130 EAST BROAD ST ↗

all are welcome

THE INDEX

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WHAT TO EXPECT

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CONTINUE — THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS ›

We are a church in the Wesleyan tradition: shaped by Scripture, the historic creeds, the sacraments of the Lord's Table and Holy Baptism, and a quiet conviction that grace goes before us.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
   creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
   who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
   born of the Virgin Mary,
   suffered under Pontius Pilate,
   was crucified, died, and was buried;
   he descended to the dead.
   On the third day he rose again;
   he ascended into heaven,
   he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
   and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
   the holy catholic Church,
   the communion of saints,
   the forgiveness of sins,
   the resurrection of the body,
   and the life everlasting.

AMEN.

Dr. Jonathan Speegle has been a Methodist pastor for nearly thirty years — serving churches across Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi, and now appointed to Monticello United Methodist Church. His passion is preaching the gospel, teaching the Word of God, and magnifying the sacraments — biblically, traditionally, liturgically. Visitors can expect preaching that is rooted in Scripture, formed by the Creeds, and shaped by the Wesleyan inheritance of head and heart together — orthodox in conviction, generous in spirit, and always pointed toward the abundant Life Christ promised his Church.

He was raised in the Church of the Nazarene in suburban Birmingham, preached his first sermon at sixteen, and became a Methodist while studying at Beeson Divinity School. He holds a BA in religion (with honors) from Samford University, an MDiv from Beeson Divinity School, and a PhD in systematic theology from Baylor University. He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate level both at home and abroad, including a season as Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Southern Mississippi. His book We Believe in the Communion of the Saints (Parson’s Porch Books, 2021) is a labor of love for the Church catholic. Two more are forthcoming: We Are Not Alone and The Descent of God (Cascade Books).

He has been married to Lynn for thirty-nine years. They have a daughter, Tiffany, an attorney, and a granddaughter, Izzy. When he is not at the pulpit or the Lord’s Table, he is most often on pilgrimage — Italy, Scotland, the Camino, the Holy Land, Taizé — or in conversation with the saints, living and dead.

CONTINUE — OUR STORY AND OUR WINDOWS ›

The life of a church is not mainly its events on a calendar; it is the shared life of a people learning to love God and one another over time. At Monticello United Methodist Church that life is ordered by the old and ordinary practices of the Christian faith — the ones that have formed disciples in every age. Here is what we do together.

Everything begins here. Each Sunday at 10:30 the congregation gathers to hear the Word read and preached, to pray, and to sing. On the first Sunday of each month we come to the Lord’s Table, where the risen Christ feeds his people. We keep the seasons of the Christian year — Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Pentecost and the long green season of growth — so that the whole story of Christ is told again and again until it becomes our own.

Between Sundays the church keeps praying. Morning and Evening Prayer — the daily office — carry the psalms and the appointed Scriptures through the week, so that the congregation is united in prayer even when scattered across the town. Anyone can pray the office; you need only a few quiet minutes, and this site keeps the hours with you.

We believe the table in the fellowship hall is close kin to the Table in the sanctuary. Around coffee, shared meals, studies, and simple conversation, strangers become friends and friends become family. Newcomers are always welcome; you do not need to know anyone to belong here, and you will not be left standing alone.

When members are ill, hospitalized, grieving, or unable to come to worship, the church goes to them. We visit, we bring Communion, we pray, and we stay in touch, so that no one is cut off from the body of Christ by age or illness or distance. If you or someone you love needs a visit or prayer, the office would be glad to hear from you.

The love we receive at the Table we carry into the town. Through the ministry of the United Methodist Women and the shared work of the whole congregation, we feed the hungry, help to shelter those in need, support our neighbors in hard times, and share in the wider mission of Christ’s Church at home and abroad. Mercy is not a program here; it is simply what a people shaped by grace begin to do.

We do not measure our life by novelty or numbers. We trust that God forms a people slowly, through worship, prayer, the sacraments, the Scriptures, and love of neighbor — the ordinary means of grace, practiced faithfully over a lifetime. That is the quiet, durable work we invite you to share.

Received, and kept. Thank you for helping the church remember.

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CONTINUE — FEASTS & FELLOWSHIP ›

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CONTINUE — THE CHURCH YEAR ›

● ADVENT ● CHRISTMAS ● EPIPHANY ● LENT ● EASTER ● PENTECOST ● ORDINARY TIME

The whole site keeps the seasons with the church — the colors, the prayers, and this wheel turn together through the year. Come back in Advent and see.

CONTINUE — THE SAINTS REMEMBERED TODAY ›

Monticello United Methodist Church was organized in 1815 by the Rev. John Menefee, just five years after the Rev. Hezekiah Shaw became the first Methodist preacher to ride the Lawrence County circuit. The early congregation worshipped in a simple A-frame building until the 1850s, when a brick sanctuary was raised near the spot where Regions Bank stands today — spacious, well-built, padded pews, balcony, the gathering place of the whole town. In 1882 a tornado leveled it.

Members met in private homes and the Lawrence County Courthouse for fifteen years. In 1897 the congregation purchased the present site at 130 East Broad Street, and the new building was dedicated in 1898. It served the church for eighty-two years — a new sanctuary and Sunday-school rooms in 1950, the parsonage in 1958, a two-story education wing in 1974. On January 11, 1980, fire destroyed the entire church.

The congregation gathered in the Hartman Wilson Funeral Home Chapel and in members’ homes through the long months of rebuilding. The Rev. Ronald J. Barham was pastor through that wilderness. The present sanctuary — the old steeple bell rescued from the ashes and rung again at its dedication — was consecrated on August 23, 1981.

After more than two centuries — through tornado, fire, and the ordinary patience of generations — the church has learned the lesson John Wesley first preached: the Church is not a building but a people. The people called Methodists.

Above the chancel, the Light of the World stands at the door — and around the sanctuary, six windows tell the gospel in colored glass.

The work of the Church is not only what happens at the altar but what happens around the table after.

CONTINUE — OUR LIFE TOGETHER ›

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Received, with thanks. Michele reads these each office morning, and nothing sent here goes unanswered.

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CONTINUE — PLAN YOUR VISIT ›

Your gifts support worship, community care, and the upkeep of our historic church home. Give securely online below, or by mail: P.O. Box 87, Monticello, MS 39654. All gifts are tax-deductible.

A REGISTERED 501(c)(3) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
UNDER THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH GROUP RULING · GEN 2573

CONTINUE — GET IN TOUCH ›