A blessed congregation

By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

In Thomaston, in Upson County, an interesting drama plays out each and every Wednesday. For over ten years, St. Michael and All Angels Charismatic Episcopal Church has been meeting and worshipping together. A number of years ago, the church began a mid-week “Healing Eucharistic Service” at noon on Wednesdays. In the year 2000, a person stopped by the church and asked if any food was available.

Thomaston and Upson County have been in the midst of an economic downturn in recent years. The town’s major employer, Thomaston Mills, went out of business and the people have suffered through unemployment and, worse, a lack of hope. Every day, however, for the last several years the pastor and people of St. Michael’s have prayed for the community and have pronounced God’s blessing upon the area. Things are beginning to turn around. A new Wal-Mart Super Center has moved into the town and a number of new businesses have either moved to Thomaston or have started up. Hope is beginning to return. Still, there are needs.

The church’s pastor, John Holloway, provided the family with the needed groceries and promised that they could receive the same every week if they needed the help. They did, and continued to come to the church and receive a bag of groceries following the Wednesday noon service. By the end of the year, about a dozen families were coming to St. Michael’s and receiving groceries on Wednesday. And then, more and more people began to come for food. By the end of 2003, the church was providing bags of groceries for 135 families, each and every week. There are no forms to fill out, no questions asked, and no pressure put on people to attend church. Holloway determined that, if people in his city needed food, then food they would receive.

By Atlanta standards, St. Michael’s is a small congregation. Each week, more people come to receive food than attend the services on Sunday. The church has a small team of devoted volunteers who faithfully, week after week, purchase the food for the 135 families, transport it to the church, separate the week’s bounty into bags, and hand them to the people who flock to the church each Wednesday. Almost none of the food is donated since Rev. Holloway insists on paying for the groceries. “This community has been economically depressed,” he says, “and by buying the food, St. Michael’s can not only bless the poor but can bless the city’s businesses, too.”

It costs between $600 and $650 per week to buy the groceries. The $33,800 yearly food bill might not be a lot of money for a mega church but, for St. Michael’s, it’s an enormous sum. “How do you raise the money?” the pastor was asked. “On my face, every week,” Holloway replied. “I seek the Lord and ask him for the money and, somehow, by Thursday of every week, the funds are there!”

At a recent Wednesday “Healing Eucharist Service,” Holloway led about 40 people in songs of praise and led them in prayer. Holloway, a native South Georgian and former United Methodist minister, with a bachelor’s degree from Valdosta State University and a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, preached a 10-minute evangelistic sermon on “Nothing Is Impossible With God.”

Holloway should know all about that. For nearly seven years, the congregation prayed that “God would give them the old downtown Methodist Church buildings.” For years, Holloway proclaimed that “the buildings are ours.” Some left the church in disbelief after years of seeing nothing happen, convinced that the pastor was deluded. Today, the old church, built in 1889, has been transformed into the beautiful Cathedral of St. Michael’s and All Angels, where Holloway presides as the bishop of the Diocese of Georgia of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. He never doubted it for a moment.

At the end of the message, Holloway invited people who had never received Jesus Christ as their savior to do so. Six people responded and came forward for prayer. About another two dozen came for prayers for healing, or for other situations, and Rev Holloway, or one of his assistants, personally prayed for each one. Then, at the end of the 30-minute service, the people of St. Michael’s filed out to hand out bags of groceries to the 135 families that had gathered on the sidewalk. With winter coming, Rev. Holloway is now seeking to also provide warm coats and blankets to the people of Thomaston/Upson County who need them.

Holloway’s reward for all this? “Just the joy of obeying God,” he says. Psalm 41:1 says, “Blessed is he who considers the poor.” By this definition, St. Michael’s is a very blessed congregation.

[David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, which meets at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sundays on Ga. Highway 34 between Peachtree City and Newnan. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.CTKCEC.org.]

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