And now a word from our Pastor:

Dear Suamico UMC congregation,
     Before I arrived at Suamico church, I heard that there was tension among church members with regard to the old sanctuary building. From what I heard, some wanted to keep the old church building making the most use out of it. Some others wanted to tear it down because they felt that Suamico congregation couldn’t afford maintaining two church buildings.
     Fortunately, we have successfully built our new sanctuary and have been managing two church buildings. At the present moment, we can’t afford the cost of demolishing the old church building and youth group and the Boy Scouts occasionally make use of our old church building. It is my hope that we make the best use of our old sanctuary until it is obvious that we simply can’t afford maintaining it.
     We often sing the old hymn, “The church is not a building. The church is people.” A church building without people is an empty shell. Maintaining a happy and loving congregation is more important than dealing with the building itself.
     The mission statement of the United Methodist Church is “making people disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world.” Different pastors may interpret the meaning of “disciples of Jesus” differently. I would like to interpret “disciples of Jesus” as “good people.”
     The world is fed up with religious people who are narrow-minded, dogmatic, judgmental, hateful and violent. The world is in short supply of good people who are humble, kind, wise and courageous. I want our church to produce good people for the good of our society.
Let us be kind to one another!
Your servant-leader, Pastor Jerry Cho