Lafayette United Methodist Church

08/08/2026

Prayer, pizza, and playtime.

That's a pretty good combo.

At least we hope so, for those who attended our Back-to-School Kids event tonight.

We prayed together, ate together, played some games, and for our devotional time we asked:

"What makes someone GREAT?"

Out of Jesus' followers, Jesus chose one as the "greatest."

Jesus.
Chose.
A child.

We are reminded that the greatest among us do not stand tall and powerful. Rather, they are overlooked. Humble.

We often worry about what we can do in order to feel great, BE great, or be seen as great by others.

The good news is: you already have it inside you to be great.

You do not have to look elsewhere.

God says so.

07/27/2026

07/24/2026

Another kitty off the streets! This little fella was the 🍀 LUCKY 🍀 winner of a 👍 FREE bath 🚿 , unlimited kibble, and a complimentary TWO-night stay in our church’s parsonage. 💤

Afterwards, he was chauffeured to Homeless to Home Animal Rescue and Cat Sanctuary, a piece of heaven on Earth that embraces the mission Jesus has called us towards— to love 🫶🏼❤️‍🩹and to SERVE 🤲 God’s creatures:

big 🐘 or small 🐜

homeless ⛺️ or housed 🏠

feline 🐈 or otherwise 🌏 .

AMEN! 🙏

P.S. If your heart is moved and you would like to feed a cat for a day, FIVE (5️⃣❗️) dollars will make a difference, for the cat, and for the beautiful people doing God’s work!!

link to donate 👇

https://www.homelesstohome.com/donate

06/12/2026

This Sunday we look forward to celebrating a good for whom nothing is too wonderful for.

The God who takes a fruitless situation, and turns it into one with life and possibility — even when we can’t see the way.

Our Scripture this week is just that; it is the story of God appearing to Abraham in Genesis 18:1-15, and after receiving hospitality from Abraham and Sarah, the Lord promises to Abraham that he will gave him and Sarah— who are VERY old at this point— a child. Sarah overhears and, like many of us would know, laugh and doubt. But the Lord reminds her, and reminds us now: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

If you choose to join us this Sunday for service at 10:30 am, we would be more than happy to see you!

Here is Genesis 18:1-15 (NRSVUE):

The Lord appeared to Abraham. . . He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran. . . meet them and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves. . .” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “. . . Make cakes.” Abraham. . . took a calf. . . and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf. . . and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
. . Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening. . . Now Abraham and Sarah were old. . . So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh . . .? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? . . .”

06/11/2026

Friends, it's with a heavy heart that we announce the death of our beloved brother Bruce. God comforts us in our grief, just as God holds Bruce in God's loving arms even now. With longing and expectation, we await the day of resurrection when we will see Bruce again.

Please be in prayer for Bruce's wife Susan and the rest of their family.

Funeral arrangements are posted below:

Friends, and strangers he would love to have met, can visit with Bruce’s family at Eberle Fisher Funeral Home and Crematory, 103 North Main Street, London, Ohio 43140, on Monday, June 15, 2026, from 5:00 – 8:00 PM. Funeral services will be celebrated on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, beginning at 10:00 AM with Pastor Jackson Moody officiating. Interment will follow in Greenlawn Cemetery, South Charleston.

View Charles Bruce Wilson's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

06/05/2026

What happens at our church?

Walking into a new space can be intimidating, especially when each church does things a little differently. Here is a breakdown for an average Sunday at Lafayette United Methodist in London, OH.

Service begins at 10:30. See you there!

05/29/2026

Trinity Sunday celebrates the triune nature of God; “Holy, holy, holy.” Somehow, by divine mystery, we have 3 in 1: the grace of God the Father, self-giving love of our Savior the Son, and renewing fire of the Holy Spirit. We do not worship three separate Gods. And we do not worship one God with merely three “faces.” We worship one God. Yet we receive God as the Father, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit.

When Isaiah encountered the divine trinity, he too felt fear, overwhelm, and confusion. But he moved in faith, saying “HERE AM I; SEND ME.”

