National UM Men leaders visit Mathis, respond to feelings of local men’s group

By Sid Spiller
Senior pastor, First UMC, Mathis
As a group, United Methodist Men at First UMC, Mathis, lacked vision. We were few in number, and we felt isolated from our connectional brothers in Nashville, Tenn. We were getting by with a weekly 6:45 a.m. Tuesday breakfast.
When the charter renewal letter arrived from the General Commission on United Methodist Men in Nashville, our president, Burton Cooper, challenged us to communicate our deathlike feeling and to not pay the renewal dues.
We knew that correspondence would be our death notice as a group of UM Men. We agreed to call ourselves a men’s fellowship.
Acting as a handyman disciple, Cooper was busy with repairs at the church when the phone rang. The caller was the Rev. David Adams, chief staff executive of the General Commission on United Methodist Men in Nashville.
Cooper once again lamented the concerns of our local group, but with good Texas hospitality, invited Adams, when in the area, to have breakfast with us.
“I’ll go one better than that,” Adams said. “We will be in your area in a few weeks. We cannot meet with you on Tuesday morning, but have your pastor call me, and I’ll bring my entire staff and commission officers to your Sunday worship service.”
The commission’s annual planning retreat was scheduled for the first week in January in Corpus Christi—less than 35 miles from us.
Jan. 7 was a historic day for our church. We played host to some 25 members of the Nashville staff and national and jurisdictional UM Men officers from across the nation.
It was Holy Communion Sunday and the first Sunday for our new associate pastor, Ralph Morales Sr.
Morales is the first Hispanic to serve this Anglo congregation situated in a community that is 92 percent Hispanic. Forty-two percent of the Mathis residents live below the poverty level.
Adams and I laid hands on Morales and welcomed him as the associate pastor.
At my request, Adams consecrated the Holy Communion elements and offered a tender prayer. A spiritual hush filled the sanctuary, and we heard the good news that “God is with us. We are not alone.”
Following the service, our congregation played host for a Texas barbecue dinner. The fellowship hall became a place of joy-filled fellowship, where just five days earlier a few isolated UM men sat wondering and wandering without a vision.
Now we see through new eyes. When I phoned Adams to offer my thanks, he said, “Gosh, it is good to put a face with a telephone voice.” From the local church perspective, it is good to put many faces filled with love with a Nashville voice.
It was good to have so many gathered at the same table of Holy Communion as well as the table of Texas barbecue. The connectional church is at its best when it is led by United Methodist Men!