This is also the first time that Dr. Tim Roberts has conducted a sermon in front of his congregation inside First United Methodist â Lincolnton. Roberts, who started July 1, 2020, has been standing in an empty church conducting his sermons virtually for the past nine months. First UMC Lincolnton opened its doors for the first time in over a year for Easter Services on Sunday.
âA lot of my colleagues opened up earlier this month or last week and Iâm thinking, nothing would say resurrection more than more than coming back for the first time after a year of being cloistered,â he said. âSeveral weeks ago, when I saw the trends were coming down and people were starting to get vaccinated, I thought that we might be able to do something about starting back to worship together. At first, we were going to meet in a park or something like that, but I just kept getting the feeling that the park was not the right thing and we were supposed to be back in the building. I