Community Thanksgiving service Monday

Community Thanksgiving service Monday

WMUMC hosts special West Memphis & Marion Ministerial Fellowship gathering

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A community-wide thanks gathering organized by the West Memphis and Marion Ministerial Fellowship will take place Monday, Nov.

21, at 7 p.m.

A traditional Thanksgiving message will be offered along with songs. The theme for the evening is Christian Unity. A benevolence offering will be taken to minister to needs in the community throughout the year.

The event will be hosted at the United Methodist Church in West Memphis.

The congregation there has a whole new staff after denominational reassignments done in the tradition of the itinerant circuit riders shifted ministerial assignments in July. Rev. Todd-Paul Taulbee is the new Senior Pastor at WMUMC.

A husband and wife team serve as Associate Pastors as well. Daniel Read heads children’s ministries and wife Corey does communication and outreach for the church.

All three went through the doors of Duke University home of the Blue Devils, perhaps making the transition to West Memphis Blue Devil land a little easier.

This is not Pastor Taulbee’s first time through the Arkansas delta.

“I was six years at Lake Village,” said Taulbee. “We know that longer appointments in churches that have good matches produce better long term results.”

Taulbee grew up in Little Rock and comes to the Gateway City after five years in Morrilton and three years with Bryant.

The pastor is pleased with his new ministering on his new assignment.

“We love West Memphis,” said Taulbee. “During the time in Lake Village we learned to love the people of the delta. We are thrilled to be here.”

Taulbee revealed his leadership focus. “I try to work collaboratively with the leadership of the congregation so that we can understand together what God is calling us to do,” said Taulbee. “We are just now scratching the surface to move forward with that. Part of the reason I do that is if I come in here and say this is my vision, then when I leave then they’ve got to start over. Helping them to discern their own understanding of their own mission field and how to be engaged in that is big part of what that means. There is already a lot of that going on because of the many great people of this church.”

Taulbee extended an invitation to the annual ministerial fellowship Thanksgiving service. The offering collected raises most of the funds the group uses to bless the community with all year long.

“We’d love for anybody and everybody be here for the Thanksgiving service,” said Taulbee. “It will be a great evening for us to gather as community to give Thanks for blessings of life.”

By John Rech