Snapshot: Winter's Chapel United Methodist Church

Web site: www.winterschapel.org

Services: 11 a.m.

Worship style: Blended

Average Sunday attendance: 80

Minister: Rev. Shelia Preacher

Denomination affiliation: United Methodist

Mission statement: "To be a community that responds in faith and practice to the presence of Jesus Christ."

History: Winter's Chapel, started in the late 1860s, has always been a church that served its community, Preacher said. The first pastor was appointed to the nine-member congregation by the United Methodist Church in 1873.

Pastor's path: Ministry is the fourth career for Preacher, a former school teacher, administrative assistant and accountant. People often ask if she regrets not entering ministry earlier in life.

“I tell them that I’m a different pastor now than I would have been in my 20s. I’ve lived life in a variety of scenarios and I don’t discount any of those experiences,” she said.

Her role as an active church member, her Walk to Emmaus experience, and time spent in Stephens Ministry are life-changing events that led her to enroll in seminary in 2005.

“At age 48, I was thinking of launching a new career when a lot of my teacher friends were retiring,” said the Tennessee native.

Preacher gets many questions about her last name. She recounted a time before entering the ministry when, as a church greeter, she introduced herself to visitors who would often come back to her after the service, wondering why she wasn’t the one who delivered the sermon.

“I told them it’s just my last name, it’s not what I do. Besides, God would never do that to someone. Can you imagine Preacher Preacher?” Now, she laughingly says, be careful what you say out loud.

Ministries: "It's an exciting time to be positioned at this church," Preacher said. "Just as God has revealed new things in my life that I never imagined, the same things are occurring at this church."

Fueled by a big heart for the community, Preacher said church members operate a food pantry that feeds 100-150 individuals monthly, and host a distribution site for Angel Food Ministries.

Foreign mission teams have served in Costa Rica and Jamaica, as well as North Carolina and Mississippi. Members provide Christmas, Easter and back-to-school help for foster care children.

More than 80 children are enrolled in a preschool at the church. On the other end of the spectrum, members of an active senior adult group called Primetimers gather monthly for entertainment and lectures. Winter’s Chapel hosts a Boy Scout troop and an active puppet ministry, whose members are sponsoring a pancake brunch 9-11 a.m. May 22.

Thoughts from the pastor: "Our walk with Christ is not nominal. Instead it is real, living and vital as it transforms, informs and invigorates every aspect of our lives. Christianity is more than simply a name we claim or something we practice or experience at the 11 o'clock hour on Sunday. Instead, we have discovered that in Him, we find our purpose, our joy, our very being."