fter months of prayerful discernment, the Rev. Charley Reeb felt at peace with his decision to leave the pastoral ministry after 32 years, certain that what was on his heart was much more than a feeling.
But, still, there was a bit of dread looming over it all.
He needed to share the news with his beloved mentor, the Rev. Riley Short, who handpicked Reeb out of Candler School of Theology in 1999 to be his associate pastor at First United Methodist.
Short was in Atlanta visiting family when Reeb called him in February to say he was taking early retirement and leaving his role as senior pastor at First UMC.
Weymon Snuggs Chairperson
First UMC Staff-Parish Relations Committee
Dear Church Family,
On behalf of the Staff-Parish Relations Committee, I would like to offer a heartfelt THANK YOU to Pastor Charley Reeb for his service as our senior pastor at First United Methodist Church since July 2023. We have been blessed by his preaching, his love for Jesus Christ, and his passion for our church. We wish Charley, Brandy, and Paul all the best and encourage you to join us in prayer for them as they begin a new chapter in the life of their family upon Charley’s retirement this summer.
Moving forward, I invite you to be praying for the upcoming appointment of our new senior pastor at First UMC. We ask for God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will to be done in this process and through the life and ministry of our new pastor.
We will follow the Florida Conference guidelines for announcing the new appointment and everyone will learn about our new pastor during the services on Sunday morning, April 19th.
We will also have details soon on a date for a congregational celebration of the Reebs’ ministry as well as a time to welcome our new senior pastor.
With joy and anticipation, Weymon Snuggs
HForrest White Director of Mission Ministries
Not Meant to Go It Alone
eavy fog shrouded downtown Tampa when I began running the stairs at the Convention Center on a February morning.
I knew there were blue skies above, but I couldn’t see them, no matter how hard I tried.
By the time I finished 30 minutes later, the fog had lifted, revealing blue skies with scattered white clouds and plentiful sunshine.
The fog always lifts.
I have battled depression on and off across my lifetime.
In those seasons, the blue skies of life felt obscured, if not blocked entirely.
But like the morning fog, the depression always lifts, just never as quickly as we would like.
In my younger adult life, I suffered from deep depression. Two out of three people who struggle with depression don’t seek help. I was one of them. I knew how to put on a happy face for those around me. I never told anyone.
I knew I needed help, so I ordered a series of audio tapes that promised help and pretended they were for the youth I worked with at a church in Virginia.
In the shower, I would imagine that the water was light, chipping away the darkness from my mind. I tried an herbal remedy I’d heard about, but all that gave me was elevated blood pressure. I tried light therapy I read about online. I counted my blessings, sought a deeper faith, tried so hard to make it go away on my own …
Somehow, over time, my mind stopped hurting.
That stubborn version of Forrest doesn’t exist anymore.
“Restore the sparkle to my eyes.”
I’ve seen a counselor for a while now and I continue to practice other things that help me mentally, from making sure I am physically active (cardio seems especially good for my mind) – to reading and studying – to healthy diet and supplements.
It’s profoundly sad and sometimes a tragedy that we don’t face problems of the mind the same way we face problems of the body – by seeking help without ever worrying about what others might think, without ever thinking we could beat it if we had deeper faith, a stronger will.
Depression isn’t about a lack of faith or mental weakness.
And it isn’t anything to be ashamed of.
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I’ve never cared what people might think if I went to the doctor with strep throat.
But in my younger days, during those times of depression, I was ashamed to tell anyone that the smile on my face wasn’t real, that I wasn't strong enough to beat the depression on my own.
If you know me, you know I am a father of three young adults and proud of them for many reasons including this – none of them followed in my footsteps when it came to their depression. I know exactly where I was when two of them told me they needed help.
Heroes of the Old Testament surely battled depression. Elijah boldly stood up for God with unwavering faith against the legion of Baal prophets on Mt. Carmel yet soon thereafter fled to the wilderness and asked to die when Jezebel promised to kill him. Job plummeted into the depths of despair for good reason. David wrote often about his struggles, revealing his humanity.
“How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day?” wrote David. (Psalm 13:2)
I have found myself often praying his words from the next verse when he implored God to “restore the sparkle to my eyes.” (Psalm 13:3)
What a beautiful image.
(In the Holy name of Jesus I prayed as I wrote this … For anyone who reads this amid struggles with “sorrow in (their) heart every day,” eternal God restore the sparkle to their eyes.)
