Reverend Timmy Alec Coley (Tac)
Reverend Tac Coley our senior pastor, comes to us from Stripling Chapel UMC in Carrollton,
GA where he served as senior pastor for the past six years. On August 28, 1958 in Albemarle, NC, Paul and Clara Coley welcomed
a second bouncing baby boy into their family calling him Timmy Alec Coley - Tac for short. With his older brother Don, Tac
grew up in rural Stanley County NC graduating from high school in 1975. He went on to Tech School studying Animal Husbandry
earning an A.I. Certificate. Hard work was not a stranger to Tac or his family, his parents worked in the textile mills, his
brother as an electrician and Tac as a dairy herdsman for Sunnybrook Farms.
Tac was married on May 31, 1980 to
Sharon Linville Coley (now Reverend Sharon Coley). Tac and Sharon have two grown children (Paul and Samantha) and four
grandchildren who still live in the Rome GA area.
After 22 years of cow punching, the Lord called Tac from herding
cattle to tending His sheep. Tac returned to school where he received his Bachelor of Art in Religion from Berry College and
went on to the Candler School of Theology at Emory University earning his Master of Divinity degree. He declared his Ministerial
Candidacy in 1992 in the Western North Carolina Conference of the UMC and transferred to the North Georgia Conference in 1995.
Tac was commissioned to Probationary Elder in 2001 and Ordained Elder in Full Connection in 2004.
Tac describes
his preaching style as storytelling. He will often retell Bible stories with both modern day and personal stories. An out-going
fellow, Tac loves people and always looks for ways to encourage everyone to actively follow the calling of God in their lives.
Tac feels that by interpreting the scriptures by storytelling can help us understand what God's purpose is in our lives.
When not in the pulpit or doing his visitations, Tac will be in the woods hoping to bag a buck or in a boat trying
to reel in the big one. He enjoys his communes with nature and feels this respite with nature brings him close to God. Tac
also likes to read, and often while waiting in a blind or up a tree for that certain deer to come by as well as in the boat
waiting for that bite, he'll settle down with a good book.
Tac's door is always open to his congregation
and to anyone else who needs to talk, pray or help in finding their way to salvation.
Kristy moved to Georgia when she was seven years old from South Carolina.
She graduated from Oglethorpe County High School in June of 1984 and got married in November of 1984 to her husband Wesley.
She graduated from Athens Tech in 1985 with an Administrative Degree. In 1989 their first son was born, Matthew
and in 1992 their second son was born, Benjamin. She and her husband are getting ready to celebrate their 25th
Wedding Anniversary in November. They live in Oglethorpe County and are members of Cloud's Creek Baptist Church.
Kristy has been working at Winterville UMC for just over eight years and still loves it here.
Tom Bouknecht, Music Director Tom Bouknecht was born April 27th, 1949 in Troy, Ohio. At the age
of 3, his family moved to St. Petersburg, FL, where he was raised. He graduated from Boca Ciega High School in 1967.
He earned his BME degree from St. Leo College in Florida in 1971, with a double major in voice and piano.
In 1971,
after graduation, he enlisted in the US Army and was stationed at Hunter Army Airfield/Fort Stewart with the 80th Army and
then the 94th Infantry Division Band.
After he was discharged, he took a job with the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company
in Athens, Georgia and worked with Consolidate Freight and Watkins Moto Lines until starting with the US Postal Service in
1987. Presently, he is Postmaster at Stephens, GA.
He has served as Music Director at several United Methodist
Churches; Grace in Savannah, 1st in Watkinsville and now here at Winterville.
Tom has 5 children and 2 grandchildren
and lives with his wife, Angela, and 2 children, Mallory and T.J. in Lexington.
Angela Bouknecht, Youth Director
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