At the United Methodist Churches of Casper, our faith begins with a simple conviction:
God's grace comes first.
Before we understand it. Before we recognize it. Before we know what to call it. Before we have our theology figured out or our lives put together, God is already at work.
We are Christians rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and shaped by the Wesleyan tradition. We believe faith is more than something we affirm on Sunday morning. It forms who we are becoming and how we live—with God, with one another, and with the world.
John Wesley spoke of prevenient grace—the grace of God that goes before us.
That means we don't believe our relationship with God begins when we finally find our way to God. God has already been moving toward us.
Grace awakens us, invites us, forgives us, transforms us, and continually draws us toward deeper love of God and neighbor. There is no person, circumstance, or corner of creation beyond the reach of God's grace.
We don't earn it.
We receive it. We respond to it. And, by God's grace, we learn to live it.
We follow Jesus Christ, in whom we encounter the heart and character of God.
Jesus welcomed people others pushed aside. He crossed boundaries. He touched those considered untouchable. He ate with the wrong people. He challenged injustice and religious hypocrisy. He forgave. He healed. He served. And he continually widened the circle of those who discovered that God's kingdom included them, too.
Through Christ's life, death, and resurrection, we encounter God's saving love and the promise that sin, suffering, injustice, and even death do not have the final word.
Following Jesus means more than admiring him.
It means learning to live like him.
We believe the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the church and in the world.
The Spirit comforts and challenges us, gives courage when the way is difficult, wisdom when the answers aren't obvious, and strength when the work before us seems greater than we are.
The Spirit also reminds us that we need one another. Christianity was never intended to be a solitary journey. We grow through worship, prayer, study, conversation, service, Holy Communion, and life together.
These are what Wesley called means of grace—ordinary practices through which we make ourselves available to the extraordinary work God is already doing.
The Bible is foundational to our faith. Through Scripture we encounter the story of God's relationship with humanity and, most importantly, the story of Jesus Christ.
As United Methodists, we do not believe taking Scripture seriously requires us to stop asking questions. In fact, faithful reading often requires us to ask better ones.
Our Wesleyan tradition approaches Scripture with the help of tradition, reason, and experience. Together, these help us listen carefully to the biblical witness, learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before us, use the minds God has given us, and pay attention to what God is doing in human lives and in the world around us.
We can read the same passage and sometimes reach different conclusions.
We can disagree and still share the table.
John Wesley believed God's grace continually forms us toward holiness of heart and life.
For Methodists, holiness isn't about pretending to be perfect. It is about becoming more completely shaped by love—love of God and love of neighbor.
That's why faith cannot remain inside the church building.
We seek to do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. We feed people. We care for our neighbors. We nurture children and young people. We stand alongside people who are hurting. We work against injustice and oppression. We serve our community. And we ask how our gifts, resources, voices, and lives can participate in what God is doing in Casper and beyond.
We believe God isn't simply interested in where we will spend eternity.
God cares deeply about how we live today.
We believe every person is created in the image of God and possesses sacred worth.
Every person.
That conviction shapes the kind of church we are continually trying to become.
Our table has room for people of different ages, races, cultures, backgrounds, abilities, identities, family structures, economic circumstances, theological perspectives, and life experiences.
There is room for lifelong Methodists and people who aren't quite sure what a Methodist is. There is room for deep faith and honest doubt. There is room for questions. There is room for people who agree with us and people who don't.
Because belonging does not require sameness.
We don't simply ask, “Who is at our table?”
We also ask, “Who isn't at our table—and why?”
When someone has been excluded, ignored, silenced, or made to believe there is no place for them in the church, we believe the Gospel calls us to widen the circle.
We don't claim to have everything figured out.
We are a community being formed by grace.
Together, we worship. We question. We learn. We serve. We fail. We forgive. We begin again. And through all of it, we trust that God continues shaping us into people who love God more deeply and love our neighbors more fully.
That's the Methodist journey toward holiness.
And wherever you are on your journey, there is a place for you to walk with us.
Grace comes first.
Everyone matters.
There is a place for you at the table.
And together, we are becoming who God is calling us to be.