(L-r) Pastor Bill Klebe and Lay Member Katrina Gilbert receive the One Matters Award for St. Paul’s UMC, Berwick, from Superintendent Rev. Dr. Gary Weaver at the 2023 Susquehanna Annual Conference.
Rev. Dr. Gary Weaver, Superintendent
As it often is...this is a relational story. A story where one makes a difference.
In the past 20 years St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Berwick (an extended ministry of First UMC, Berwick) has received only three new members through Profession of Faith and no adult baptisms have been recorded in their history for the memorable past.
Imagine a local church, like many of yours, that has an annual yard sale and bazaar. People come in and out buying your junk—their soon to be treasures—a simple cash-business transaction. Yet over time there just might be a relationship formed. That happened at St. Paul’s. A woman, whose only interaction with church was the yard sale, was inspired to attend a worship service and the relationship grew.
She began attending the church just before COVID hit because she felt she needed something more in her life; that something was missing. She came to St. Paul’s UMC in Berwick because it was the only church that she knew.
God opened her heart and she realized there was more to following God than just hearing a sermon, and helping out with church activities. She met with the pastor to talk about it and learned about the meaning of baptism and church membership.
Pastor Bill Klebe and the woman agreed that she should go home and pray about it for a few months to make sure she was ready to make a commitment. In February, 2022, she decided that God was calling her to be baptized and become a member of St. Paul’s.
During the service on March 6, 2022, something rare happened at St. Paul’s: an adult, initially attracted by a yard sale, became a seeker and chose to be baptized and become a member through profession of faith.
The woman has since connected to the four-church food distribution, she has embraced neighbor and community, and as a follower of Jesus Christ she is making a difference. Her mother and a friend of her mother have begun to attend. She brings two of her grandchildren on a regular basis and her mother’s friend has a teenage granddaughter joining her many Sundays as well.
One relationship, one person, makes a difference. I am excited to award the 2023 Lewisburg District One Matters Award to St. Paul’s UMC in Berwick.
