Everything we do at Lea Joyner Church is guided by our Mission and Vision, because we believe they perfectly encapsulate who God is calling us to be as a church.

 

Invites our neighbors,

To transform their lives through Jesus with us,

So that we can serve others with Christ’s Love,

And create leaders for the sake of God’s mission.

 

 

Invite: Lea Joyner is uniquely situated in North Monroe to reach thousands of people in our nearby neighborhoods with the message of Jesus Christ. Working together as a congregation, we can invite them all to Know Jesus with us!

 

Transform: The reason that we invite people to Know Jesus is because we believe that he is the only one with the power to transform our lives. This transformation is ongoing, therefore we expect that every person at our church to be in some form of group that will help us become the men and women that God has called us to be.

 

Serve: As our lives are transformed by Jesus, we will want to serve people with the same love that we have received from Jesus Christ. Our hope is for every person at Lea Joyner to be involved in some form of service to others, whether it’s right here in our community or all throughout the world.

 

Lead: As God blesses Lea Joyner Church with an expanded outreach and ministry growth, many more leaders will be needed. We intend to create intentional processes that help people discover God’s gifts in their lives and put them to use in and through our church.

 

Rev. Lea Joyner began Southside Methodist, mostly because, as her District Superintendent told her, “No other church will have you.” Lea was the only female pastor in Louisiana at a time when Methodist churches didn’t ordain women. In June of 1952, the conference gave her a vacant lot with no people, no building, and half the money normally given for new churches. Lea persevered, however, bringing 126 members into the church in just two months.

 

Over the next 33 years, Lea’s church grew to include over 2,000 members! At the time of her death, it was the largest church in the country being pastored by a woman. Lea’s emphasis at Southside was on evangelism and witnessing “to the lame, the lost, the lonely, and leper of all Monroe.” She was a regular fixture at St. Francis Hospital, where she served as volunteer chaplain for anyone in need. Lea was also regularly called upon by wives to drag their husbands out of the bars and preach to them about Jesus. She was instrumental in bringing over 20 people into full-time pastoral ministry. One of the most successful outreaches was the “Fisherman’s Club” that met every Wednesday night to visit local families.

 

Lea was murdered on March 12, 1985, at the Southside Methodist Church. This was devastating to the church. Many of the members were no longer willing to make the drive down to the church after she was killed. Soon her death, the church voted to change their name to Lea Joyner Memorial United Methodist Church.

 

In 1992, Lea Joyner UMC moved to its new location under the leadership of Rev. Joe Solomon. The church grew steadily at the new location, necessitating a Gym and a 500-seat Sanctuary to be built. The church’s current mission of “To Know Jesus And To Make Him Known” was adopted in the 1990’s.

 

In 2022, Lea Joyner Church voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church and become part of the Global Methodist Church. At this time, we changed our name to Lea Joyner Memorial Methodist Church. We hope these changes will allow us to continue to be a vibrant witness to God’s grace and love to everyone in our community.

 

This video was produced in June 2017 for the 65th anniversary of the founding of the church and the 100th anniversary of Rev. Lea Joyner’s birth:

 

 

 

We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and is useful for teaching, correcting, and living as God desires.

 

 

 

Lea Joyner is part of the Eastern Texas Conference of the GMC. For more information, including a map of other churches in the Eastern Texas Conference, see: etxgmc.org