Our Harvest Founder
If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving.
Here, Then Is My Legacy…….
I leave you love. Love builds. It is positive and helpful. I leave you hope. Yesterday, our ancestors endured the degradation of slavery, yet they maintained their dignity. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. This kind of confidence will aid the economic rise of the race by bringing together the pennies and dollars of our people and plowing them into useful channels. I leave you thirst for education. Knowledge is the prime need of the hour. I leave you a respect for the use of power. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. I leave you faith. Faith in God is the greatest power, but great too, is faith in oneself. I leave you racial dignity. I want Negroes to maintain their human dignity at all costs. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow man. I leave you finally, a responsibility to our young people. The world around us really belongs to youth for youth will take over its future management.
1869-1955 Selected History
Center Grove United Methodist Church is presently a member of the North Alabama Conference, North District. In 1842, during the era of slavery a group of pioneering worshipers assembled in order to form a congregation to reach and attract people of color, currently known as Center Grove United Methodist Church. The congregation composed of ten families was founded in a humble makeshift building in Mullins Flat on the Old Jink Jordan Plantation. In 1888, the Old LaGrange Hall, a former slave trading post, would become the second location for Center Grove. The two-story house was far much more than just a place of worship but served as a school and overall community pillar for African-Americans within the Madison County area. During the spring of 1974, a groundbreaking ceremony took place for a new church and parsonage on our present location. In 1975, with Rev. Wylheme as minister, church family and friends held their first service in the new sanctuary. We trace our legacy to these early pioneers of Center Grove that endured with God’s sovereign grace and mercy in the midst of challenge and obstacle.
Our Beliefs
United Methodists share a common heritage with all Christians. According to our foundational statement of beliefs in The United Methodist Book of Discipline, we share the following basic affirmations in common with all Christian communities:
God
God, who is one, is revealed in three distinct persons – commonly referred to as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus
We believe in the mystery of salvation through Jesus Christ. God became human in Jesus of Nazareth; and his life, death and resurrection demonstrates God’s redeeming love.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is God’s present activity in our midst. When we sense God’s leading, God’s challenge, or God’s support or comfort, it’s the Holy Spirit at work.
Human Beings
Genesis 1:27 asserts that we’ve been made in the image of the Creator. Like God we have the capacity to love and care, to communicate, and to create.
The Church
The church is the body of Christ, an extension of Christ’s life and ministry in the world today.
The Bible
We believe that the Bible is God’s Word and is the primary authority for our faith and practice.
God’s Reign
The kingdom or reign of God is both a present reality and future hope.
The Sacraments
The United Methodist Church recognizes two sacraments in which Christ himself participated: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Excerpts from www.umc.org. Read more