news article
Beyond the Pews: Church on the porch
October 6, 2025 / By Shelby Winchell, Director of Communications / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For Pastor J Lanni, ministry doesn’t end at the doors of Middlesex United Methodist Church or Vine Valley UMC. It stretches well beyond the pulpit, pews, and stained-glass windows. This summer, that ministry found a new home—on a front porch in the middle of a neighborhood—where an honest conversation about life and faith began.
It started when Matt, a man wrestling with questions about his own faith and facing health issues, reached out to Pastor J after a hospital stay. “He said, ‘I don’t want to bother you, but I’ve got some questions,’” Pastor J recalled. “I told him, ‘Matt, you’re not a bother. This is what I’m called to do.’”
Unable to drive and uneasy about meeting inside the church, Matt welcomed Pastor J on his own terms—on his front porch. What began as a single conversation soon became a weekly ritual. Every Wednesday, the two sit together on that porch, opening Scripture, sharing life’s struggles and hopes, and exploring what it means to live out faith in everyday life.
Today, the group spans generations—young men in their 20s pursuing sobriety, fathers and brothers reading Scripture side-by-side, and even the presence of a treasured family Bible from 1834, passed down through the years.
What began as one man’s search for guidance has grown into a circle of spiritual connection. “We just open it up. I ask Matt and anyone who’s there, ‘What’s been on your heart this week?’” Pastor J said. “It’s their meeting. I’m just there for support.”
One evening, a participant asked a question that had long puzzled him: “Psalm 23—is it for the living, or for the dead?” Pastor J invited the group to read the psalm from different Bible translations—King James, The Message, and the New Living Translation—and together they discovered how ancient words still speak fresh truth. “The different versions are written so more people can understand,” Pastor J explained. “What matters is that God’s Word meets you where you are.”
For him, this is church: real conversations, real prayers, and real people encountering God in the midst of everyday life. “Everybody deserves to feel the love of Christ,” he said. “Whether they walk through the doors of a church or not, they are loved. They are made in God’s image.”
Pastor J knows this truth firsthand. He grew up in as an only child in a Roman Catholic household, drifted away from church as a teenager, and later recognized he was missing the faith and sense of belonging he once knew.
Life took difficult turns—losing both parents within two weeks of each other, battling addiction, and reaching a breaking point that led him into detox. It was there, decades ago, that five men from the United Methodist Church showed up with a simple but life-changing message: “We’re here because we love you, and because God loves you too.”
After moving to Central New York, Pastor J discovered a new church home at Lairdsville United Methodist Church. Under the mentorship of Pastor Barbara Fisk, he began serving as a lay leader, taking courses, and stepping in when she was away. Pastor J says she recognized gifts in him that he hadn’t yet seen in himself and encouraged him to listen to God’s call. Her guidance—along with the support of other pastors and mentors—eventually led him into licensed local ministry in 2017.
Now, Pastor J pays that love forward often with his wife Rhonda by his side. He recalls one moment when Rhonda noticed a woman who she felt was struggling and needed prayer. Pastor J explains that the woman was waiting outside a busy store with a cart full of groceries. Rhonda quietly approached the woman in waiting, offered her a prayer and a hug. It was then that the stranger began to weep. Only later did Pastor J learn that she was battling terminal cancer and that this was her first day out of the house in months. The following Sunday, she and her husband came to church to say thank you.
For Pastor J, these moments capture the heart of ministry. “Church isn’t limited to Sunday mornings,” he said. “Sometimes, all someone needs to know they’re not alone—that they are seen, loved, and valued by God.”
Whether it’s a spontaneous prayer in the middle of a grocery store aisle, a late-night visit to a hospital room, or a circle of friends sharing Scripture on a porch, Pastor J sees each as holy ground. “We just have to have our eyes and ears open,” he said. “The blessings are out there—if we’re willing to meet people where they are.”