Matthew Moore: At the beginning of 2026, a sign showed up on the front lawn of Trinity United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. The sign said in big, bold letters, Central on Garland. And so, after more than 50 years as a place of worship and community, the church would no longer be its own independent entity.
Now, the church building functions as an additional campus for Central United Methodist Church, whose main campus is on Dickson Street.
Central was involved in the major denominational split that culminated in 2023, driven largely by longstanding disagreements over LGBTQ inclusion, including same-sex marriage and the ordination of queer people. Those who oppose those inclusions left UMC churches. For Central, that was about half of their congregation, including much of their pastoral staff.
The Rev. Jennie Williams was appointed as the senior pastor at Central following this decision in 2023. She joined me in the Bruce Nan Applegate News Studio 2 this week to discuss the growth of the church’s ministries. She says the process to adopt Trinity has been in the works for more than a year.
Jennie Williams: Once Central became Central United Methodist Church, kind of our new identity, two and a half years ago, through almost three years ago now, we started immediately looking to the future. You know, I think that church in the South still exists, and is still a pretty prominent thing in people’s lives. But church everywhere is just changing in so many ways. People’s church attendance is lower. Engagement is lower. All over the world. And so for me, there’s this new opportunity to reimagine how we’ve done church in the past. It’s not just a club that you belong to and you sign your name to it, but you’re actually out there in the community making it a better place, hopefully, if you’re doing it right.
And Central has had that history. We’ve done community meals for almost 30 years. We’ve been active in several local organizations. And Trinity has done this as well. They have existed since I think the 1960s. And their entire identity is wrapped up in helping their community, feeding the community. They provide social services from time to time. And they also have been very clear for many years about their desire to be fully inclusive of everyone in the LGBTQIA community.
And so that has been their identity for so long, so when Central kind of had our shift in values, or clarity, I should say, we started looking around for like, what’s our next thing? Like, how can we continue to offer this model of church where people can come and actually meet a Jesus who loves them without stipulation or without compromise? And not only that, but then can turn around and use this community, this connection that they found in church, to turn around and help others.
The Trinity congregation had grown a little smaller in recent history, and so some of their social services and outreach ministries kind of outgrew their congregation size. And so they needed some help kind of balancing that out. And so we were approached by our district saying, would you be willing to adopt Trinity as a part of your congregation? What that means is they would become a campus of Central, but what hopefully this adoption process would do is help us build relationships with the existing congregation and really absorb their full hearts and outward-looking values and be able to not only continue those, but really even amplify them around the community.
So that’s what our hope is over this next year as we are launching what this campus will look like, is to continue the feeding ministries that they’re already doing twice a week. There’s other counseling services that are available on site, and then look for how we can help grow a worshiping community there that can plug in support and so forth with the core values of Central, but also maintain that legacy that Trinity has set up for the last few decades.
Moore: One of the things that I think is really compelling and fascinating about working within a denominational framework is that while from congregation to congregation there might be some small values changes, broadly speaking a United Methodist Church, especially in 2026, more or less has similar enough beliefs and value systems that it doesn’t feel like necessarily a takeover. It doesn’t feel intrusive for a church like Central to go into Trinity and say, you are no longer Trinity United Methodist, you are now Central on Garland. How do you have those conversations with people who are a part of that congregation, people who have staked so much of their personal value on being a member of that feeding community at Trinity.
Williams: Well, that’s the hard work of this. We had several really intentional meetings to navigate that process. And we didn’t do everything right along the way. There’s things I’d look back and would do differently. But one of the best, most fruitful gatherings we had was bringing leadership together with some of the leadership of the former Trinity congregation and saying, let’s all define why we’re a Christian and why we’re a United Methodist and what we’re passionate about seeing in our local church.
And when we had each individual name that, then we started, circling or checking or x-ing the ones that were similar to the people around us at the table. What we found is that we have so many shared values for the very reasons you just said. We're all United Methodists, and that was really key. But it doesn’t take away the personal aspect of this. You can’t take away the fact that the name Trinity won’t be on the building anymore. But Central can’t come in and take away the legacy that Trinity has built there, and we don’t want to. We want to really build upon that. I think central has a really compelling vision for church ministry. And I think that that community can benefit from that as well.
One of the ways we are hoping to really commemorate Trinity’s legacy is by naming their fellowship hall Trinity Hall, which is where they do all of their food pantry ministry. It’s an amazing food pantry. It’s a choice pantry, so people get to shop around in there. They also serve weekly community hot meals on Sunday afternoons in that hall. And so that will be named Trinity in honor of that work that’s been started there and that we hope to continue on in the future.
Moore: We touched on this just a little bit ago, but church participation, church attendance is dropping. I think we’re reaching a point where the most common way to refer to someone is as a “none,” which is to say no religious affiliation as opposed to Christian or Jewish or Muslim. in a world where that continues to change and that nun group continues to grow. In a world where that continues to change and that nun group continues to grow, how do you look at a community like Fayetteville and think about growth and think about sustainability in that way.