Help is Real, Hope is Real
In serious matters of the mind and the soul, I don’t believe in coincidence.
On that February morning, I felt as if God nudged me to make a social media post about the fog lifting and to acknowledge my own battles with depression.
A high school classmate responded to the Facebook post with this ...
“I am currently back in the midst of this horribly familiar fog, Forrest, and I needed to hear those words right NOW. I give myself the same advice constantly, but sometimes I just need to hear it from another person, because when someone else utters the words, their reality is validated for me. Thanks ever so much for noticing that the fog is palpably real, and for reminding me that it does lift, it WILL lift, at some point.”
So, here I am again, compelled to share my thoughts in this edition of First Connections, with the pictures I took that foggy morning.
If you are in the fog of depression, where it’s hard to see the blue skies, get help, keep working, find even one thing to be grateful for at the start and end of the day and always believe better days are ahead, knowing the blue skies are there even if you can’t see them in the moment.
And when you’re out of it, continue working, don’t stop believing, keep practicing gratitude.
Check on those you love. Ask them if they’re struggling. If someone in your life came to mind when you read this reflection, start with them.
The blue skies remain beyond the fog. Always.
We all need someone to walk alongside us until we see them again.
***At any point in your journey I am here to help. Just message me.
All the best,
Charley Reeb
Reeb later described Short’s reaction and their discussion as “loving and pastoral.”
“Just typical Riley.”
Their chat moved Reeb to tears.
“I never want to disappoint him.”
Of course, the mentor did have a question for the pupil: Why now?
Reeb began his tenure as senior pastor at First UMC in July 2023.
“Charley told me it was God calling him,” Short said.
“I couldn’t argue with that.”
Near the close of the 8:15 traditional worship service on Feb. 22, Reeb told the congregation he feels God calling him “to do something that’s way beyond my comfort zone, pulling me out of the familiar.
“God is asking me to trust Him in a way maybe I’ve never really trusted Him before, calling me to serve and use my gifts beyond the local church for a broader ministry of preaching and teaching.”
First UMC posted a letter from Reeb on its social media accounts at noon on the 22nd.
“I want to assure you this decision is entirely mine,” he wrote in part. “It is rooted in my own discernment process, and nothing has precipitated this announcement other than a deep sense of God’s direction in my life. While I might not yet be clear on what the next season holds, I trust that God is not finished with me yet.”
to a larger audience,” Reeb said.
Abingdon Press flew Reeb around the country to lead workshops after publishing his two books on preaching. He has also published five books of sermons, served as general editor for four volumes of Abingdon’s preaching annual and taught preaching at United Methodist Church Licensing School for local pastors.
“I love seeing preachers improve and to see the joy they get when they improve,” Reeb said. “Not only is it personal satisfaction for them and for me, but ultimately it means people hear the Gospel in a powerful way. The better you are as a communicator the better other people are going to hear the Gospel and respond.”
Reeb began immersing himself in the art of preaching before he was old enough to drive the family station wagon alone.
“At 15, I was reading books on homiletics, books on the art of preaching, books of sermons of master preachers,” he said. “I would listen to tapes of sermons over and over again. I was all about the craft of it and the call to it.”
“ I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED MY GIFT OF AND LOVE FOR PREACHING WOULD MOVE ME BEYOND THE LOCAL CHURCH TO A LARGER AUDIENCE.”
Reeb envisions teaching homiletics – the craft of preaching – at a theological seminary, while also coaching pastors one-on-one and guest preaching, perhaps often when his 8-year-old son Paul is grown. He has preached outside of First UMC only twice since becoming senior pastor.
“I’ve always believed my gift of and love for preaching would move me beyond the local church
Rev. Charley Reeb
He preaches to preachers the importance of conviction, of rising to preach with passion and with clarity that comes from hours of preparation.
“A convicted preacher is a compelling preacher. You can’t fake that,” Reeb said. “I think that has always been at the core of my effectiveness. It is real and people sense that.”
First UMC member Dennis Nitschke surely senses it, emphasizing Reeb’s relatability when asked to talk about his pastor’s impact on him personally.
“He is unashamed to be authentic in his passion for the Lord, his love for us as a congregation, the love he has for his wife and son, how he loves golf and how he too has certain struggles in life, including with his faith walk,” Nitschke said.
