looking for information only regarding blending 2 churches togeth

13 years ago

Because of low attendance in many of the churches especially in the Midwest, several of the denominations are blending their services together. We are working with the Lutheran and Methodist to work out an agreement. Our wonderful pastor is doing both services, and keeping them different. 99% of the people are satisfied.

My question--is there anyone here doing that and what is your experiences/suggestions etc.

This is NOT a religious posting, just looking for your thoughts and ideas to help us.

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Comments (14)

vala55
13 years ago
I haven't any experience with that, but am surprised and pleased that Lutheran and Methodist mix well. I familiar with Lutheran and thought Methodist were strict about drinking, Lutheran are not. I must have had the wrong idea about Methodist.
liljunkr
13 years ago
Tolerance, Respect and Love have to be the key words to making it work. I think the trick of having 2 or more theological groups blending in the same church and services is Remembering God loves us ALL!

(even if you are wrong) LOL just kidding

LIL
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arcy_gw
13 years ago
I am not sure what the goal is. If you keep separate services and just share a space there shouldn't be too many issues. If the goal is to truly merge the groups into one faith community, it will all depend on what the differences are in the two Faiths. How different are the doctrines and their interpretations by the congregations? Some people won't handle even the tiniest change of doctrine. The sad truth is there are Faiths that have been trying to move closer to full communion for hundreds of years, to no avail.
patti43
13 years ago
When I was young and first married, the town my husband was from tried doing that. Their church was Methodist but I'm not sure what the other one was--it could have been Lutheran or Presbyterian. We didn't live in the town but happened to be visiting the first weekend of the "trial".

It didn't work out but I don't know why. Man, I'm a lot of help, aren't I?
cynic
13 years ago
My limited knowledge of the two tells me that they're not that different in theory. Even in any one religion the execution can swing from shall we say sweet to salty so much so that some could compare different ones together with different faiths. Much depends on the local desires. Face it, many churches cater to what the locals want, thus, even varied religions can appear very similar in the same region, yet go to a different part of the country and you won't know your own religion!

My immediate suggestion is that if 99% of the people are currently happy, things are being done right so keep it up! I wouldn't suggest changing anything right now.

Religion is one of the most divisive things in the world and if you bring together not just two different groups, but two different faiths, pleasing that many, well, congratulations are in order to everyone involved. It also suggests that the people are pretty accepting of many things.

My only experience with something remotely similar is out by the farm where two churches tried to merge. Back when these churches were built, people generally walked to church or occasionally horse & buggy so churches were built relatively close to each other by today's standards. Now with cars distance doesn't mean much. Theoretically the same faith but different beliefs within. They needed a bigger church to combine them and both old churches were in bad shape so they built one new. Things didn't agree and with the divisions they split apart again. Now the cemeteries are poorly maintained because of lack of funds and of course the community is divided. This happened decades ago and the wounds have never healed completely.

In a somewhat, though not completely tongue-in-cheek response, remember that in the Midwest, food brings people together! Have the meatball suppers, pancake breakfasts, spaghetti lunches and the occasional potluck and you'll bring people together no matter what their beliefs.

