July 1, 2023
Has it really been a year already? In some ways June 29, 2022 seems like yesterday, and in other ways, it feels like I have been appointed as Cokesbury UMC’s pastor for much longer than a year. The old saying goes, “Time flies when you are having fun,” and despite some of the challenges we have faced together in the past year, it has been my honor and joy to serve as your pastor. Moreover, you all have welcomed my family and I with open arms and adopted us into your loving family. We have laughed together. We have mourned together and experienced every state of emotion in-between. In all of it, Jesus has been with us through the Holy Spirit sustaining us, guiding us, and loving us.
As I look back over the past year, I celebrate the return of some things and the expansion of others. Our Trunk-or-Treat event was a huge hit in the neighborhood as well as our joint Lenten worship services with other area churches. Our Yah-Yah’s continue to meet and celebrate life and one another as well as our UMM and Women of Faith groups. The simple act of gathering together in fellowship meals returned, and we enjoyed breaking bread with our sisters and brothers in Christ. We moved one of our Bible studies off campus to be inviting to those who might not be comfortable coming onto our campus. We lived into our connectionalism and started Cross the Ashley Youth Group with Saint Andrews Parish UMC and had our first confirmation class in years. We expanded our ministry together by having a joint VBS this year. We have begun working closer with our sister church, New Francis Brown UMC, in both worship and mission. The Holy Spirit truly has been at work in us and among us!
I also have to acknowledge some of the heartbreak we have lived through as a congregation and as a denomination over the last year. We have said goodbye to several members of Cokesbury UMC as they have transitioned to the Church Triumphant. When the discernment process was released in December of last year, Church Council made the painful decision to enter into that process. After completing the requisite steps, Cokesbury voted to remain UMC. This was not the outcome some of our members wanted, and they have begun searching for new church homes. 113 South Carolina Annual Conference local churches voted to leave the denomination. We mourn no longer worshiping and conferencing with those individuals and local churches who have chosen to leave the UMC. Living through the divisions we have experienced in our society, in our denomination, and in our Cokesbury family can make it hard for us to see, feel, and share God’s reconciling love. Yet, I am convinced by the words, “Jesus wept,” that God’s reconciling love is still indeed here in us and among us (John 11:35). We know God weeps because Jesus weeps. The sin, death, and brokenness of this world cause God to weep. God is not some far off unknowable being. God knows us intimately, and God desires to be known by us. God exists in community with God’s self as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; moreover, God continues to be in community with us. Where we tear ourselves apart, God weeps, and works to heal our brokenness in and among us. That is the beauty and the miracle of the communion table where God gives God’s self to each and every one of us who approach it. In this simple meal, God’s reconciling love is at work uniting us with God and uniting us with one another.
What does our next year in ministry together hold for us? Only time will tell. As far as definitive plans, we continue to have fun centered activities like a family day at the waterpark and planning for our next Trunk-or-Treat. We will continue to partner with St. Andrews Parish UMC in the Cross the Ashly Youth ministry. We have a time of retreat planned to Asbury Hills in the fall as we explore what it means to be United Methodist in the 21st Century. New Francis Brown UMC and Cokesbury UMC will continue to worship together, study together, and be in mission with one another. What else might God be up to in us and among us as followers of Jesus the Christ? I cannot wait to find out. If we are willing to listen to what God would have us do through the Holy Spirit, then I am confident God sized dreams and the kingdom of heaven will be revealed to the world on the corner of Dorchester Rd. and Montague Ave. God is with us and goes out ahead of us preparing the way. The harvest is large and the workers few (Matthew 9:35-38). God has called us to be Cokesbury UMC. Let’s explore what God is asking us to do with peace and hope, witnessing to God’s reconciling love at work in us and among us.