This Friday will mark the return of First Wesleyan Church services to downtown Bradford.
The Emmaus Road service will begin at 7 p.m. at the Whole Latte Love Café on Congress Street, located next to the Fran Charles Shop.
For many years, the First Wesleyan Church served the Bradford community from the corner of Bishop and Boylston streets. In 2005, the members of the First Wesleyan Church sold their facility and took over the Sawyer Methodist Church, located at 692 S. Kendall Ave.
The First Wesleyan Church will once again hold weekly church services in downtown Bradford as part of an outreach project known as Emmaus Road. The road to Emmaus is where Jesus meant and later revealed himself to two of his followers during what many felt were dark times.
Emmaus Road services will be held at 7 p.m. each Friday at the café.
The new services will include weekly music provided by the church’s worship team, Three For All. They will perform every other week with other local worship teams from area churches performing on the opposite weeks. The Rev. Terri Niver, pastor of the First Wesleyan Church of Bradford, and the Rev. Dale Argot of the Eldred McCrea Brook Wesleyan Church, will lead the worship service. Coffee, hot chocolate and tea plus homemade treats will be available for free to those in attendance.
The members of the First Wesleyan Church said the West Branch United Methodist Church, which owns and operates Whole Latte Love Café, has donated the use of the space.
Emmaus Road is part of the Wesleyan Church’s efforts to reach the community with the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Emmaus Road services are designed to meet the spiritual needs of all, particularly college students and young adults ages 18 to 35, who are the largest segment of “un-churched” people in the United States. The new church services will also allow people who work on Sunday to attend a weekly church service.
Niver said Emmaus Road is a modern way to express the Gospel Message. “Think of it as a different building, a different day, but the same powerful message,” he stated.
The café, which is staffed by volunteers, is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
For more information about the Emmaus Road Project, contact Niver or the First Wesleyan Church communications director, Jeff Nuhfer, at 814-368-7865.
