Last month, for the first time in 20-plus years, the West Virginia Annual Conference welcomed a new church into the fold. The life and vitality that is Community of Grace United Methodist Church (COG) in Huntington, W.Va., began with the reality of death.

Three years ago, Faith, Highlawn, and Southside United Methodist Churches, all in Huntington, were barely hanging on. “I think in our former churches, we had focused so long on paying the bills that we forgot what our real purpose was,” said Marsha Murray, who was a member of Faith United Methodist Church in Huntington.

Murray, who now serves as lay leader for COG remembers when Faith UMC took a bold leap of faith. The church sold their building, which sits in the shadow of Marshall University’s football stadium, to the school.

Then they reached out for help. The church “felt like they could do something,” said the Rev. Amy Shanholtzer, Director of Evangelism and Congregational Development for the West Virginia Conference.

They invited Spiritual Leadership Inc. (SLI), a non-profit organization based in Lexington, Ky., to help them explore options. They invited any church in Huntington, regardless of denomination, to participate in a series of discussions. In the end, three United Methodist Churches - Faith, Highlawn, and South Side decided to explore restarting as a new church.

Shanholtzer recalled the day Highlawn voted to close in her chartering service remarks November 13, referencing Ezekiel, chapter 37, when God asks the prophet, Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

“My sense was that the people were longing for something; that there had to be more to the life of a disciple than what they were experiencing,” she said. “They were willing to do a brave, bold experiment in order to find it.”

Small groups were key to the restart process, according to the Rev.Tim Conrad, who was pastor of Faith UMC at the time. He shared a story about one such group, the “women of the journal” during the chartering service.

“A man came to church, and it was clear that he was poor, perhaps homeless,” he said. In describing the way the group of women approached the man, Conrad said: “They became bold. That’s the spirit of this church; Community of Grace just gets up and does it.”

The importance of the disciple journey was echoed by another “woman of the journal,” Kathy Van Horn. “I would rather be in my covenant group than in church or Sunday School,” she said. Van Horn said that the small group environment is where she found support and accountability for her relationship with Christ.

Her experience is reinforced throughout the church, which has replaced committees with teams; prayer and spiritual formation begin every meeting. “I had done all the ‘church’ stuff - being in a choir, a circle, before,” said Van Horn. “But there’s been nothing like the covenant group experience for me.”
As Community of Grace looks ahead, what lessons are there for the churches in the West Virginia Conference? Perhaps what Bishop Lyght summed it up best in his sermon at COG November 13:

“Climb into the boat of faith
Put up the sail of hope
Embark on the tide of love
Follow the light of Christ”