First Methodist Church on the Corner

First Methodist Church on the Corner is a series of short stories about a pastor and his family serving a United Methodist church in a small Midwest town. I never name the town, though it could be in Indiana. The church is fiction and so is everyone in it, so any resemblance to someone you know is a coincidence, and I'm sticking to that.

I spent about thirty years as a pastor, and these stories grow out of what I noticed along the way. A new pastor's family gets welcomed with a pound of flour, and one person brings toilet paper because you can't live without that either. A casserole shows up after a funeral in a Pyrex dish with a name taped to the bottom. God keeps company with these folks in the church kitchen and the basement, and that's what I keep writing about.

I write a new story whenever one shows up, so there's no schedule. The latest ones are listed below, and they're free to read on Substack. If you grew up in a church like this one, or you're still setting up tables in one, I think you'll recognize the place.