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By MICHELLE LOVE | Staff Writer

PELHAM – On Sept. 12 at Valleydale Church, Shelby County residents can get to know their local pastors at a special “Coffee with Pastors” event hosted by the church.

Guests will be allowed to have coffee with various pastors from Valleydale and get to know the people who lead their weekly congregations. All guests are welcome, whether they are frequent visitors of the church or interested in joining.

“This past year, as a staff, we decided to start Coffee with Pastors,” said Patrick Sawyer, the Community Connection Pastor at Valleydale. “We host this event every second Sunday of each month, and we try to have many of our pastors be in attendance. This allows for our guests to meet our different pastors, but also be able to ask specific questions for different ministries.”

Sawyer said there were multiple reasons behind starting the event, with the first and foremost being they wanted people to become more acquainted with their pastors. “Most guests who are trying to find a church home do not have a lot of interaction with pastors when they visit on Sundays,” he said. “So, this provides an opportunity for them to meet our pastors and get to know them and ask any questions they may have about the church.”

Second, they wanted their pastors to become more acquainted with churchgoers, prospective and current.

“As pastors of Valleydale we would love to meet our guests every week, but that can be hard due to the busyness of Sundays,” Sawyer said. “So, this gives us an opportunity to get to meet guests and to get to know them better.”

“Third, this gives guests an opportunity to learn more about our church. They can learn who we are and where God is leading our church,” he continued. “Most of the time this helps them decide if they feel led to attend our membership class. Basically, this gives them a snapshot of our church to see if this might be where God is leading them to call their church family.”

The event is open to the public and will be held Sunday, Sept. 12 in the church café from 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.