Pastoral Notes

Friends and Family of Newnan FUMC,

It is hard to believe we are already in June. We have already commemorated some of the larger celebration days of the church (Confirmation Sunday, Easter, and Pentecost). Now we enter the long road in the church calendar called “Ordinary Time.” And if we are not careful, we may let one of the more important Wesleyan holidays get away from us. In the Methodist world, May 24 is known as “Aldersgate Day.”

When John Wesley sailed to a little colony in Savannah, GA to share the gospel and take care of a church, it didn’t go well. Through a strange turn of events, Wesley ended up hopping a boat back to England with a warrant out for his arrest. With all his young adult aspirations of being led by God to save 100s in the new world, Wesley had failed. In the days after, as he reflected upon his failure, he went to a small group meeting on Aldersgate Street. As the group read through Martin Luther’s preface of Paul’s letter to the Romans, something about Luther’s words touched Wesley’s soul.

Have you been there before? Where the words you read or hear seem to be the exact words you needed to hear? It is as if God has seen fit to have those words as a gift for you in that exact moment? John Wesley felt something that night and wrote the following:

“While [Luther] was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Interestingly, John’s brother Charles would (within the same week) feel a “strange palpitation of the heart.” Something happened in their lives that week. God sought to reach into their hearts and stir a confidence that Jesus did in fact love them both enough to melt away the power of sin and death and give them an assurance that the Spirit had some things planned for them. May God do the same within you and within me.

God be with you, and don’t forget to pray for and welcome our new members: Tom Upchurch, Heather Upchurch and Chris Manley, Jonathan Pritchard, Kay and Michael Luzaich, and Ben Kelley. And be sure to congratulate Nancy Martin as she retires at the end of June. She has had such an impact on so many families. Thank you, Nancy!

Grace and peace,

Rev. Andrew Chappell, Senior Pastor achappell@NewnanFUMC.org | 770.253.7400 (x202)

Andrew Chappell