A Country Church on the Lynchburg District
Monroe United Methodist Church sits in the small unincorporated community of Monroe, Virginia, in the rural southern stretch of Amherst County, just a short drive from Lynchburg. The congregation gathers each Sunday at 10:45 AM for a traditional service of worship, and the church has been a familiar presence in the area for more than three decades as a station church on the Lynchburg District of the Virginia Annual Conference. After many years of sharing ministry on a pastoral charge with Bethany United Methodist Church, Monroe UMC became a station church in 1984. The shape of the congregation has changed considerably since then, but the rhythm of Sunday morning worship, the practice of Holy Communion, and the commitment to praying and serving together have remained steady.
Today, the congregation shares ministry with St. James United Methodist Church in nearby Gladstone through a cooperative parish arrangement. A part-time local pastor serves the combined charge on a three-quarter time basis while continuing studies at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. The arrangement reflects a broader shift across the Virginia Conference as small United Methodist churches find new ways to sustain ministry in rural areas.
Sunday Mornings at 10:45 AM
Worship on Sunday mornings centers on a traditional United Methodist service held in the sanctuary at 10:45 AM. The order of worship includes hymns, pastoral prayers, a sermon, the Sacrament of Holy Communion on scheduled Sundays, and other familiar elements of the United Methodist liturgy. The Sacrament of Holy Communion has been celebrated in the sanctuary more than one hundred and twenty-five times over the past several years, and the rite remains a regular and meaningful part of congregational life.
Sermons are a central part of the Sunday gathering. The pastor has preached several hundred sermons during the congregation's recent season, and the proclamation of the Word has occasionally been accompanied by dramatic portrayals of Biblical characters as a way of bringing the scripture narratives to life. On other Sundays, the congregation has experienced Lectio Divina, a slower and more contemplative practice of praying with the scripture readings, instead of a preached sermon. The mix of proclamation, dramatic presentation, and contemplative prayer has given the worshiping community a variety of ways to encounter the gospel week by week.
The Sacrament of Holy Communion is administered by the pastor on scheduled Sundays, with laypersons and visiting clergy occasionally assisting in serving the elements. On a recent summer Sunday, the guest preacher for the day was the pastor of Rustburg United Methodist Church, a Korean clergy leader whose sermon marked the first time a Korean pastor had preached on a Sunday morning at Monroe since Bishop Young Jin Cho visited in the summer of 2014. The diversity of voices that have occupied the pulpit has been one of the surprises and gifts of recent years.
Sunday School at 9:45 AM
Before the morning service, the church gathers for Sunday School at 9:45 AM. Two adult classes are part of the congregation's ongoing life, the Perkins Class and the Julia Beasley Sunday School Class, both named in memory of members whose families and friends wanted their witness to continue in the life of the church. The Perkins Class has used resources such as Adam Hamilton's book Half Truths for group study, and members take turns leading the discussion each week. The adult classes are open to anyone who wishes to attend, and the hour between Sunday School and worship has long been a time of formation, conversation, and shared study for the people of Monroe UMC.
Children and youth are part of the life of the congregation as well. The youngest baptized member of the church during the recent pastor's tenure was an infant, and the community has marked births, baptisms, and milestones of growing up together. The blending of multiple generations around the table of Word and Sacrament has been one of the quieter blessings of this small fellowship.
The Phlegar Prayer Luncheon
One of the most beloved gatherings at Monroe United Methodist Church is the monthly prayer luncheon that takes its name from its founder. The luncheon began in the early months of 2007, when a member of the church named Kathleen Watson Anderson Phlegar started a regular gathering for prayer and fellowship around the table. For nearly nine years, Kathleen led the group, and after she passed away in December 2015 at the age of 97, the congregation chose to name the gathering in her memory. The Phlegar Prayer Luncheon is now formally remembered each year in a liturgical act during worship, alongside other memorial groups in the church such as the Perkins Sunday School class and the Julia Beasley Sunday School Class.
The luncheon is held monthly, and the prayers offered there cover the life of the church, the community, and the wider world. Members of the congregation who are homebound or no longer able to attend in person are remembered by name, and the gathering has become a place where laughter, tears, and conversation mix freely. For many in the church, the Phlegar Prayer Luncheon is the heartbeat of the congregation's prayer life.
Reaching Beyond the Church: Mission and Outreach
Monroe United Methodist Church has always understood itself as a sending community, not just a gathering one. Its members have given time, money, and energy to a range of mission efforts that extend well beyond the local congregation.
Several times each year, members of Monroe UMC travel to Lynchburg to serve meals at the Park View Community Mission, a United Methodist-related ministry that serves people experiencing poverty and homelessness in the city. The pastor and members of the congregation have helped prepare and serve at least a dozen meals there, and they have also led devotions and singing during the meal services. The mission's proximity to the congregation's home in Monroe has made it a natural partner for hands-on service.
The congregation has also been an active participant in the Virginia Conference's disaster relief efforts. Members regularly assemble health kits that are added to the thousands of kits prepared by other congregations across the conference. These kits are loaded into trailers, stored at a depot, and shipped out to areas affected by natural disasters around the world. On one recent trip to Annual Conference, the church delivered eleven of these kits to join the larger effort.
