Preaching Stations
Layperson teams serve small Cleveland churches

By Clint Cooper
Chattanooga Times Free Press

Moore's Chapel United Methodist Church, located in a farming community east of Cleveland, Tenn., has four or five members who attend regularly. Pleasant Grove UMC, north of the Cleveland Speedway, has a dozen or so who come weekly.

Neither church can pay for a pastor or its apportion to the denomination.

So, thinking out of the box, the Cleveland District came up with a new way the churches might continue to meet and even grow.

Beginning in late June, five-member lay speaker teams, with the backing of two pastors at larger churches, began to serve each church on a rotating basis.

"The idea is to provide worship for those people, to try to build the congregation if possible," said Jean Henderson, director of lay speaking for the district and a former lay leader for Holston Conference. "We're hoping it's a kind of pilot program that might catch on. There are no specific guidelines. We're creating it as we see what needs to be done."

The 10 laypersons, from nine different churches, all have received training in leading worship and speaking.

"We want the churches to grow," said Phyllis Horsman, senior manager of media resources at Covenant Transport and one of the five-person team at Moore's Chapel. "But foremost we need to make sure we address their needs. Theirs are the same needs as those in a large church."

Henderson and the Rev. Charles Lippse, who served as interim district superintendent for the Cleveland District from January through June, formulated the idea for the teams to serve in what are being called "preaching stations."

The Rev. Mike Travis, current Cleveland district superintendent, also is supportive of the plan, she said.

"I had to believe that God was in this," Henderson said. "I sent an invitation to 10 people to see if they were interested (in being a part of the teams). I only sent 10 because I didn't know how many we would need to work with. All 10 of those said yes. I couldn't believe it."

One of those, now on the team for Pleasant Grove, is John Passavant, 50, a member of South Cleveland UMC who works for Parris Roofing in Cleveland.

"In my case, I don't truthfully feel like I've been called to preach or anything like that," he said. "When I received the (invitational) letter, I just prayed about it. It took, give or take, a couple of weeks. But I felt 100 percent confident this was something I needed to do." Passavant recently led a service for the first time.

"When it came time to do it, I felt confident in what I was going to talk about," he said. "Everybody seemed to be listening. Nobody fell asleep or walked out. It felt good - not that I had done anything special but that I had done what the Lord told me to do."

J.W. Burgess, a member of Mount Zion UMC just inside the Bradley County line from Hamilton County, said he had previously been a member of a church that had to close for lack of members. He said it helped him understand the plight of Pleasant Grove.

"(Closing) could happen to a lot of these small churches," he said. "Financially, it's a burden to come up with a salary. But I'm optimistic about (Pleasant Grove's) growth."

Like Passavant, Burgess, 58, a custodian at Wesley Memorial UMC in Cleveland, said he was well received.

"I felt comfortable," he said. "The people were very, very gracious - that we were having the program - and the ones that were there were active in the service."

Both men commented on the church's nonagenarian piano player.

"When she gets behind it, the Holy Spirit filling her up comes out," Passavant said. "She comes alive. I was in awe as to how she plays it. She's a blessing to the church."

Horsman, who has a master's degree in church ministries, a Master of Divinity and a doctorate in ministry, said she felt a recent call to preach at age 50. In addition to her work at Covenant Transport and her preaching rotation assignment, she recently was named visitation coordinator at Red Bank UMC.

"I work a full-time job," she said, "but ministry is my avocation. I want to preach, and this is a perfect opportunity. We want to offer them the best we can and serve the Lord. Each of us wants to serve the Lord."

At Moore's Chapel, the short services are a "one-man or one-woman show," Horsman said. Each member of the ministry team types out a liturgy for the services to give to those who attend.

She said the handful who do attend walk to the "very pretty, very immaculate" church or arrive in one car. She said the members are farm families from the rural community. A large adjacent cemetery is "one of the older ones around," Horsman said.

"We're just trying to meet these people's spiritual needs," she said.

Henderson said the Rev. Robert O'Kelly Wallace, who serves First Copperhill UMC, and the Rev. Mark Barber, who serves the Mount Zion and Savannah churches, are available to the ministry teams for hospital visitation and for presiding over Holy Communion, baptism, wedding, and funeral services.

The weekly offering that each church collects stays with the church, she said. The churches are expected to use it to fulfill everyday needs, she said. Meanwhile, the Cleveland District is subsidizing each ministry team member with $20 in travel expenses.

The novel "preaching stations" plan will be reviewed at least three times a year, Henderson said. She said she had dreamed of such a concept for small churches for a long time.

"We hope the churches will want to grow," Henderson said. "Maybe the members would invite a friend. There hadn't been much going on there lately."

She said the ministry team members only want to be a help.

"They're not trying to take over," Henderson said. "It is hoped these lay people will build a kind of a family relationship with (the members). They get to love a variety of people, some young and some old. It's very interesting and really exciting."

Reprinted with permission, Chattanooga Times Free Press

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