it and look at it from a variety of angles through a Christian lens together.
We love helping with youth parties at their events. We enjoy designing experiences for the youth that make our church fun so that maybe those here for the first time will come back. And we want to ensure that our youth will want to keep inviting their friends.
Over time, many members of our family joined the church.
My mother-in-law and father-in-law both joined.
My mother-in-law’s father joined and his brother-in-law and sister-in-law both joined.
My wife’s sister and her husband joined and their kids went through confirmation, the youth program, and one became an Eagle Scout in Riverchase UMC’s Boy Scout troop.
Our two kids both went through confirmation and the youth program at Riverchase UMC and one is currently on the Leadership Team in the Youth Ministry.
At one point, we had four generations of our family in the pews at Riverchase UMC.
Over the years, family members passed away or graduated and moved away. My wife’s parents left to find to another church after the divisive rhetoric of the past couple of years made them consider looking elsewhere. Riverchase UMC was no longer a place where they could thrive spiritually.
We are still at Riverchase UMC and plan to be as we continue to seek God’s will for our family.
We focus on supporting our youth program for they are the future of our church. It’s exciting to see this next generation come through tied to traditions, but with a fresh outlook on rules, expectations, faith, and Christianity.
We enjoy the traditional service and our amazing choir. I’ve enjoyed hearing new takes on the old hymns that Daniel DeShazo has brought to our sanctuary. I look forward to seeing more young people lend new voices to our church.
We Don’t Always Stay Inside the Lines
We have a history of being the challengers of norms as Methodists. Why? Because when we did, we brought more people to Christ. Our camp meetings and riders in early America made Methodism the largest denomination in the country by 1844. We did it because we challenged the day’s thinking and had a connectional structure established by Wesley in England that allowed our message to spread.
We colored outside of the lines. We discovered hearts waiting to be “strangely warmed”.
So the next time you’re at church, take a look at the black and white drawing of our church on the front bulletin.
Grab a red pen as I did in 1975.
The shapes and designs are easy to color in and have become recognizable over the years. We’re famliar with the windows that let the light in every Sunday. We’re familiar with the doors that are open to everyone.
But know that it’s in our pedigree to color outside the lines.