The church's mission vision has also reached across the Atlantic. The congregation has welcomed guest speakers from Rwandan HUGS, a ministry founded in 2007 by retired librarian Nancy Strachan to support reconciliation and forgiveness work in the African nation that experienced a devastating genocide in 1994. When Strachan preached at Monroe UMC one summer Sunday, her stories of survivors who had forgiven the killers of their families moved the congregation deeply, and members of the Church Council made decisions in the meeting that followed that were shaped by her message of radical forgiveness.
Pastoral Care and Presence
Pastoral care has always been a central expression of the church's ministry. Over the past several years, the pastor has made more than two thousand five hundred pastoral visits to homes, hospitals, assisted living facilities, and workplaces, walking alongside members through times of joy, illness, grief, and transition. Baptisms, weddings, and funerals have all been marked with care, with seven children and one adult baptized, four weddings celebrated, and dozens of funerals and memorial services led during the pastor's tenure. Fourteen new professing members have been received into the fellowship, twelve by transfer from other congregations and two by profession of faith.
The pastor's habit of a daily hour of racewalking and prayer has shaped the rhythm of pastoral presence in the community. Over four consecutive years, the pastor walked and prayed without missing a day, often receiving spiritual direction, sermon ideas, and other ministry insights during those walks. The walks have taken place in Lynchburg, around the church fellowship hall, in motel parking lots during Annual Conference, and on indoor tracks and trails across Virginia and several other states. This discipline of prayerful movement has overflowed into the life of the congregation, with members taking up their own daily practices of quiet time and devotion.
The sacrament of anointing with oil for healing and wholeness has been offered in worship on several occasions, and the church has been a place where members can bring their deepest concerns to God in the company of a praying community. Whether marking a major surgery, a long illness, or the death of a loved one, the church has gathered around its members with prayer, presence, and the hope of resurrection.
The Bishop's Visit and a Day of Memory
One of the most cherished memories of the congregation's recent life is the visit of Bishop Young Jin Cho, resident bishop of the Virginia Conference, who came to Monroe United Methodist Church on June 29, 2014, exactly two years to the day after a destructive derecho storm had swept through the area and damaged the church and the community. The bishop's presence and preaching on that day marked a moment of hope and renewal for the congregation, and the anniversary of his visit continues to be remembered with gratitude.
That same spirit of thanksgiving has shaped the way the congregation has marked other transitions in its life. The renaming of the monthly prayer luncheon in memory of its founder, Kathleen Phlegar, was a deliberate act of remembrance during a Sunday morning worship service, accompanied by the presentation of a framed certificate to her family. Such moments have reminded the church that its story is woven together from the lives of those who have gone before, those who serve now, and those who will come after.
A New Chapter: The Monroe-St. James Cooperative Parish
After more than three decades as a station church, Monroe United Methodist Church entered a new season of ministry by joining with St. James United Methodist Church in Gladstone to form a new cooperative parish on the Lynchburg District. The arrangement was approved by the Virginia Annual Conference and went into effect at the close of June. The cooperative parish is served by a part-time local pastor who also continues as a student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, bringing both youthful energy and fresh pastoral training to the two congregations.
This new arrangement places Monroe UMC within a growing network of cooperative parishes across the Virginia Conference, an effort to sustain United Methodist presence in rural communities where a single small congregation may not be able to support a full-time pastor on its own. The transition has required patience, prayer, and a willingness to embrace new patterns of ministry, and the people of Monroe UMC have approached the change with hope.
Across the wider Virginia Conference, similar transitions have been taking place. Each year, several United Methodist congregations close their doors, while new faith communities are being planted in other places. The Cabinet's reports to Annual Conference have emphasized the need for prayer, imagination, and continued trust in God's leading. Monroe United Methodist Church's move into a cooperative parish is part of that larger story of a denomination learning new ways to be faithful in changing times.
A Congregation with Deep Roots and a Quiet Welcome
Monroe United Methodist Church may be small in number, with average Sunday attendance around two dozen in recent years, but the congregation carries a depth of memory and a generosity of spirit that far exceeds its size. The sanctuary has been the setting for countless baptisms, weddings, and funerals, and the fellowship hall has hosted meals for the community, gatherings of Sunday School classes, and the long-running Phlegar Prayer Luncheon. The pavilion behind the church has been the place for casual summer meals after worship, with hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and members bringing side dishes to share.
Visitors who find their way to Monroe on a Sunday morning will discover a church that still believes in the simple gifts of gathering around the Word, sharing the bread and cup, praying for one another, and going out to serve. There is no fuss, no pretense, and no hurry. The pastor's farewell words to the congregation, after nine years of ministry together, captured the spirit well: a wish that each member would fare well, and that the ministry of the congregation would fare well, too.
That prayer remains the church's quiet hope as it steps into a new chapter with its partner congregation in Gladstone, trusting that God who has walked with the people of Monroe United Methodist Church for more than three decades will continue to lead them into whatever comes next.