Julie Bynum

By Betty Taylor
Photos by Karla Held

Julie Bynum remembers when she received her first Bible. “It was a white Bible with my name stamped in gold,” she says. “I was so proud of it.”

But what started as a fire of excitement and enthusiasm about the word of God was almost extinguished by a Sunday school teacher’s misguided comments. “A Sunday school teacher fussed at me,” Julie says, almost matter-of-factly. “She told me, ‘These Sunday school books cost a lot of money, and I can’t give you one when you don’t come every Sunday.’”

Julie had not grown up in church. “My dad was Methodist and my mom had attended a Baptist church, and they could just never find a church home,” she says.

But Julie had begged her dad to take her to Sunday school, which he did, until the day the teacher reprimanded her.

A huge opportunity to embrace little Julie into a church home was missed that day. But the lesson was not lost.

Today, Julie serves as Christian education director at First United Methodist Church, New Braunfels.

One summer, she began casual Sundays. Kids were allowed to come to church in shorts and casual clothing. “Some may say I went too far the other way because it stuck and now kids come to church in casual clothing, but I didn’t want the excuse of ‘I don’t have anything to wear’ to keep anyone from coming to church,” she says. Today, Julie has not only found a church home, but she is also doing her best to make a church home for hundreds of young kids. Her husband, Doug, has been with her every step of the way.

“It’s been said that Sunday school should be the best hour of your week,” Doug says. “And I really believe that is what she is doing here.”’ In fact, there are two Sunday school hours at First United Methodist Church – one at 9:45 a.m. and one at 11 a.m. Overseeing the Christian education of kids from the time they are born through the seventh grade, Bynum is responsible for many facets of the church’s education program – including Sunday school classes, mid-week ministries, Bible groups, the Christmas pageant, summer camps and Vacation Bible School.

Meeting Julie and listening to her talk, one notices a sense of calmness about her. With an easygoing laugh and flowing voice, she leaves others with a sense that everything will be OK. One would never guess just how many times Julie called up that “sense of peace” to get her through some very difficult and trying times.

Julie found her church home shortly after high school graduation when a “very nice boy” invited her to join him and his family at church. “That ‘nice boy’ was my husband Doug,” Julie says. “I was baptized at the First United Methodist Church in San Marcos on my 19th birthday. Doug and I married six days later.”

In 1988, the Bynums were expecting their first child. They were told their daughter Amy had a genetic disease and would probably not live past her first birthday. And if she did survive, she would probably be severely handicapped. “She’s 19 now, and is well and fine,” Julie says. But mother and daughter almost died during childbirth.

“I was called in,” Doug says, who scrubbed up for the emergency C-section. “Then I started hearing things like ‘We’re losing them.’”

But even in the midst of the trauma, Doug had a sense of calmness. “That sense of being OK fed me through the next nine days when Amy was in the hospital,” Doug says. Julie’s mom passed away six weeks after Amy was born. Julie’s dad died unexpectedly from a heart attack 11 months later. “It was a horrible and tragic time, but we felt so loved during that time,” Julie says. “I remember feeling like I was somewhere up in the atmosphere floating around, and God was actually down on earth.”

Those who know Julie’s story understand why a large anchor cross, made by a friend, sits in her office. (Hebrews 6:19 – “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”) The Bynums had a second child, a son, even though genetic counselors advised against it. Seth is now 16 years old, and once again, everything was fine.

Julie and Doug eventually began teaching the third grade Sunday school class at the First United Methodist Church, San Marcos. Julie was hesitant at first. Being a “new” Christian, she didn’t feel as well-versed in the Bible as her husband. But she had never forgotten what it felt like to be turned away from church at a young age. She found herself excitedly learning the stories of the Bible along with the students she led.

When the position at First United Methodist Church, New Braunfels, opened, her pastor encouraged her to apply. Again, Julie was hesitant, but after she accepted the position in 1994, she knew she was where she needed to be.

Since that time, she has passed on what she has learned to her church and her community. She knows that if kids want to come to church, their families will follow. She knows that Parents Night Out is important, because the “best gift a couple can give to their children is a happy and healthy marriage.” She knows that most dads will be glad to help out with Sunday school – you just need to ask. And she knows that good volunteers are those that have found the right job for their gifts.

She knows that a major determining factor of whether or not kids will continue going to church is whether or not they connect with someone, such as a youth pastor or education director, in their church.

Most of all, she knows God brought her to this place. And it is good to be home.