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Transformed Lives
Nitschke touts Reeb’s dedication to delivering biblically based sermons each week with “order, depth, love and a delightful dash of humor.”
But he keeps coming back to relatability.
“I trust him and feel he is one of us,” Nitschke said. “It’s as though he knows me personally with my own daily and lifetime passions, struggles and relationships.”
First UMC member Michael Weber began attending the church shortly after Reeb returned as senior pastor. He and his wife Sherrie had been church shopping around Lakeland, looking for a place where they felt challenged and at home.
“We had not found that connection,” Weber said. “That changed the Sunday morning we walked into the 9:30 service at First United Methodist.”
From the beginning, he said, Reeb’s sermons “struck me as different in the best possible way. He has a remarkable ability to take scripture and translate it into practical, everyday lessons that speak directly to how we live, lead and care for others.”
“His messages were thoughtful, accessible and often
disarmingly honest,” Weber said. “Rather than feeling like a distant lecture, they felt like a conversation, one that invited reflection and personal growth. Over time, his preaching began to challenge me in meaningful ways. It encouraged me to listen more closely, to think more deeply about faith and to consider how belief should shape daily life.”
If Reeb wants to write another book on preaching, he might do well to ask First UMC member Rick Jeffries to be a part of the project.
“I literally have notebooks full of notes I have taken during his messages,” Jeffries said.
He describes Reeb’s sermons as “dynamic,” “engaging,” and “always challenging,” saying he has never walked away on a Sunday when Reeb preached without something to “think seriously about.”
“I love his illustrations and stories and how he weaves those into every message,” said Jeffries, who also calls Reeb “a great teacher.”
He brought his 87-year-old mother each week for a class Reeb taught in 2025 on the Parables of Jesus. That class
Charley served as First UMC Associate Pastor, 1999
Charley’s ordination with Rev. Alex Shanks, 2003
Welcome reception as associate pastor at First UMC, Lakeland, 1999
Charley’s ordination with Rev. Riley Short and Rev. Ed Beck, 2003
Paul's Baptism with Rev. Riley Short, 2017
was so popular it was moved to the sanctuary to manage the crowd. Jeffries’ mom was so intrigued by the teaching she began worshiping online to hear Reeb’s sermons.
Weber also participated in the Parables class. “Those messages helped me better understand the relevance and power of the teachings I had heard for years but had not always fully processed,” he said. “They made faith feel both understandable and actionable. Because of that influence, I began engaging with scripture in a more intentional way.”
Weber bought a new Bible and committed to reading it from beginning to end. “Something I had never done before,” he said.
For much of his adult life, Weber said, his relationship with church and faith was “fairly transactional.”
“That renewed commitment to faith is directly tied to Charley’s ability to make scripture come alive,” he said.
“We Must Share”
The shift away from the local church will bring more freedom for Reeb and his family. This summer, they will move back to Atlanta, where they have family. Reeb served as senior pastor at Johns Creek UMC in the Atlanta suburbs for five years before returning to First UMC.
“I’m so incredibly proud of how God has worked through Charley to preach boldly, minister effectively and change lives for Christ over three decades. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve with him,” she said.
The Reebs said they will pack countless good memories from both of their stops at First UMC for the return to Atlanta and beyond.
“ I THANK GOD EVERY DAY FOR RETURNING US TO OUR CAMELOT. WE WILL FOREVER TREASURE OUR TIME AT FIRST CHURCH.”
Reeb smiled when talking about having more time to spend with Paul and driving him to school and to sports practices and simply savoring life as a father. He said he’s even looking forward to doing more of the “mundane stuff” of life.
Over the course of multiple conversations about his discernment, Reeb always mentioned his wife, Brandy, whom he married in May 1999, just before beginning as an associate pastor at First UMC.
“Truth is, her job has been tougher than mine,” he said. “She supports and loves me but also has to deal with the hurts and disappointments that go with ministry. When your loved ones are hurt and disappointed, you feel it just as much or more. Plus, she has had all the expectations that come with being a pastor’s spouse. Her love, her support and her wisdom have been invaluable to me.”
Brandy Reeb
oBrandy Reeb speaks lovingly of her husband’s impact for the Kingdom and First UMC’s impact on their family.
“I thank God every day for returning us to our Camelot,” Brandy Reeb said. “We will forever treasure our time at First Church.”
April Lawrence was working in the children’s ministry on the Sunday morning of Reeb’s announcement.
“I was completely shocked,” she said, before pausing.
