National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day is Jan. 9.

And the First United Methodist Church in Warren will be honoring the law enforcement agencies in the community in multiple ways.

That includes a special Law Enforcement Day Church Service on Jan. 8 at 10 a.m.

“Law enforcement isn’t appreciated like it should be,” Molly Loughlin, one of the event organizers, said. “So we started this last year.”

District Attorney Rob Greene spoke last year by Conewango Twp. Officer Charlie Andersen will speak this year. The service will be followed by a fellowship time.

Loughlin said this effort is an outgrowth of the church’s prison ministry efforts.

“(We) started looking for different ways to be effective in the community,” she said. “We were looking at our neighbors. The prison is a neighbor.”

It was through that process that the group learned about the national appreciation day.

Last year’s event was “so well received that it’s going to be an annual thing now as far as we’re concerned.”

The service is coupled with meals that the church will provide to each of the county’s law enforcement agencies next Wednesday.

This year, Loughlin said, they wanted to be intentional to invite the broader public to the event.

She hopes that people take away from the service that “law enforcement is extremely important to the well-being of our community.

“(Their) commitment to keep us safe is extremely important,” she explained, highlighting the need to “have a relationship with them.”

She said Crime Stoppers is a way “that we as citizens in this community can get involved” to develop that relationship and “involvement in the safety of our community.”

“(We are) hoping to have good feelings about our law enforcement,” she stressed, “and to appreciate what we have in Warren County and then to maybe even help them in what they’re doing.”