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Serving Princeton, Rosewood, Brogden, E. Johnston Co., W. Wayne Co., North Carolina |
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Fellowship UMC no sleepy little churchBy Barry Merrill NL Publisher 8 August 2007 — There are more than a few grey heads among the congregation at Fellowship United Methodist Church on Sunday morning. The pastor in the pulpit actually retired a year ago, but agreed to serve part-time between this church and the Methodist Church in Micro. The congregation does contain some youngsters and a few younger folk. When the pastor gets to the sermon, there’s a fire in his preaching that says this is no sleepy little church with a dying congregation.
Ralph Hill, 68, accepted this appointment near the home where he and his wife Faye have chosen to retire to, in western Johnston County. It’s even closer to his home church, Sanders Chapel UMC. Rev. Hill grew up in the Pine Level and Smithfield area, and though he never lived in the Brogden area, Sanders Chapel was where his family usually worshipped. His father, Richard Hill, was a tenant farmer. Over the years, something happened and his dad stopped going to church regularly. One night while attending a Revival, something was said that really spoke to Ralph's father. He was moved and dedicated his life and his family to the Lord. As Ralph remembers, “He said he didn’t have any money that he could give, but he would give his children to the church.” Of the nine children, seven boys and two girls, four of the boys served in the ministry. Two of Ralph's brothers also served in Methodist churches, and one was a Baptist minister, but all three have passed. Ralph remembers meeting his wife, the former Linda Faye Holloman, in Pine Level. “We were at her house, a group of us at a party,” he says. “She wanted to go to the show and we were sitting around, and she stomped my foot. That was how I got to know her.”
Ralph Hill, after graduating from Smithfield High School, became an electrician, “And a pretty good one, if I say so myself.” He and Faye were married in 1959. He also served in the National Guard for nine years. In 1964 he heard the call to the ministry. The following year he was licensed to preach. As he had not gone to school past high school, he began going to college while serving in the Methodist Church. He attended Louisburg College, Atlantic Christian College (now Barton), Southeastern Theological Seminary at Wake Forest, and for eleven years he attended divinity school during the summers at Duke. He earned his doctorate at the Christian Life School in Columbus, Ga. During his 40 years in the ministry, he has served eastern NC churches from Rockingham to Roanoke Rapids, and Bolivia. Two years ago he left Hookerton UMC near Greenville, and then accepted a one-year appointment at Hickory Grove UMC outside LaGrange before officially retiring. Rev. Hobie Burnside, another retired pastor, had been serving the two-point (church) charge for the past four years, and he was ready to retire for good. The District Superintendent for the Goldsboro District, which includes most of Johnston County, asked Rev. Hill to consider continuing to serve by moving to the part-time appointment for Fellowship and Micro churches. In June he was reappointed to serve the two churches another year. Rev. Hill says that in the year he has been serving Fellowship, attendance has picked up. He gives a lot of credit to many of the members for their enthusiasm. He noted that the church has a strong children’s ministry, and many members are involved in making that happen. They have also been interested in doing fundraisers of late, and have plans to build a new fellowship hall. They are active with senior citizen dinners. When asked to name some of the key lay people in the congregation, he went on and on and said he felt he could practically name everyone in the congregation as being instrumental in his time at the church. He did specifically name Tony Woodard, his lay speaker, Joe and Wendy Phillips, Mary Lee Fulghum, Lynwood Rowe and Louise Rowe, head trustee Clayvon Whitley and his wife, Mildred, Peggy Sheets and Jackie King. He also noted this past Sunday they had three or four visitors, and usually have seven or eight children in the service. So normally on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. Rev. Hill brings the Word at Micro UMC, and then at 11 a.m. he and Faye are still full of fire for the service at Fellowship UMC on Rains Crossroads Road. Rev. Hill isn’t past studying the Word, learning, and preaching. Don’t come expecting to find a sleepy little country church.
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