Mims Chapel United Methodist Church is seeing a familiar face in the pulpit these days as Richard Dowden returns after 10 years.
Dowden first came to Mims UMC about 16 years ago, and saw the church grow to about 80 worshipers each Sunday. He left Mims about 10 years ago to retire and moved to Gilmer.
He was asked to come back as a part-time minister to the church.
“I was retired and my wife passed and I was sitting around the house feeling sorry for myself when I got a call to come here,” he said, “and they’ve been wanting me back since I retired, so here I am.”
“It’s still a learning process on exactly where this congregation is headed and what they want to do and where they want to go,” he said. “I’m still getting a feel for that.”
Dowden said the congregation is smaller than when he left it 10 years ago and while many of the faces are gone, there’s still many he’s glad to still see.
“I’ve been away, but I’m back,” he said. “The heart of the Church is still here. They key members are still here. When I first came here it was about this size, and when I left, we were hitting about 80. The church as seen the loss of a number of members recently and that always hurts. The last few years it’s been led by different pastors with different slants. There is a shortage of ministers everywhere and that makes it hard too.”
Dowden has been back for two Sunday’s now and is at the church a couple of days a week.
“I don’t have any plans yet, but God has a will and a way,” he said. “There is no such thing as a ‘part-time preacher’.”
Dowden can be reached via the Church office at 903-755-2513, or via his cell phone at 903-720-7298.