Williams: Sure. Well, I like to say that this idea that there are more ‘nones’ now than have ever been is actually just people being honest. You know, I think there was an era where church participation was obligatory. It was when you moved into town, you figured out what school your kids were going to go to, what doctor’s office you were going to go to, and then you picked out your church, right? And that was kind of part of defining who you are, and that’s just not the case anymore.
So yeah, I mean, there’s things to mourn about that, but that it also makes people say, like, if you are going to church now in 2026, even in Fayetteville, you at least want to be there a little bit, right? It’s a choice that you actually want to make and not one that you feel obligated to make. So that opens up opportunities for people to be really excited about the work that the church can do.
And I think that’s really what we are focusing on, is if Central is not telling a compelling enough story about the work that God can do in someone’s life by our actions and through our worship experiences that people don’t want to come to Central, then that’s on us, and we’ve got to figure that out. And so I think that’s the future of the church anywhere, is that if we tell a compelling enough story about the work of Christ in our community, people will come. But people want to be a part of something that’s making a difference. And that’s what we’re trying to do.
Moore: I’m speaking with the Rev. Jenny Williams, senior pastor of Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. How do you think about, as we talked about here, a lot of what really defined Trinity, especially in the last five or 10 years, was the sort of extracurriculars, if you will, the things outside of Sunday morning worship service?
Those are really the things that define Trinity in so many ways, especially to the non-religious community of Fayetteville and northwest Arkansas. How do you hope to maintain that sort of legacy and structure? That you don't have to fit a certain box, it doesn't matter whether or not you consider yourself a Christian, we still want you to be participating in this ministry and we still want you to receive these services regardless of how you consider yourself.
Williams: Yeah, well, that’s one of the things, you know, and Trinity did this and we will continue it, when we provide services for folks, we take their name, and I think we ask maybe what county they’re from, that’s just for food bank data, but we don’t ask anything else. We don’t make them come to a worship service. We don’t enforce mandatory prayer time or discipleship. Obviously, we invite them into that. But this is really just a come as you are.
And there are a lot of people both on the Dickson campus and on the Garland campus that will never probably set foot in the worship experience. And that doesn’t mean that the work that we do to help serve those folks isn’t just as important.
And especially on Garland and Sycamore, that’s a walkable neighborhood,
Moore: Especially with the new addition to the amazing bike path.
Williams: Amazing bike path, exactly. I anticipate neighbors being able to use that campus corner as kind of a neighborhood hub. That’s something we have a vision for the future. Love to put out some really neat green space areas out there. Revitalize maybe a playground or pickleball court. Outdoor eating space. And that way people can come and of course take advantage of the assistance ministries and programs, but also people can just come and take advantage of a safe space in the neighborhood for their families to come and rest and play so forth, be together.
Moore: What has been the most anxiety-driven part of this process, of taking on this new campus, of making these sorts of changes?
Williams: I think it’s just working on the relationship piece of not only building relationships with the former Trinity congregation, but then building relationships with the neighborhood community. And also balancing, you know, we work in a team of pastors. We have a community that we already are serving. We have a campus on Dickson with an average of 500 people in worship on Sunday mornings in person. And then we also have a U of A Wesley college ministry that’s amazing and growing every week. And we see some overlap there. But it’s anxiety-driven. But it’s also my favorite part of the work. It's the good and the bad and the ugly and the otherwise.
Moore: Why is it your favorite?
Williams: For me, ministry is just about building relationships with people and helping people build relationships with God. And that's the work I feel personally called to. I know not every pastor is not 100% an extrovert the way that I am, but it is also a vital piece of the work.
And when you can have a relationship with a person, you are putting a face on an experience, on a culture, on a neighborhood, you're humanizing the things that divide us so often. And so for me, even just as a personal practice, I try to build a relationship with people that I come in contact with so that I see them as a human being alongside myself.
Moore: Anything I missed, anything you want to be sure we touch on here?
Williams: I have, like, a cheesy tagline that I was gonna say.
Moore: Reverend Williams says when she first came to Central in 2023, it was a confusing time for the congregation. The church had essentially just split in half. New leadership was coming in, and it was one of the biggest paradigm shifts in the Methodist Church in years. So one day early on, she found herself on the church's Facebook page.
Williams: I was like, what do people need to hear in this situation? What would people want to hear from a church like Central, especially coming from a position where we are not super collaborative or welcoming into a place where we are definitely collaborative and welcoming. And I just thought people just need to hear that Jesus loves them, and it's just not that complicated, right?
And so on my first Sunday at the end of the service, a lot of times pastors will do what we call a benediction. It's just a final blessing, like go in peace, whatever. And I said a bunch of things I don't remember. And then I said, Jesus loves you. It's not complicated. And I just thought it was kind of nice, I guess. I don't know, I mean, I made it up, so I guess I thought so.
People latched on to that and they were like, never stop saying that. And I was like, okay. So two and a half years later, we still end every service with Jesus loves you. It's not complicated. And the funny thing is, is that so much of faith and life is so complicated. I get that, I'm not trying to water it down or make it sound easy. I didn't say it was easy, but it is not complicated.
Moore: Reverend Jennie Williams is the senior pastor at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville.
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