WaPost: A small-town Georgia preacher fills pews by leaving no one out [View all]

[teach1st]

A small-town Georgia preacher fills pews by leaving no one out
Washington Post, July 9, 2023, by Alison Miller

HARTWELL, Ga. — At night, the worn sign looks like a beacon in the darkness out front of the modest, red-brick Mt. Hebron Baptist Church.

The tired, it reads. The poor. And huddled masses. Welcome home.

In this small town in the rural northeast corner of Georgia, it’s the kind of message that assures Teri Massey she is loved for being who she is — a message 180 degrees from the one she heard in the Baptist church where she spent her teens into her 40s, where her grandfather, father and brother all held leadership positions.

When Massey came out in 2004, shortly after meeting the woman she later would marry, the congregation in that other small Georgia town responded by campaigning to send her to conversion therapy and holding prayer vigils outside her home.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/07/09/georgia-pastor-myerholtz-mount-hebron/

No paywall (gift article): https://wapo.st/3pIfKxG



Pastor Grant Myerholtz leads Mt. Hebron Baptist Church in Hartwell, Ga. His T-shirts and tattoos make for an unusual pulpit presence. His message of inclusivity is drawing people who say they have longed for a fully welcoming place to worship. (Will Crooks)