Our vision is for a community where church life is a priority and all congregations are thriving, people are helping people, family units are strong, God’s story is known and told, and people are spiritually resilient. 

Loretto UMC IDENTIFIES people who are willing to grow spiritually, BEFRIENDS people into the family of God, TEACHES people God’s Word and its power, DISPATCHES people as Jesus’ disciples.

• Magnify the Lord with me! Together let us lift his name up high! ~Psalm 34.3
• From sunrise to sunset, let the Lord’s name be praised! ~Psalm 113.3

• I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. ~John 13.34
•  This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ~1 John 3.16

• After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. ~Mark 8.34

• Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” ~Matthew 28.19-20

• Your word is a lamp before my feet and a light for my journey. ~Psalm 119.105
• I keep your word close, in my heart, so that I won’t sin against you. ~Psalm 119.11
• The grass dries up; the flower withers, but our God’s word will exist forever. ~Isaiah 40.8

• These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. ~Deuteronomy 6.6-7
• Jesus replied, “It’s written, People won’t live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God.”~Matthew 4.4
• Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character,~2 Timothy 3.16

• So continue encouraging each other and building each other up, just like you are doing already. ~1 Thessalonians 5.1
• And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds. Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near. ~Hebews 10.24-25

• One generation will praise your works to the next one, proclaiming your mighty acts. ~Psalm 145.4
• Tell it to your children, and have your children tell their children, and their children tell their children. ~Joel 1.3

• Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.~Galatians 6.2
• True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.~James 1.27

• If my people who belong to me will humbly pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land ~2 Chronicles 7.14  
• Be happy in your hope, stand your ground when you’re in trouble, and devote yourselves to prayer. ~Romans 12.12
• Pray continually. ~1 Thessalonians 5.17
• For this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve. ~James 5.16

• All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. ~Mark 8.35

• Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and don’t do what I say? ~Luke 6.46
• Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! ~Hebews 13.8

• Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell the story of what God has done for you.” So he went throughout the city proclaiming what Jesus had done for him. ~Luke 8.39
• May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ~Romans 15.13

• We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us. ~Romans 12.6
• A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good. ~1 Corinthians 12.7
• And serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God’s diverse gifts. ~1 Peter 4:10

• I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.  ~John 15.5

• Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap faithful love; break up your unplanted ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. ~Hosea 10.12
• Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. ~Ephesians 5.14

• You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith.This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. ~Ephesians 2.8

We are thanking God for this gift of salvation that comes in four movements of grace: 

Prevenient Grace

• The true light that shines on all people was coming into the world. ~John 1.9 
• When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me. ~John 12.32 
• However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace! ~Ephesians 2.4-5
• The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.~Titus 2.11 We love because God first loved us. ~1 John 4.19

Justifying Grace

• Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. ~John 3.5
• Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.. ~Romans 5.1
• Because if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and in your heart you have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ~Romans 10.9

Sanctifying Grace  

• We know this because God knew them in advance, and he decided in advance that they would be conformed to the image of his Son. ~Romans 8.29
• God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes. ~Philippians 2.13
• We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. ~2 Corinthians 3.18

Glorifying Grace 

• If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you. ~Romans 8.11
• There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory.  ~1 Corinthians 15.40