Pastor Johnny Llerena faces the sanctuary of Franklinton United Methodist Church, where colored light filters in through stunning stained-glass windows, and intricately carved wooden beams arch across a vaulted ceiling. As he delivers his Sunday sermon, he tells a story of being in a boat on the ocean for the first time at the age of 3. He was afraid, and his father held him. He relates his story to that of Jesus and his disciples in a boat on the sea during a terrible storm. “Why are you afraid?” Jesus asked his disciples. “Have you no faith?”

“When our lives are affected by one storm after another, we tend to forget who is on the ship with us,” Llerena preaches, looking out over his parishioners scattered about the pews. “Remember, we will always have our Lord Jesus Christ with us to embrace us and give us comfort.”

In the 180 years since Franklinton UMC was founded — just two years after the incorporation of the town — its members have seen marriages and births, illnesses and deaths. They’ve seen peace and war, prosperity and poverty, joy and tragedy. But always, the church has been there to remind them that God will carry them through the storm.

There’s no storm on this Sunday. It’s hot and sunny, and the air-conditioning is broken. But the warmth in the sanctuary — 83 degrees, the thermostat reads — reflects the warmth that the people sitting on the curved wooden pews feel for one another, and for the surrounding community.

Franklinton UMC was founded in 1844, following the establishment of the town. Forty-seven years later, the Gothic Revival-style building that still houses the congregation was completed. photograph by Charles Harris

The church sits on Main Street, just past the shops and restaurants of Franklinton’s small downtown. The brick Gothic Revival building — with shingled turrets and arched stained-glass windows — is the second that the congregation has occupied, built in 1891.

Each Sunday, after the service, congregants proceed to the Hospitality Center, a small room off the side of the sanctuary, where they catch up over sandwiches, cakes, and coffee. They ask after each other’s health, how their families are doing. They offer to help one another.

The number of people attending the services started dwindling in the late 1980s, when nearby cotton mills began to close and folks moved away. The members who remain are older. Their children and grandchildren have moved away, too. But the 30 to 35 members who are here feel strong ties to this church, and to each other.

Always, the church has been there to remind them that God will carry them through the storm.

Ali Watts Casey has been a member of Franklinton UMC for about nine years. She joined after her previous church became so large that the members didn’t know each other. “Everybody [here] was very open, very welcoming, and very loving,” she says. She now knows the other members “well enough to call them at any time, day or night, if I need help for anything.”

Eva Coenraad has been a member since she moved to the area in 2005. “I felt at home right away,” she says. When her husband had Alzheimer’s and she was sick with pneumonia, she was too tired to cook. “Before I knew it, every day somebody else [from the church] was at the door with meals,” she says. “It made it a lot easier. They’re there when you need them.”

The church may not have a large congregation, but its footprint on its community spans decades, counties, languages, and socioeconomic statuses. It has a congregation that is always asking, “Where is there a need? How can we help? What more can we do?”

“We’re very small,” member Mary McGhee says. “Small but mighty.”

• • •

Llerena first experienced the feeling of community among a congregation in his native Peru. He grew up Catholic in Chimbote, a coastal city north of the capital city of Lima. After moving to Lima as a teenager in 1986, his cousin invited him to play guitar for a youth group at his Methodist church. Llerena was not particularly religious and had never heard of the Methodist church, but he agreed. “I think those songs touched my heart,” he says.

The more time Llerena spent with the church, the more he felt that God was calling him to serve. He attended seminary in Peru, but the school shut down before he was able to finish his studies. A friend of his — a former professor at Duke University — recommended that Llerena apply to its Divinity School.

Llerena moved to Durham and completed his Master of Divinity in 2021, then was appointed pastor of Franklinton UMC in 2022. “It is not easy for a Hispanic pastor with some accent and some errors in speaking to be accepted,” he says. “But I think this congregation is very kind, and I think they pay more attention to what I say rather than how I say.”

Since Llerena and his wife, Claudia Mezones (back row, center), joined Franklinton UMC, the congregation has expanded its food pantry operation to more than 60 bags of supplies a month. photograph by Charles Harris

The parishioners offer that same acceptance to the surrounding community. Because rural areas are remote, Llerena says, they can sometimes be overlooked by government programs, so having church support is even more important. According to the United States Census Bureau, Franklin County has an annual per capita income of $33,313, compared to $50,188 in neighboring Wake County. And 10.9 percent of people are living in poverty here, compared with 7.5 in Wake County. This makes the services that the church offers — a food pantry and a low-cost day care — critical to the county.

When Llerena joined Franklinton UMC, the church was operating a food pantry that gave away 10 to 20 bags a month. As a Spanish speaker, he was able to go into a local low-income, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood and promote the service, passing out pamphlets and building relationships with residents. The church now gives away more than 60 bags of food, cleaning supplies, and toiletries each month.

“We offer the food, but we discovered that the people need more than that.”

When Hispanic recipients arrive at the food pantry, Llerena usually gives them their bags and chats with them, asking how they are doing. Once, a woman began to cry, telling him that her father had had an accident and was faring poorly. She was unable to visit him because he was in Mexico. Llerena prayed with her. “We offer the food, but we discovered that the people need more than that,” he says.

The day care was started in the early 1970s as a response to the local need for affordable childcare. Offering services at a lower cost than others in the area, the Franklinton UMC Childcare Center is one of the few financially feasible childcare options for many nearby families. The day care even accepts vouchers from social services and, at one time, was the only childcare service in the area to do so.

McGhee has been on the board for the day care for more than 10 years. She explains that, because the church and day care are next door to a school, teachers in the past have been able to accept jobs in this rural area because of the affordable childcare option close by.

Tracey Phillips teaches sign language to kids at the Franklinton UMC Childcare Center, a service of the church for parents in Franklin County and beyond. photograph by Charles Harris

Every two weeks, Llerena hosts chapel for the kids in the adjacent sanctuary. He sits on the floor with them as they watch a short cartoon Bible story, then he contextualizes the message by helping them relate it to their own lives. He also brings his guitar and sings Christian songs for them, finishing with a prayer. When he engages with the children, he uses simple Spanish expressions, like hola, amigos or adiós. The children have learned the expressions and can repeat them back to him. “It’s a very emotional moment because they are engaging with not only the work of God, but also they are engaging with me because of my identity,” he says.

Llerena feels grateful to God for being appointed to Franklinton UMC because of the congregation’s beneficence. “Also, I feel challenged because there’s a lot of talent here, generosity, and skills,” he says. “So the challenge is to be a good spiritual leader, but also a good organizer, to work with the people to do this type of ministry with the community.”

• • •

In The final hymn sung on this Sunday, Two dozen voices lift to the heavens in unison, proclaiming, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word!”

How firm a foundation has this church building, which has stood since 1891. How firm a foundation has this congregation, which has worshipped since 1844. How firm a foundation have these members in their faith, and in their love for one another and for their rural community. How firm a foundation, which has weathered every storm, and will weather many more. And within these walls, all who enter — church members, community members, children of the day care — will be embraced and find comfort.

Franklinton United Methodist Church
109 North Main Street
Franklinton, NC 27525
(919) 494-7440
franklinton-umc.org