February 28, 2025

Dear Peachtree Road Family,

I hope you are well. I have some good news about our church’s ministry with persons who are homeless that I want to share with you at the close of this note. So, please read until the end.

First, let me say how excited I am about this Sunday’s upcoming worship services. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Brent Strawn to Peachtree Road UMC as our preacher for Sunday, March 2. Brent is one of my favorite Old Testament professors, and I first got to know him when he was on the faculty at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Now, he teaches at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. Brent is joining us on Sunday morning after speaking at the first annual Peachtree Road Men’s Ministry Retreat at Camp Glisson in Dahlonega on Friday and Saturday. He has a wonderful sense of humor and a passion for scripture that is contagious. Brent will help us celebrate our centennial with a message entitled “Congratulations! …Not So Fast!” In preparation, I encourage you to read I Chronicles 29. I hope to see you in person on Sunday, but, if you will be out of town, please join us by livestream at www.prumc.org.

Speaking of Sunday, we are pleased to welcome the Gray’s Creek Chorale and Jack Britt High School Choir from Fayetteville, North Carolina. They will offer pre-service music at the 11:15 am service. These two award-winning choirs collaborate and tour often together and have performed in such venues as Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens “Music in the Parks’ Festival, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, NYC, and Festival Disney. Come early on Sunday and enjoy the music.

The season of Lent is upon us, and we begin our forty-day observance on March 5 with our Ash Wednesday services. The imposition of ashes will be available in the early morning at the Rollins Building turnaround from 7:00 am to 9:00 am, and services will be held at noon and 5:00 pm in the Moore Chapel. Our final Ash Wednesday service will occur at 7:00 pm in the sanctuary. During this season of repentance, we will prepare for our celebration of the Resurrection. I encourage you to observe a holy Lent through fasting, prayer, worship, study, and service. Let me commend to you three opportunities offered this season:

  • Study – as a congregation, we will be reading and studying Paul’s letter to the church in Rome this spring. Each morning, we will email you the suggested reading for the day, along with a prayer. In addition, we will be offering a clergy-led study of Romans on Wednesday evenings, and I will be preaching from Romans each Sunday during Lent under the theme “The Way of Salvation.” You may be wondering, “Why Romans?” Scholars believe it is the highest expression of Paul’s theology, which was formational for the early church. We will do well to read and study this letter and allow it to inform our faith journey.
  • Midweek Worship – in keeping with our ongoing celebration of our centennial, I have invited former associate ministers to preach at the midweek noon service in the Moore Chapel on Wednesdays during Lent. The lineup will feature some of your favorite United Methodist pastors: Betsy Lunz (March 12), Phil Schroeder (March 19), Beth Sanders (March 26), Thomas Martin (April 2), and Carolyn Stephens (April 9). I hope you will join us each Wednesday at noon during Lent for worship and the luncheon in Grace Hall afterward.
  • Service – Peachtree Road UMC is a church that is generous in its outreach, and Lent has been designated as a “Season of Service” for our congregation. During these forty days, we have the opportunity to join with our partners in ministry throughout Atlanta to make a difference in the lives of others. To register to volunteer for a project during this season, click here. In addition, we will be receiving a special offering to support the ongoing work of our partner agencies. Your generosity in giving will be appreciated. 

This is an exciting time to be a part of Peachtree Road UMC. I encourage you to invest yourself in the next 40 days in worship, study, and service so that this time will be transformational for you and others.

Finally, as promised, let me share with you some exciting news about our ministry with persons who are homeless. A new partnership has been created by Intown Cares, Peachtree Road UMC, the Cathedral of St. Philip, the Cathedral of Christ the King, and Second Ponce de Leon Baptist to work with the homeless in the Buckhead community. Intown Cares has appointed Tanya Davenport as the case manager for this new partnership, and our church will serve as the hub for this new outreach ministry. She will be on our campus two days a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm to offer support for homeless persons. The other days she will be “in the field” and taking clients to appointments. Her first day with us will be next Wednesday, March 5. Tanya is very experienced and excited to be a part of this new partnership. We have great hopes for this new initiative designed to be more than a band-aid approach to solving homelessness and to address the issue for each person at its genesis. We will keep you updated on our progress and are grateful for your prayerful support.

Well, that’s it for this week. I will be with the men at Camp Glisson this weekend and then look forward to seeing you Sunday as we welcome Brent Strawn to Peachtree Road UMC.

Grace and peace,

Bill