Simply guessing, but I'd predict that over time the services will take a natural course of blending together to be more and more similar.
Jasdip
13 years ago
In our city we have a Jewish and Christian place of worship. gA Synagogue and Church in one.
I believe it's the first of its kind in North America.
How's that for a mix?
bee0hio
13 years ago
The topic reminds me of....
Several years ago the Catholic hospital I worked in had an ordained Methodist minister who was the head of the chaplains & spiritual services. He was also one of the fill-in ministers for the Presbyterian Church that my in-laws attended. Later he was hired as the minister of a Baptist church. He was well liked by all. Quite the Ecumenical person!
susie53_gw
13 years ago
This is happening everywhere. We have lived in our small community for over 40 years. In the beginning we had one church in our small town that was the church that everyone attended. At that time we had 10 different churches. We now have 5. The top church is now barely hanging on. Often it doesn't take in enought to pay its bills. The main church in town now has to hold 2 services each Sunday morning to fit everyone in. The thing I see in this church is that it offers so much to all ages... Those that don't have lots of money help in other ways that would otherwise cost the church. They clean the church, mow the lawn, offer meals when needed -- things like that. The church has one Sunday each month that everyone brings items for the local food pantry. It takes everyone in a church to keep it going strong.
workoutlady
13 years ago
I'm in a Methodist church that merged many, many years ago. I really don't remember what the two were before the merger but they became Methodist. Possibly that is what these churches will do - they may end up becoming something other than what they are now, if that makes sense. I even know of churches that are not affiliated with a "bigger" church. We have one such church in our community. It's a christian community church. Right now the church is good but the only problem I see is if they have problems. I'm not sure where they go since there is no other bigger church to go to when there's problems. In the Methodist church I belong to now, we had a female pastor (the first ever for our church) about 5 years ago and she was not well liked by most people. We lost a lot of members. It took awhile but we did manage to get rid of this pastor mainly by our board going to her supervisor and documenting the issues. The supervisor placed a new pastor with us that was great at bringing people together. We are now back to being a strong church with as many members as before. While some of the members never returned, some did and new people are there as well.

With a community church such as in my town, I wonder what they do in that situation. Would the church just need to shut down?
linda_in_iowa
13 years ago
Jasdip, the Methodist church I belonged to in CA shared its facility with a Jewish congregation. When I joined that church in 1986 it was already sharing with the Jewish congregation. On Sundays we hung our cross up in the front and on Friday evenings the Jewish congregation put their Mennorah there. Once a year we had pastor swaps. The rabbi would speak at our Sunday service and our pastor would speak at the Friday evening service. In the last couple of years the Jewish congregation was able to purchase their own building.
Someone mentioned that Methodists do not drink. I have never heard that and have been a member if two Methodist churches and traveled to Italy with a third church. In Italy the pastor would order a beer with his lunch. Here the pastors, who are my friends, do drink socially.
mariend
Original Author
13 years ago
In our situation, our Pastor does the Methodist service one month, then the Lutheran Service one month. All are encourage to participate. So we would stay with our own denomination, just listen, learn and respect others. So far it is working out pretty good. The problem here is the condition of the Lutheran Church building. It has a basement, that has black mold and lots of water damage, need new roof, update electric system and new windows. Previous Pastor's kind of overlooked some of the problems.
cynic
13 years ago
I had forgotten about another situation where 4 churches went together and have one pastor. They alternate which church is the one used during that week and he moves around as does the congregation. Sort of a progressive supper variation. And he covers weddings and funerals at all of them. So far so good.
jel48
13 years ago
We lived in a small town (under 800 people) for several years. There was a Baptist church and a Methodist church. The two church buildings were a couple of blocks apart. They churches shared one pastor and each time there was a new pastor (every few years) they switched denomination (if there was a Methodist pastor this time, then the next time there was a Baptist pastor). Church services took place in each church building on alternate months. We only occasionally attended church there, as we were members in a church about about 25 miles away and chose to keep attending there after we moved to this town. However, we did attend locally once in a while and every thing seemed to go quite smoothly. I did hear it mentioned more then once that the only problems were with facilities and that it might have been better had the two groups built a new church together rather then continuing to operate and maintain upkeep on two separate churches.
joyfulguy
13 years ago
When our Prairies were settled, about 100 years ago, the people, though independent spirited, worked together when needed to get things done.

In many villages and towns the people decided that it would be well to have only one church, with everyone attending (who was interested).

When the Methodists and the Congregationalists and about 3/4 of the Presbbyterians joined together to form The United Church of Canada, in 1925, some hundreds, I think it was (maybe scores), of local union churches in the west had helped to instigate the idea of merging. My family attended a Methodist church (where drinking was verboten and playing cards frowned upon) which joined The United Church 4 years before I was born - I sang in that choir before my voice changed.

One of the major theological colleges in the United Church has developed an interfaith portion of their curriculum and has a female Muslim as the advisor.

I think that I heard or read a while ago of a church and a mosque sharing the church's facilities.

ole joyful

looking for information only regarding blending 2 churches togeth

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