The Rev. Dr. Barry A. Allen and Pam Allen

Church Office:  558-3966
Parsonage: 558-3559

   The Rev. Dr. Barry A. Allen, his wife Pam, and their daughter Georgia Grace, moved into the parsonage and began serving as the pastoral family of Hemingway First United Methodist Church on Wednesday, July 14. Dr. Allen, who enjoys calling himself that from time to time, because no one else does except salespersons and Pam when she is mad at him, is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. Barry and Pam are both former Baptist Christians who answered the call to join The United Methodist Church.

   Sixteen month old Georgia Grace, however, is a lifelong Methodist, having been baptized by her father, with the assistance of one of her father's mentors, Rev. Bill Williams who is a retired United Methodist Minister. Georgia was received into The United Methodist Church as a baptized member on Fathers' Day, June 19, 2005, at Main Street United Methodist Church, McColl, S.C., shortly after her dad was the first person ordained by Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor.

   Bishop Taylor was assisted by one of Rev. Allen's greatest mentors and inspirations, Bishop William H. Willimon, who is the Presiding Bishop of the Birmingham Area of The United Methodist Church and was selected in a Baylor University survey as one of the "Twelve Most Effective Preachers in the English Speaking World."

   Bishop Willimon's new book entitled, Conversations With Barth On Preaching, has inspired Dr. Allen to begin reading and researching the works of another one of his spiritual heroes, Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young Lutheran theologian, pastor, and martyr, who was imprisoned and later hung by the Nazis due to his resistance to Nazi regime. Ironically, Dr. Bonhoeffer's was called forth from preaching his last sermon to his fellow prisoners with the words "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us."

   The next day, stripped like Christ, this young, gifted, and devout man of God was led to the gallows and hung in the freezing cold. The Nazi officer with him said "Well, I guess this is the end." Dr. Bonhoeffer responded politely by simply saying "no" and then walked toward the gallows to his death as he answered the highest call of the Christian, the call to martyrdom.

   Barry lives by the words Bonhoeffer wrote in his famous book, The Cost of Discipleship, only six years before Dr. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned by the Nazis where he wrote "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

   Allen says, "Dr. Bonhoeffer lived what he wrote and wrote what he lived, and he and Bishop William Willimon have inspired young pastors like myself to stand for Christ at all cost because this is what radical Christianity requires. We share in the suffering and death of Christ; however, we also share in Christ's glory and resurrection."

   "As far as how I became a United Methodist in 1998, after completing my Master of Divinity Degree at Duke University Divinity School. I am that way because of a gift, because of grace."

   The Rev. Dr. Barry Allen's life could have turned out much differently had he not accepted Christ as his personal Savior in October of 1990.

He says, "I didn't know that God loved me and wanted to my friend until my brother, George (who died unexpectedly on September 1, 1990), received Christ and began witnessing to me. I saw that George had changed, and God forced me to seriously examine that reality."

   "One month after my brother George's death, I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, began reading the Bible, and attending church and Bible Studies. I received the outward call of the church to go into the ministry within eighteen months and began studying religion at Campbell University where I received the B.A. in 1995. By the grace of God, and only by the grace and help of God, I went on to receive the M.Div. and Th.M. Degrees from Duke University Divinity School. I then completed a D.B.S., 2005, D.Min., 2006, at Andersonville Theological Semninary in Camilla, Georgia."

   "I Married Pam on Epiphany of 2001, and Georgia Grace was born on March 20, 2005."

   Barry is delighted to be serving at Hemingway, First United Methodist Church and considers it a great appointment. He looks forward to carrying out his ministry according to the words of Christ in Matthew 25:40 where he says "...'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.'"