This Trinity Sunday, we are reminded that the ways in which God operates are not a puzzle for us to have to figure out. We are a community of love which moves in faith toward a mission of God. A mission of love and beauty. A mission of hope.

05/25/2026

Amen.

On this Memorial Day, we pause to affirm the sanctity of life and remember those whose lives have been lost—in war, in the ravages of conflict, or in the carnage of injustice. We honor their memory with a renewed commitment to peace, righteousness, justice, and love.

We also remember the grief carried by families and communities, trusting in the promise that “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). May God’s comfort surround all who mourn, and may His justice awaken in us a deeper resolve to work for a world where peace prevails.

Let us hear the call of the prophet in Isaiah 2:4 anew. Until that day comes, may we be faithful stewards of remembrance, living in ways that honor life by seeking reconciliation, pursuing justice, and walking humbly with our God.

05/23/2026

No, we are not drunk, for it is only 9 in the morning.

We are simply full of hope. Hope for the day that will come where the way our society works is completely uprooted. For the people who are crushed underfoot by the structure of our “civilization” to be given the highest honor in God’s kingdom. For those who do the “crushing”--- those willingly oppressing their neighbor— to be faced with the reality of their actions, or lack thereof. To shed tears no more. To no longer bear the BURDEN of a deep-rooted anger which permeates our soul, a feeling we all know far too well. To no longer worry about the rat race that is staying alive, and trying to be SOMEWHAT happy in the midst of all that that takes. To no longer feel ashamed that no matter what we do, we seem to be participating in systems that hurt other people. For many to no longer wonder whether there’s anything to believe in.

The Good News IS the good news because it gives us hope that the way our society— ANY worldly society in fact— will not get the final say in how our stories end. From the Old Testament to the New, life for God’s people has never been easy. It is full of sin, grief, injustice, and death. But how can we have hope when we are starving? Beaten? Working overtime to make ends meet? Battling addiction?

Pentecost marks the day that God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit— just as God had promised God would— to ALL. Even those on the bottom of society— “slaves, both men and women (Acts 2:18).” When we cannot see the eternity that’s in store for us, the Holy Spirit is there to remind us. To give us hope. To, with our cooperation, help guide us towards goodness, and refocus our eyes on the final destiny of the world. To help us through those times we feel we just can’t do it anymore.

The day we meet God, we have the opportunity to accept His love. To decry the way our world, and we, ourselves, have harmed others. To fully embrace our neighbor in love. To tell God we tried our best with what we had had. To embrace God and God’s unending love as the only one fit to “judge” our neighbor— not a politician, not a celebrity, and certainly not ourselves. If we do not want to love and be good to all, or we demand for someone else in God’s place, then God will not force us to accept God’s gift. From the beginning of the human story in Genesis, God gave us autonomy. But should we choose to receive this gift, we get to spend an eternity with God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit— an eternity filled with life, joy, and community.

If you find it in your heart (and schedule) to join us this Pentecost Sunday at 10:30 a.m., we are excited to see you there! 🙂

This week’s Scripture is Acts 2:1-21 (NRSVUE):

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs— in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, ‘Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness,
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

05/21/2026

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”

- Proverbs 31:8-9

On May 30, 2026, 3-5pm, please join Butler County Immigrant Justice, the Task Force on United Methodist Immigration Ministries of Ohio, The Interfaith Center at Miami University, Ignite Peace, the Amos Project’s Black Women’s Health Initiative, the Coalition for Concerned Citizens, and the Miami Valley Immigration Coalition for a peaceful, interfaith prayer vigil on the sidewalk and public space outside the Butler County Jail (705 Hanover St., Hamilton, OH 45011).

We stand in solidarity with people held in ICE detention in the Butler County Jail and throughout the United States, and we call for:
- In-person/contact visitation for clergy seeking to care for ICE detainees in the Butler County Jail
- An end to ICE detention
- Transparency on detention facility funding
- An end to INA § 287(g) agreements

Learn more and sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepshkcVdY9G1RBl37_k6EK3Eiue7sn9jVEz8ej-3--kqHqfg/viewform.