Jim Ford

The Eastern PA Conference Laity Session, preceding Annual Conference on June 16, will feature a remarkable servant-leader whose life may well exemplify the conference theme, “Open Wide Your Hearts!”

In 1988 Jim Ford, a retired physical education teacher, founded Good Works, a Christian home repair ministry serving low-income homeowners in Coatesville, PA. He directed it for over 25 years and retired again in 2014, having built Good Works into a vibrant source of help and hope for many Chester County neighbors. “Jim Ford is one of the most caring human beings I have ever met,” said the local United Way CEO.

The Laity Session theme is “Responding to God’s Call,” and Ford, who now shares with others what he learned about being in ministry with the poor, will speak on “Availability.” Conference Lay Leader David Koch met Ford when he spoke at Koch’s church, Grove UMC, for Laity Sunday.

The session will also recognize District Lay Leaders, Certified Lay Ministers and Christ Servant Ministers, hear reports on General Conference from lay delegates, and remember lay annual conference members who died in the past year.