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Last Saturday over 100 flyers were handed out by members of The Remedy, a ministry of Fairview United Methodist Church that meets each Sunday night at The Capitol Theater in downtown Maryville.

They weren’t advertising this week’s speaker or a fundraising campaign for a new church home. The young men and women part of this group had a simple gift to offer the community: free oil changes to single moms, widows and wives of military servicemen.

The event will be held Saturday at the Alcoa City Center, and The Remedy expects to provide 26 free oil changes to those who register by the end of today. It’s putting into practice God’s love-your-neighbor principles and setting others before oneself.
Jeremy LaDuke, who serves as associate pastor at Fairview United Methodist and who helped start The Remedy almost a year ago, said this ministry has a mission of reaching the generation that has been making a mass exodus from church because it no longer spoke to them. It will take a missionary mind set, he said.

“Missionaries when they go into foreign countries, they do two things — they learn the language and they learn the culture and then they figure out how to communicate Christ to that culture,” LaDuke said. “That is one thing churches in America have just about forgotten how to do. We have been stuck in the ‘50s and ‘60s and have let culture pass us by.”

LaDuke is apologetic over what he says is the failure of churches to communicate with the generation that grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s who feel like more emphasis is placed on how people dress, how much money they make or their career status. At The Remedy, the attitude is “come as you are.” Greeters each week wear shirts that explain who is welcome. “No perfect people allowed.” The music is modern, sometimes secular and the messages always practical, LaDuke said.

The Remedy started meeting a year ago in September and LaDuke said average attendance on Sunday evenings is 50, including children and adults. A second service will start this week, at 1 p.m. Sunday at Alcoa City Center, the sight of the free oil changes on Saturday.

The name of the ministry was chosen by the group because they wanted something out of the norm. LaDuke said they are not proclaiming to be the remedy, but instead a representative of.

“One of the things we hope to remedy is the fact that so many young adults have burned out on the church, he said.

There is a billboard near The Home Depot that lists a Web site to visit, www.americantragedy.org. that LaDuke said explains the philosophy at The Remedy. Visitors to the Web site are then directed to learn more about The Remedy at www.remedynow.tv.

LaDuke said it is not his intention or the intention of The Remedy to condemn other churches. The idea, he said, is to put the focus on a God who is full of love and who expects all of us to demonstrate that love in the community to our neighbors and friends.