written by Jane Wahlgren, Lay Servant Minister of Pangburn UMC
I am happy to share with you about my church and my community, Pangburn. We are a small community of 500 about halfway between Searcy and Heber Springs. I have been attending this church for more than 20 years and I feel very fortunate to have found this little slice of heaven. We truly care about one another and take care of each other.
Our last pastor, prior to Rev. OD Turner, was relieved of his duties and our church went without a pastor for almost six months. At the onset of our pastorless journey, one of the congregants got up before the congregation saying, Pangburn United Methodist Church was our church, and we could fold or we could band together and be an even stronger church. Obviously, we banded together. We had five lay servants in our congregation so the five rotated for that period of time.
Then, we welcomed Rev. OD Turner, our current pastor and our “PPP, Pampered Pastor of Pangburn.”
We all adore Pastor OD, and for the last ten years, we have been unanimous to keep him. Even with the split of the United Methodist Church, we have not lost one member.
As for our community, not only do the members of the church get along with one another, we get along with the other seven churches in the community. We have a community benevolence fund and a food pantry, Ultimate Weekend (a weekend-long Christian gathering for teens), and a 6 night Revival with the local pastors each taking a turn to deliver the message. We host a Thanksgiving dinner for the community with all the churches involved in cooking, feeding, and delivering the meals. There is also a Thanksgiving service where we rotate churches and pastors that deliver the message. Each hosting church has a guest pastor. In other words, the church hosting the service has a pastor from a different denomination delivering the message.
Jane Wahlgren is a Lay Servant Minister of Pangburn UMC and supplied this written piece at the request of other Lay Servant Ministers from across the Arkansas Conference while recently attending the Lay Servant Academy at First UMC Jacksonville.
Do you have a story or message that you’d like to share about your church? Send any information to communications@arumc.org.