Salem UMC: The Reverend Tom Newman

The Pastor’s Corner

Walk with me on a journey with your mind and spirit.  Salem Church is a growing and thriving congregation.  We have taken the time to grow deep and are naturally growing out as we reach towards God.  We are very much like a plant, a wonderful flower for all the world to see.  Just as a flower looks for the sun and reaches her leaves and branches towards the warmth and light of the sun, so does Salem Church reach towards the warmth, the love, the grace and sustaining power of the Son of God!

I am often asked how big Salem Church should be.  I don’t know.  I don’t think we are too big now.  It isn’t my decision.  It seems best for God to make that decision if in fact Christ is the Lord of the Church.  Salem Church is not for me or you to control, to hinder, to limit or to steer.  In my vision we have given up trying to dictate her direction and we are content to let God guide us.  We no longer have permission giving meetings where individuals and committees petition for permission.  Instead we have prayer meetings where we discern God’s will.  We have meetings to affirm and to try any and all ideas that have been prayed over, that one or more people clearly feel God’s voice is calling Salem Church into, that clearly fit into the mission and goals of Salem Church.

What might our mission be?  Simple.  Our mission is to seek and to save the lost we encounter.  We do this by being the heartbeat of the Simpson Community.  We are not just any heartbeat any more than we are just any hub of any wheel.  We are Christ’s heartbeat for this community.  That means we see all the souls who live in and near our community to be our charge by God.  We have seized our responsibility as God given to offer Christ to our community.  We do so by words, witness, mission, programs and living deeds of loving service.

Would you want to be part of this kind of Church?  Does this vision resonate with you?  I hope it does.  I have been appointed by God through the Bishop and cabinet of the NC Annual Conference to be your pastor, your leader, your visionary.  This is the vision I have received from God.  I celebrate the progress that we are making in and towards this vision.  We have much more to do.  We have much more to do together.  I need your help.  God is calling you to catch this vision and to work to make it a reality, here, now.  How will you respond?

See you Sunday!

Tom Newman, pastor