About our church...
The one room school house along side
Bear Creek served not only as a center for
education but was the monthly meeting
place for Baptists and Holiness worship as
well as Methodists as far back as the early
1900’s. It was Rev. George Service who in
1956 established a permanent Methodist
presence at Bear Creek as part of the Red Bird Missionary Conference. The present congregation, a number of whom attended school in Bear Creek, still meets in the school house where the original blackboard remains behind the pulpit and the coal stove sits in the corner.
Transforming lives...transforming communities...
Jesus talked about how the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, ever so small and which grows to become a home the birds of the air. A congregation of six in today’s world of mega churches and growth statistics seems so small, and yet the congregation is currently working with over twenty-five children who live in the hollows: children who have experienced the effects of economic poverty but not necessarily the love of Jesus. Attention which communicates the value of a person’s life is a precious commodity in our culture and one which can shape a child’s future. The question is not simply “Did you tell me about Jesus?” but rather “Did Jesus love me through you?” We do not know the long terms results yet of the church’s reaching out to the children. But there is a happiness when they are there which comes from a love which is felt.
Ms. Dora Sizemore and Ms. Kathy Nicks are the key leaders in working with the children. Dora and Kathy are sisters and the daughters of Ruth Nicks who had been a leader within the Bear Creek congregation and Red Bird Missionary Conference for years. When their mother died in 1997 the pain of their mother’s passing made it difficult for Dora and Kathy to even enter the church their mother loved so much. Time passed with the church maintaining its “mustard seed” presence – ever so small in terms of size and yet God’s Holy Spirit was moving. It took almost seven years for inner healing. But it is God’s timing isn’t it? Sometimes the church’s “work” is simply to be there for when God is ready to move. It is easy to be faithful when things are happening and growing, it is harder when we are to wait – to wait until the time God has in mind to “move”. And now they are giving “new life” to others – but its not just the children who are receiving, for they are receiving new life within as well.
A kingdom of God mustard seed is growing at Bear Creek which is providing a “home” of hope and living faith for both children and adults. This has been possible only because of the love of God and your love which was manifested in very concrete support of the churches and outreach centers of the Red Bird Missionary Conference. In most Conferences a church the size of Bear Creek would have been closed years ago. But God has a plan and it unfolds according to God’s timing. Imagine; Twenty-five children being touched by God’s love and the renewal of two adults in terms of hope and vision in bringing the love of Christ to others. How did Jesus put it? “ And the smallest of seeds grew to become a home…” A home.
Your faith to the whisper of God in your lives has made this possible.
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