Key Points:
- Small United Methodist churches can do big ministries and sustain them.
- Three of those are in Nashville, Tennessee; Waterville, New York; and Titusville, Florida.
- “Small churches may not be able to make a splash … but they can still change the community around them,” says the Rev. Wayne Cook of Titusville, Florida.
People need places to heal and freedom from debt. Many need diapers for their children.
United Methodist churches have ministries that tackle these issues and more. What you might not know is how much small churches with big ambitions quietly achieve.
“We’re a tiny church,” said the Rev. Ingrid McIntyre, pastor of Glencliff United Methodist Church in Nashville. “Our budget is under $100,000, yet we have 1,000 people coming through our campus every month.”
Glencliff and other small congregations, such as First United Methodist Church of Titusville in Florida and Waterville United Methodist Church in New York, are making outsize contributions to their communities.
Glencliff United Methodist Church
McIntyre confesses that she is “not a big evangelism person.”
“I am terrible at that. It’s not my biggest gift. I do other things that are different.”
On its website, Glencliff is described as “a mission congregation of The United Methodist Church, meaning we are small group of people moving with purpose for reaching and transforming our community,” McIntyre said.
Glencliff doesn’t pay apportionments, the annual money requested by the overall denomination to fund its ministries.
“We don’t pay our apportionments because we can’t function and pay our apportionments,” McIntyre said. “We get a little extra support from other congregations in the (Tennessee-Western Kentucky) conference, but mostly from the community.”
Among its ministries, Glencliff works to find foster homes for neglected pets, support low-wage workers to live and work with dignity and host meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.
But its signature and most ambitious ministry is The Village at Glencliff, which provides shelter for unhoused people recovering after a hospital stay. Twelve “tiny houses” are located on the church’s six acres of prime Nashville real estate.
Some churches that don’t take in enough money to pay for themselves choose to close, sell the property and use that money elsewhere.
“I don’t think that’s a good use of our resources, because there’s work to do in our world, right?” McIntyre said. “Worship is certainly part of our experience, but it’s not our only experience. … I think we worship in other ways.”
First United Methodist Church of Titusville
About 125 people participate in Sunday worship at First United Methodist Church of Titusville, in Titusville, Florida. So how on earth have they paid $2.5 million to erase the medical debt of total strangers?
“It changes the person’s life,” said the Rev. Wayne Cook, senior pastor, about paying off medical debt. “If you’re looking for bang for your buck, this is a big one.”
Here’s how it works. Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit company in Boston, buys up the medical debt of people in a given area, then uses the money donated by an institution like First United Methodist Church of Titusville to pay those debts off.
The beauty of it is that Undue Medical Debt buys the debt from hospitals for much less than the sticker price. That’s because the hospitals and doctors would rather get less than they’re owed from Undue Medical Debt than nothing from a former patient.
“Because that debt goes away, now they can get back on their feet, buy a car if they need one,” Cook said. “It just changes a person’s whole life when they are relieved from that debt.”
The campaign was posted on the church’s website, and people from outside the congregation have responded with donations, Cook said.
“We got one donation of like, $500 from a law firm in Orlando, and we didn’t know anything about them. We just received a check.
“So you’re also spreading this word of grace,” Cook said.
The church doesn’t get notice of the exact people who benefit from the program, but those people are told who paid off their debts.
“I believe we’re making a big impact on our community,” Cook said. “Small churches may not be able to make a splash … but they can still change the community around them.”
Waterville United Methodist Church
There are parents in the U.S. who can’t afford diapers for their babies. Betty Barth, a member of Waterville United Methodist Church in Waterville, New York, is trying to help in her corner of the world.
“I think last month we helped 57 families,” Barth said. “And every family gets 40 diapers, plus wipes.
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“It actually started during COVID,” she said. “We reached out to five families, and each month we would give them diapers for the month and wipes. That’s how it got started.”
Word of mouth increased the demand, so Barth and her volunteers set up a drive-through diaper pickup. Some of the recipients in turn donated clothing their children had outgrown to the church.
“So now we are able to rent a small store space, and we carry clothes up to (youth size) 14 and toys and baby cribs and whatever gets donated,” she said. “We call it our pass-it-on store. So when they come to pick up their diapers, they can also bring in clothes and pick up the next size (clothing for their children).”
Waterville United Methodist Church has about 50 members, 30 of whom are active members. They have had some success getting grants for the ministry, which is run by Barth and five volunteers (one not a church member).
“We don’t charge for anything,” Barth said. “We’ve been fortunate to get grants. It’s getting harder and harder, but it’s all funded by grants and donations.”
Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
