History
St. John’s is a historic Church. We’ve been at the corner of Peabody and Bellevue in Midtown since 1907 and have existed as a congregation in Memphis since 1857. Who we were matters to us. But it doesn’t matter nearly as much as who we are and what, by God’s grace we are becoming.
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St. John’s is a vital, urban, progressively leaning United Methodist congregation. Our welcome to all is genuine. Our desire to be sanctuary for those pushed to the margins is formed out of our understanding of the Gospel mandates of Jesus. Our commitment to nurture hearts and minds in the Christian faith is true.
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The guiding mission of who we are comes from the “Method” of the Methodist movement. John Wesley crafted a rule of life calling us to do the inner work of the Spirit through prayer, study, and worship as a means to empower us to go into the world to demonstrate God’s love in our service to others.
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For us, the adapted words of one of the great preachers of the 20th century, Rev’d William Sloane Coffin, empowers us in our life together and our outward service:
“May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short - the courage to risk something big for something good - and the wisdom to know that the world is too dangerous for anything but the truth, and too small for anything but love.”
