2023-08-12 22:01:00
Recently, Teri Massey has been going back to church, which she left almost two decades ago. Her change of heart has to do with Rev. Grant Myerholtz, who made Hartwell, Georgia’s Mount Hebron Baptist Church an open-door church. Far enough for the 63-year-old to venture back inside. Myerholtz helped her find new trust in God, which she lost in 2004.
That’s when the church started treating Teri like a leper following she came out as gay. Instead of sitting next to her on the pew, bigots suddenly stood in front of her house and held prayer vigils; May God move the black sheep to “turn back”. Teri no longer felt welcome.
New self-image with visible success
A few things have changed in Mount Hebron since Fall 2020. The new pastor gave the more than 100-year-old congregation in rural Northeast Georgia a new identity. With visible success. The empty pews filled up once more. In the meantime, around 100 worshipers sometimes listen to what the 47-year-old has to say.
The success of the Baptist pastor is so remarkable in times of dwindling membership numbers that the “Washington Post” dedicated an extensive portrait to Myerholtz. “Everyone is welcome,” is the pastor’s good news, with which he fills his church. Much to the dismay of traditional churches, who slammed him for saying the opening prayer at the Hartwell Pride Festival in April.
In the region shaped by pietism and patriotism, Myerholtz is an oddity. Especially among the Baptist congregations, which make up a good half of the churches. The tattooed pastor also attracts particular attention because his commitment provides a contrast to the Southern Baptist umbrella organization, which had just decided to turn back the clocks at its annual meeting in New Orleans. For the role of women in the church, but also in dealing with sexual minorities.
“Mount Hebron” no longer really belongs to the SBC – because Myerholtz doesn’t think much of denominational boundaries and also has problems with the traditional teachings of his church. They only stand in the way of the message of Jesus. The pastor relies on an inclusive approach that does not exclude anyone. His outward appearance also differs strikingly from the mainstream conservative Baptists. He preaches in a T-shirt and jeans and has his tattoos clearly visible on his upper arms.
empathy for outsiders
More important than his appearance, however, is his empathy for outsiders, which has a lot to do with his own biography. In 2011, while serving as a National Guardsman, Myerholtz sustained serious brain and spinal injuries during a training exercise. During his long convalescence, he read “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by former Franciscan Father Brennan Manning. A key experience. He made the message of unconditional grace his own. And has now made it his life’s work to make the Bible more accessible.
Which he seems to be able to do. Myerholtz’s churchgoers are drawn to his empathy. Like Jake Duvall, a traumatized war veteran who was twice stationed in Iraq. He finds it difficult to be in one place with many people, he replied to Myerholtz – who invited him to the service. The pastor understood. “Just come as you are and not as you should be.” Since then, Jake has regularly had front row seats and is coping better with his trauma symptoms.
Recently, while sitting on a folding chair by the pews, Myerholtz asked his worshipers if life had punished them so harshly that they doubted God. “That doesn’t make you a bad person,” he replied as numerous hands went up. All that matters to God is how we treat each other. This association has brought Teri back to the Mount Hebron Church, which is so different today than she knew when she was young. “It was,” she says, “as if a load had been lifted from me.”
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