It was a gorgeous Fall day to gather for Bible study, teaching, and fellowship at The Church at Spring Forest in Hillsborough, NC. Spring Forest is a new faith community of the North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath, the appointed pastor at Spring Forest, and Home Missioner Steve Taylor led us in this lovely retreat titled “Good Goats: Preaching Atonement Theology for Justice, Peace & Healing.”
A mix of pastors, laity, Methodists, and our ecumenical friends engaged in biblical animation with the Parable of the Talents and the Sheep and the Goats from Matthew 25. Applying the structure of a story, we considered different ways to approach the texts. We learned more about the behavior of sheep and goats and the context of the stories that provided fresh insight into these words of Jesus.
We then put our new knowledge to good use and visited the actual sheep and goats that live at the Spring Forest farm. We got to see how the animals behaved differently from each other before we roamed the farm to discover chickens, vegetables, fruit trees, and more.
In the afternoon session, we learned about the new evangelism that is trauma-informed and how it can strengthen our Christian witness to a hurting world. We ended by creating our own outlines for sermon series or small-group studies based on what we had learned from each other.
The Church at Spring Forest offers many wonderful retreat opportunities for all who are interested. They are a hybrid community both gathered and dispersed with participants across the U.S. and England. From farm work to dinners, prayer to retreats, Spring Forest has much to offer everyone in the NC Conference and our ecumenical neighbors. See their website at springforest.org for more information.