⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains the tragedy of gun violence and suicide. Listener discretion is advised.First United Methodist Church Bentonville has stood on the same corner since 1832 before Arkansas was a state, before the Civil War, and through nearly two centuries of transformation. In part one of this two-part conversation, lead pastor Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris shares her personal journey from outside the church to the pulpit, including a call to ministry born from a campus shooting at the University of Arkansas that killed her professor. The conversation moves through the Methodist connectional system, where a bishop tells you where to live and who to love, into what it means to lead a church with nearly two hundred years of complicated history, including its time as a Methodist Episcopal Church South. Morris doesn't hide from that inheritance. She reminds her congregation of it. Because you can't build a genuine welcome on top of a history you refuse to name.The episode explores the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, why Methodists sound wishy-washy when they're actually principled, and what it means to find God in Highway to Hell by AC/DC. It is a story about a tradition that has split over moral questions again and again and a church that keeps choosing to stay.https://www.theunderview.com/the-first-united-methodist-church-with-rev-dr-michelle-morris-part-1About the underview:The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewtheHost: @mikerusch