Grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
It’s an honor and privilege for me to be appointed as your
Pastor starting July 1st. I am deeply humbled and excited
to join your ongoing ministry in this wonderful community of
Charlotte.

My family and I are very excited to join Oak Grove in
your endeavors as we will join hands to make a positive
impact in our community. My hope and dreams will be to
strengthen Ministries that are already in place, and join
you in exploring and envisioning new ministry opportunities.
I am very appreciative to your Staff Parish Relations
Committee (SPRC) for the love and hospitality they have
shown to me when I came to meet with them. Furthermore, I
will be forever grateful to my brother and colleague Rev.
Bob Roten for sharing with me all the tools I needed to
make my transition smooth. When Bob drove me around
your community, I saw great potentials and opportunity for
ministry. New communities are being formed not far from
the church, and that is a good thing!
Like many mainstream denominations, our own
denomination has been experiencing a decline in member
ship.

My colleague shared with me how for the last three years
Oak Grove has lost some faithful members who joined the
triumphant church. I also learned that there were faithful
members from Cole Memorial UMC who have joined Oak
Grove because Cole Memorial has joined Legacy
Congregations.

My hope and prayers are that along with the faithful
member from Cole Memorial, who are now a part of Oak
Grove Church family, existing members and myself as your
new Pastor will join hands and take the Gospel to our
community rather than waiting for people to come to us. I
am truly excited about the opportunity that the Bishop and
his cabinet gave me to serve you. I believe that with a
shared vision and the mission that leads to reaching that
vision, we could achieve anything.
God bless you and yours,

Rev. Innocent N. Justice