Pastor recalls Big Meeting at memorial service

               Photo by Geoff Anderson  

 By Michael Wacht

LAKELAND — The Rev. Charles Courtoy shared memories of his childhood and the people that molded his life as he bid farewell to the conference and the conference’s deceased clergy and spouses at the Dare to Share Jesus 2001 Florida Annual Conference Event.

Courtoy retired this year as executive director of the Florida Conference’s Committee on New Church Development and Church Redevelopment. He gave the sermon at the memorial service May 30 honoring conference clergy and spouses who died since the last conference event.

In a sermon titled “The Big Meeting,” Courtoy recalled an annual event at his boyhood church called the Big Meeting. The three-day celebration was a combination of feast, family reunion and annual conference event with baptisms, communion, foot washing and sermons preached by every preacher in attendance.

He said the preparations for the meeting began weeks in advance. Everyone made sure their homes were clean and ready to welcome visitors and that enough food was prepared to feed everyone.

“All came and all were welcomed and all were invited, even strangers,” Courtoy said. “It was Christian hospitality at its finest, and you didn’t have to be a member of the family to attend.”

Courtoy said just as his church worked to prepare itself to welcome family members and visitors, so Jesus is working to prepare heaven to receive Christians. “When I hear, ‘In my father’s house there are many rooms…’ I know it’s literally true,” he said. “It’s a reality for us that Jesus is doing serious work in preparation for us and our loved ones.”

Courtoy said the pastors and spouses who died this year “have been invited to the Big Meeting, and you and I are preparing ourselves for the Big Meeting also.”

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© 2001 Florida United Methodist Review Online