The Fayetteville District is nestled in the southeastern region of North Carolina. Geographically, we cover all of Cumberland County and parts of Hoke, Harnett, and Sampson Counties. We have 60 pastors serving 66 churches. Our churches can be found in the country like Kipling UMC, in the suburbs like Haymount UMC, and in the cities like Hay Street UMC.
As United Methodists, we have “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors.” We strive to have our hearts open to listen to God speak to us individually and as Christ’s body, the Church. We have open minds. As United Methodists, we are in constant dialogue with one another about issues of the day. We have open doors. All people, no matter what you look like, what you are wearing, or what you may have done or not done, are welcome to worship with us. With God, we are all the same. With God, All things are possible.
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What do we do?
As United Methodists, we began as a reformation movement within the Anglican Church in England in the 1700s. John and Charles Wesley did not intend to create the denomination we have today. Instead, they intended to create a community within the community where people experienced and lived the grace of God and grew in the love and knowledge of God. John Wesley stated that he raised up the Methodists to “reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land” (From the Book of Discipline Paragraph 101).
As a result, United Methodists today travel in their neighborhoods and around the world to spread scriptural holiness across the land. We in the Fayetteville District have rebuilt houses in Mississippi, refurbished homes in downtown Fayetteville, taught Vacation Bible School in Poland, and ministered to people in Costa Rica. We are called to respond to God’s love through us through service to others!
We also study the scriptures together. Our churches teach Disciple Bible Study and many other bible studies led by pastors or lay people within the church. We often hold parenting classes or invite groups like Weight Watchers or Parents Without Partners to use our facilities. If you want to learn more about Christianity, become a more whole and healthy person, or deepen your faith, come by and study with us!
Where did we get the name, the United Methodist Church?
On April 23, 1968, The United Methodist Church was created when Bishop Reuben H. Mueller, representing The Evangelical United Brethren Church, and Bishop Lloyd C. Wicke of The Methodist Church joined hands at the constituting General Conference in Dallas, Texas. With the words, "Lord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in Thy Church and now in The United Methodist Church," the new denomination was given birth by two churches that had distinguished histories and influential ministries in various parts of the world.
Theological traditions steeped in the Protestant Reformation and Wesleyanism, similar ecclesiastical structures, and relationships that dated back almost two hundred years facilitated the union. In the Evangelical United Brethren heritage, for example, Philip William Otterbein, the principal founder of the United Brethren in Christ, assisted in the ordination of Francis Asbury to the superintendency of American Methodist work. Jacob Albright, through whose religious experience and leadership the Evangelical Association was begun, was nurtured in a Methodist class meeting following his conversion.
(From UMC.org)
How are United Methodist congregations connected? And why do pastors move around in the United Methodist Church?
Connectionalism makes the United Methodist Church unique. We do not answer to the pope in Rome like the Roman Catholic Church nor are we an island in and of ourselves like a congregational church. Our connection is multidimensional, global in scope, but local in thrust. Connectionalism began with John Wesley in the 1700s in England. For John Wesley, the connection was the best way to spread scriptural holiness across the land. Itineracy (pastors moving from church to church) plays a part in the connectional nature of Methodism. Each society could not have their own preacher due to the lack thereof. John Wesley also thought that each society should not become dependent on a certain preacher. The traveling preacher rode from society to society preaching staying mere months in each. Wesley thought that the congregations would become bored if they had the same preacher continually. This sharing of ministers connects us one church to another.
Control also influences connectionalism of the past and the present. John Wesley wanted to control what was preached and how. For example, he would suggest that poor lay preachers return to their day jobs. He would interview all candidates with Charles Wesley and determine their fitness for the job. Wesley created the Model Deed (Trust Clause in America) to ensure that a local church could not control the pulpit. Many Anglican churches did not allow him to preach from their pulpits, therefore he responded to that himself when given the chance. As a result, the United Methodist Church has the Trust Clause incorporated into every deed to property of the local church. A pastor cannot preach something contrary to the Book of Disciple, nor can a UMC hold a bingo to raise money for a mission trip.
Biblically the connectional nature of the UMC reflects the funnel model of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus had his group of 12 disciples, the group of 70 followers, and the 5000 who listened to him preach. We have the local church. This small group is the best place to nurture disciples as Jesus did with his close friends. The local church invests time in people and leads them to know God better. The local church impacts individuals. The Annual Conference then supports the local church with its programs. People like the bishop have less direct contact with church members and therefore less direct impact. The Jurisdictional and General employees have even less contact with people and effect change on a large level through education and initiatives.
The organization of the United Methodist Church reflects our particular theology. Methodists hold faith and works in tension. We believe that we must act out our beliefs but these actions do not earn our salvation. Connection enables us to strengthen one another in faith. The local church provides Bible study, but the General Conference through the General Board of Discipleship provides great materials like Disciple Bible study to do such a thing. The local church encourages members to explore a calling to ordained ministry but the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry provides scholarships to make that easier for people to do. Works are also easier and better with the connection. The local church recruits a local work team, but the Annual Conference organizes a central location for information and a place to do it like the NC Conference’s M.E.R.C.I center which sends the work team to Clyde, NC to clean up houses destroyed in last year’s flood. Overall, the connection magnifies our theology and makes it easier to practice it.
Geographically, the connection looks like a web with arrows pointing in two directions on each spoke. The local church is at the end of each spoke. Here the real work of ministry is done. Eucharist is served, babies are baptized, Bible study occurs weekly, and sermons are preached. Each local church belongs to a district. The district superintendent is the arm of the bishop and oversees the churches in the area to support them for mission and ministry. The Annual Conference often comprises a large geographic area of a state or several states. The Annual Conference belongs to a Jurisdiction, which is all the Annual Conferences in a multi-state area. The Jurisdictions make up the General Conference which is all the United Methodist Churches in America and the Conferences outside the geographic US (which run semi-autonomously) and missionary conferences such as the Red Bird Mission.
Missions
Because God loves us, we respond and give that love of God to others through service to them. Jesus, on the night before he died, wrapped a towel around his waist and washed his disciples’ feet. That is our model. Therefore, we in the Fayetteville District do all sorts of mission work here and at home. Whenever we serve in this way, we receive many more blessings than we give.
As an example of what we do here in the Fayetteville District, Salem UMC has been to Mississippi, Poland, and Mexico with the United Methodist Volunteers in Missions project. You can read more about them on their website:
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/about/us/mv/
That church has also cleaned up the grounds at a local retirement community and added ramps done home repairs for people in the neighborhood around the church.
Many churches provide space for child care centers and afterschool programs as a service to the community. Other churches provide elder care.
Youth groups spend a lot of time helping others. They have gleaned food out of fields with the St. Andrews project. They raise money to sponsor children to have food and go to school in other countries. They rebuild or refurbish homes here and in places like Mississippi.
The M.E.R.C.I Center is nearby in Goldsboro. We in the Fayetteville District often volunteer there or gather supplies for “flood buckets” or school kits which are sent to storm damaged areas or places where children do not have access to school supplies. The Marion Edwards Recovery Center Initiatives (MERCI) is a ministry of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church open to any who would seek to be in ministry through acts of love and compassion. It is a place of multiple ministries and infinite possibilities. It is a place where you might come and meet the Christ who dwells in the "least of these." It is a place where you might transform the world ... it is a place where you might be transformed. (From nccmission.org).
