John Louk

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 NRSV We are moving to our third location in the last ten months since the flood destroyed our building downtown. We are very grateful for the hospitality we have received from the congregations of Lovely Lane and Echo Hill and now from Kenwood Park. For many of us it has been difficult losing our home. A United Methodist congregation without a building feels naked! Still, this time is a gift from God. Moreover, it is a gift that very few congregations receive. We get to begin again. In so doing we have the opportunity to think about what it truly means for us to be the Church. Here are some things to consider. Our 2008 Book of Discipline defines the local church: “The local church provides the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs. It is a community of true believers under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is pr...

We are having a congregational meeting on Sunday, April 19, at 10:00 am in the sanctuary. We learned this past week we need to move out of our current location on April 29. The Leadership Board proposes that we accept the offer of Kenwood Park UMC to share their space. We have worked out the details of how that would look and we will share that information at this congregational meeting. While it will not be an official Charge Conference, our new Conference Superintendent, Dave Crow, is preaching that day and so will be with us for this meeting. The Leadership Board also wants to share our vision of moving out to the land Salem owns on Blairs Ferry Road and how we could become a significant United Methodist presence in that part of the city. We are also still very interested in keeping our downtown presence and being in ministry with Matthew 25 there. We will not vote on these things on April 19. Meeting at Kenwood Park UMC for the next four months will give us the opportunity to solid...