“Then there was the heartbreak.”
Her son Ashton is friends with Paul.
“And I love Brandy to death,” Lawrence said. “She is what you want in your preacher’s wife. She’s friendly. She’s such a sweet person. And she’s a great mom.”
At least one First UMC member was not shocked or even surprised by Reeb’s news.
Anna Clare Green had been expecting it.
Reeb was a fraternity brother with her son, Clark, at Florida Southern College in the early 1990s.
“My heart told me when he served this church the first time that he would be back,” Green said. “He belonged here. My heart also told me when he returned the second time he would not be here long because the world needs him …
“And we must share.”
Expanding the Family of Believers
Dream Center Aims for Transformative Change
by Forrest White
It’s hard to imagine anyone in Lakeland knowing more church people than Mike Cooper, executive director of the Dream Center.
On any given day, you may find him sitting down with them one-on-one over breakfast or welcoming them to a crowded celebration inside the gym on the Dream Center campus. Or maybe you’ll run into him working alongside them during a community cleanup or comforting them in times of crisis as a chaplain for the Lakeland Police Department.
Cooper embraces the importance of churches coming together for the greater good to impact individual lives, neighborhoods and the community as a whole.
He’s intentional about building a shared vision among all churches, troubled by the misguided tendency to focus on differences.
“I tell pastors, ‘If you handle snakes that’s Ok, just do it on Sundays,’” Cooper said, recently. “‘Every other day, let’s just be believers.’”
Don’t focus on the things that make you different, he urges them.
There are lots of those things and they can create stumbling blocks to non-believers, hinder transformation and deflect focus from where it should always be ...
“If we can get church people to focus on what we all agree on – Man is fallen, in need of a savior, and Christ died for our sins – we can come together,” Cooper said. “That’s always the biggest thing, ‘Did you ask Jesus to come into your life as your personal savior?’”
Mike Cooper
Dream Center of Lakeland
Upon the foundation of Jesus, the Dream Center stands strong, focused on its four pillars for changing lives and communities:
Equipping the faith based to put Christian love in action. “Taking churches that have a tremendous desire to get out on the streets and serve, but just don’t know how to do it,” Cooper said, “because most staffing is built around what’s going on inside the church.”
Embracing the city of Lakeland. You’ll often see city leaders at Dream Center events and gatherings. You’ll always find Lakeland police involved with Dream Center outreach, getting to know neighbors and building relationships.
Engaging businesses, not simply for financial support but also for hands-on service.
The Dream Center offers:
Free “help” classes and programs at their campus on West 5th Street. They focus on such topics as anger management, finances and budgeting, marriage and family, parenting, nutrition, counseling, men’s and women’s support groups, teen mentoring, addiction recovery, health screenings and pregnancy, job fairs, computer labs and more.
“ MIKE IS A WORKER. HE GETS OUT AND HE DOES IT, HE HAS ALWAYS LED THAT WAY. THAT’S AN INCREDIBLE THING.”
Elevating community. “Everyone we have some level of relationship with we call neighbors,” Cooper said. “They can’t stay neighbors. They have to become family.” That means seeing themselves as valued and beloved. It means moving from receiving help to fully participating in the life of the Dream Center, from Sunday morning worship to Bible study to fellowship to serving.
“I’ve loved being able to serve with such a variety of people,” said Nick Dell, Dream Center Outreach Director. “If you zoom out past all the differences, people are people and all people have something to offer. It is a beautiful thing.”
Knowing God’s Love
What does the impact look like when churches, city government, businesses and neighbors-becoming-family come together through Dream Center?
Opportunities for transformation.
Resource Distribution - Meeting tangible needs through distribution of food, clothing and household items. In 2025 Dream Center served over 1700 households representing more than 6,600 individuals through food distribution alone. “We don’t hand out bags,” Cooper said. “They actually go through the line and shop to pick out meat, pastries, bread, fresh produce, drinks, etc. If they come out every Tuesday night for a year, they’ll save about $6,000 a year. That’s amazing.”
Kids Club. It has been a Dream Center anchor for 25 years. Currently it meets in seven local schools and buses children from 12 neighborhoods to programs on campus.
Outreaches that have touched about 30 communities with free lawn care and cleanup, resource distribution and relationship building.
In 2025, volunteers contributed more than 40,000 hours to Dream Center programs, distributions and services.
