Are you looking for a Church Family or perhaps a House of Worship? If you are, we invite you to come and join the family at John Wesley. We have a beautiful historic church located in Downtown Hagerstown. We have a warm and friendly congregation, a sanctuary with beautiful stain glass windows and a Moller Pipe Organ.

We have a church staff called to support and resource the active Discipleship of our membership lead by the senior pastor, Rev. Richard H. Jewell and Minister of Visitation, the Rev. Patrick Ricker.

Rev. Jewell came to John Wesley in 2006 from New Covenant UMC in Cumberland. Rev. Jewells first career was principally as an agent and District Manager for the Home Beneficial Life Insurance Company, following his graduation from Shepherd College in 1972 with a BS in Political Science. In 1988 Rev. Jewell was called to full-time pastoral ministry, taking a charge at Sleepy Creek UMC in Hedgesville, WV, and enrolling at Wesley Theological Seminary where he obtained his Master of Divinity degree in 1992. Rev. Jewell and his wife Karen have two grown sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

(John Wesley UMC's beautiful stained glass windows are a wonder to behold. We hope this visual sample will only whet you appetite. We look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday!)

On July 01, 2007 Rev. Jewell started his second year as the Senior Pastor of John Wesley U. M. Church. At that time he presented the church with the following "progress report."

With one year behind us now, it is a good time to review the original expectations that were given to the church and I at the time of my appointment by our Bishop and District Superintendent. There were six of them and they were as follows, with our progress in each area in bold type.

1. The Senior Pastor will meet one on one and/or in small groups with 75% of the [active] congregation in the first six months of the appointment.

This goal has been met as during that time I met individually with many key leaders and other interested parishioners, sometimes at their request, at others at mine. In addition, in August of last year we held a series of Focus groups that were attended by nearly 150 persons over three occasions.

2. Develop a "Disciple Oriented Vision" to replace the current pastor/staff one so that by year three, 40% of the congregation will be involved in a ministry activity or activities and increase this by 10% a year until in year seven, 80% will have identified a calling and participate in said activities in church and/or community at least twice a month.

While the proposed Minister of Discipleship position that was created to give leadership in this area did not work out as planned, leadership in this area was given by the Senior Pastor and great strides were made with the formation of a number of new small groups and classes, including an 8 week course on The Discipleship Adventure, two Advent Studies, two 8 week Disciple Bible Studies on both the Old and New Testaments, and the creation of a Sunday morning Lectionary Study. In addition, the Lay Leadership Development Committee is currently undertaking a Congregational Spiritual Gifts Inventory to assess gifts, graces, and interests. All of the above have born fruit to the point that we feel that we are well ahead of schedule in meeting goal number two.

3. Redevelop the Lay-Leadership Development Committee so that all church positions are precisely defined, opportunities for training and support are identified and a feedback and support system developed.

This redevelopment is well under way and the committee has been meeting on a regular basis including an all morning retreat in May. They have offered Training for themselves and for new members of the Staff-Parish Relations Committee and are planning additional trainings for the fall and into the New Year. As noted above, they are also currently engaged in compiling the Spiritual Gifts Inventories and will be much better prepared to present a strong nominations report to the fall Charge Conference. They are also planning trainings for new leaders and a dedication/celebration of them in Worship.

4. Beginning in 2008, receive at least two new-believers by Affirmation or Re-affirmation of Faith for every 25 active worshipers.

We actually exceeded this expectation in 2006 and while running behind for 2007, we do have a new member reception scheduled for July of 07 and feel that ongoing discipleship efforts as well as some exciting new developments in the downtown Hagerstown area bode well for continuing to meet this lofty goal. We are very optimistic for the future.

5. Increase Worship attendance to 275 by the end of year 2010.

Worship Attendance was up in 2006 and so far that trend seems to be holding in 2007. We still have a ways to go to meet that lofty goal by 2010, but with nearly 3 years to go it remains a real possibility.

6. Create a spiritual climate of anticipation, so that lives are transformed as God works in the lives of the people of John Wesley Church.

One year into my ministry, all of the feedback that we are getting is that there have been dramatic positive changes in this area across the board and we anticipate it continuing to grow as relationships are built and solidified.

In summary, all indications are that we are either on schedule or ahead of schedule in obtaining the six goals laid out for us by our Conference Leaders. In addition to those we are also continuing our faithfulness to the Connectional Church by having paid 100% of our Apportionments for 2006 and being on schedule to do so in 2007. Furthermore, we have realigned our Administrative Council with a new format that will root it in worship, provide a time for visioning monthly, provide a time for all committees to "connect" so that they are all on the same page and moving forward together, and, finally, allowing time for proper study of major or controversial items before acting upon them. Other exciting plans are the hiring of new staff person to replace the former Minister of Discipleship and whose concentration will be on church programming, especially Children's Sunday school, youth, and young adult ministries. This concentration should go a long way in strengthening this vital and under represented area of our church family. Finally, in September, we will be kicking off the new church year with a special "Homecoming" celebration that will feature the one-day return of former pastor Dr. Fred Crider as our guest speaker and a major celebration of John Wesley today. Yes it is a new and exciting day at John Wesley and we invite you and your family to be a part of it.

In Christ,

Rev. Rick Jewell, M. Div.,

Senior Pastor