ATHENS — When Jimmy Bassham became pastor of First United Methodist Church in June 2005, the first question his wife, Sherri, asked was, “Do they have a United Methodist campus ministry there?” Her next question was, “Can I start one?”
Last week, nearly four years after beginning a Wesley Fellowship at Athens State University, the United Methodist Committee on Evangelism designated Sherri as the recipient of its prestigious Denman Award. The award, named for Harry Denman, the general secretary of the Committee on Evangelism, will be presented at the committee’s annual conference in June.
Prior to coming to Athens, Sherri was director of the Wesley Foundations at the University of North Alabama and Central Alabama Community College in Alexander City, which was the first chapter to be organized on one of the state’s community colleges.
Georgia native
A native of Forest Park, Ga., outside of Atlanta, Sherri met her future husband when he was a young pastor paying a hospital call on her grandfather.
“Jimmy had just graduated from the University of Alabama and was about to enter seminary, when Sherri visited her grandparents in Roanoke.
“I went to visit my grandfather in the hospital, and lo and behold, there was this cute little preacher,” she said.
The Basshams have been married 37 years and have one son, Blake Bassham, who is married to Stephanie, and they have a son, Grey, 2. The Basshams also have a daughter, Blair. Both of the Bassham adult children live in Birmingham.
When you ask Sherri about some of the activities in which her ASU Wesley Fellowship is involved, she takes a deep breath and says, “Oh, my, where do I start?”
Active group
But she’s glad to give it a try.
“We do a service project where we go once a month and play bingo with the residents of Limestone Manor and we build with Habitat for Humanity,” she said. “Once a year we do Iron Chef Wesley, which is a cooking contest. Once a year we have karaoke night at the Beasley Center. We work with the Student Government Association on campus and we have Bible study every Tuesday night at ASU.
“We have dinner and a movie night at our home and we have game night. We host college students from out of state who come to work on the Habitat houses. One of the really fun things we do is we host scary outdoor movies on campus at Halloween. Also, the students come over to our neighborhood in costume and take the children of the neighborhood out trick-or-treating so their parents can stay home and answer the door. Then they all come back to our house for dinner.
“Three of our members have become youth directors in their own churches and one of our members will be going to seminary in the fall.”
Sherri said the group is also planning to work with Big Brothers & Big Sisters organization.
Following through
Mike Stonbraker, district superintendent of the United Methodist Church, who nominated Sherri for the Denman Award, said, “Sherri has been a prime example of following through without conference priorities on training and equipping a new generation of Christian leaders.”
At First United Methodist, Sherri is a member of the Knitting Ministry, the Chancel Choir and the Fellowship Sunday School Class.
“I just love Athens,” she said. “We feel very much at home here and I am so honored to work with this good bunch of kids. I feel hopeful when I am around them. They are all committed to Christ and they are always glad to help out in the community.”
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Discussion
June 29, 2009
Sherri Bassham recognized for work with youth fellowship
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