More than 50 local churches support the Dream Center and engage in service through its ministries.
First United Methodist supports the mission through our Outreach Funding as well as through special gifts.
The church contributed $17,000 last year to construction of a bathroom and shower facility on the Dream Center campus, which will offer not simply hygiene but also dignity to those in need.
“When I’m discussing (the mission) with our community, I tell them that the strings attached to every service and opportunity are that they would know they are loved by God,” said Steve Hill, Dream Center Program Director. “We invite them to experience and grow into that love in community.”
Nick Dell
Cooper checking out the new shower facility
Cooper has been leading the Dream Center for 18 years.
“If you understand poverty, you can do this kind of ministry,” he said. “I understand poverty.”
Growing up in Western Maryland, three miles from the West Virginia line, Cooper shared a bedroom with his two sisters.
There was a furnace in their room, no running water and an outhouse in the back.
Among his daily chores – filling two buckets of water out of a spring, “removing the crawdads” and putting the buckets on the kitchen counter.
Finding the Call
Cooper played basketball, baseball and soccer in high school.
His salvation story began when he went to pick up his sister at a small Assemblies of God church on an Easter Sunday morning.
“That’s where we bathed. That’s where we washed dishes,” he said. “Looking back, I think, ‘Gee, how did we live through that?’ You just didn’t know anything different at the time.”
The road that led him to the Dream Center included stops coaching basketball at Manatee Junior College in Bradenton and serving as a youth pastor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“The windows to the church were open. I was sitting in the car. I heard the service. It was real lively. I’d never heard anything like that. I went to church the next week. God just got ahold of me.”
The pastor of the church, Rev. Rufus Richenderfer, took a special interest in the youth.
“He did his best to connect with us,” Cooper said. “He wasn’t a great preacher, but he was a Godly man. Most people would say it was a small, insignificant church. But a lot of people came out of that church into ministry.”
It ingrained in Cooper the importance of building connections.
“Mike is a worker. He gets out and he does it,” Dell said. “He
has always led that way. That’s an incredible thing. A lot of leaders aren’t willing to get out and do the work. Not Mike. It speaks to the consistency and longevity of his ministry.”
Cooper loves to speak to college students.
When given the chance he will tell them, “Don’t let passion drive you. Let your experiences drive you. Passion isn’t always mature. It can be misguided.”
“ GO VOLUNTEER AT EVERY NON-PROFIT YOU CAN... YOU MIGHT LIKE WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULDN’T.” Mike Cooper
If they’re looking for a place to serve, he won’t recruit them to engage only through the Dream Center ministries.
He’ll send them to Volunteers in Service to the Elderly (VISTE) or Lighthouse Ministries or any number of respected ministries and non-profits around Lakeland.
“Go volunteer at every non-profit you can,” Cooper said. “You might like what you thought you wouldn’t.
“If you want to find God’s will for your life, sometimes you’ve got to figure out what isn’t God’s will for your life. Sooner or later, the experiences illuminate what is God’s will for you.”
Dell likes to tell the story of a woman who regularly shows up for Tuesday night food distribution. She heard about a family’s desperate need for overnight housing and scraped together money to cover a night at a hotel for them.
“All people have something to offer,” Dell said. “I get to see the love of God in so many different ways through so many different people.”
You can see it and live it, too, if you just show up, as Cooper will tell you.
“Go out. Do it. Serve. Make your mistakes. Don’t worry about being perfect,” he said. “What you do today may morph into something big tomorrow.”
72 Lake Morton Drive Lakeland, FL 33801
863-686-3163
Written by Forrest White
Designed by Anne Powell
Charley Reeb
Senior Pastor
Andy Whitaker Smith
Associate Pastor
DuBreuil
Associate Pastor
Hamrick
of Church Administration
Corbin
2025 YEAR-END GIVING UPDATE
from Rev. Patrick S. Hamrick, Pastor of Church Administration
Thank you, First UMC! Because of your faithful giving and careful spending by our ministry areas, we ended 2025 in a strong financial position!
Income for the year was slightly under budget, but expenses also came in well under budget. Through it all, we faithfully stewarded church resources to the glory of God through engaging, life-changing ministry with our communities.
As the 2026 stewardship campaign winds down, we are only $80,000, or 2.5%, away from our pledge goal. Your pledge could help take us across the finish line! Please complete your 2026 pledge online at firstumc.org/stewardship or by pledge card on Sundays.
