A Church for All God's Children

In 1996 the Council of Bishops called upon the United Methodist Church to respond to those among us who God considers “the least of these”, especially children and the impoverished.  This call requires more than just adding additional programs.  It involves a change in attitudes and resources to make our churches more responsive to the needs of ALL of God’s children.  The primary goal of the program is to share the gospel and God’s redeeming grace by promoting spiritual growth and evaluating church facilities and programs to ensure MEUMC is welcoming to all people, especially children.   The Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference offers churches the opportunity to participate in  this challenge by implementing specific guidelines called “A Church for All God’s Children”.  A task force was formed to consider the actions our church might implement from these guidelines.  Members of this task force were Rev. Nancy Hart, April Platt (Former Children’s Program Director), Linda Beckett,  Jolene Hamilton, Kelly Hoskins, Chris Sears, and Julia Wells.  Under these recommendations, a number of specific actions have been taken such as renovations to the nursery, pre-school, and children’s wing, establishing a children’s library, encouraging spiritual growth opportunities for children and adults, community outreach opportunities through Cold Night Shelter, Vacation Bible study, and Terrific Tuesdays after-school program, and many others.  Special emphasis has been taken to review the church policies and procedures aimed at preventing sexual abuse in the church.   We will strive to continually review our facilities and programs to ensure MEUMC is hospitable and responsive to poor families, the handicapped, children, youth, adults and the community.

 Click here to view the complete policy as of OCT 2009. (PDF)