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A UMNS Report
By Vicki Brown*
March 15, 2011
When Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, elected to
close, nearby Trinity United Methodist, in need of a larger space, moved
into the vacant Hyde Park building. A UMNS photo courtesy of Trinity
United Methodist Church.
View in Photo Gallery
Third in a series: The decision to close a church
isn’t easy. But members of churches that closed can find comfort in
what becomes of their building or furnishings.
Sharon Lancaster said the decision to close Hyde Park United
Methodist Church was a little easier once the members knew the building
would remain standing and Trinity United Methodist Church would move in.
“I think that the district and conference should become involved as
early as possible when a church is beginning to have trouble. There
should be a financial audit of the church books at least every other
year,” said Lancaster, who was married at Hyde Park and has spent much
of her life as a member.
Hyde commemorated its 100th anniversary in May 2010 and then held its
last service a week later. The church was one of 11 United Methodist
churches in Austin, Texas, that were part of the Ecclesiastes Project.
The Ecclesiastes Project is an intensive church assessment that aimed
to help struggling churches with average attendance of 150 or less look
honestly at their finances, buildings, attendance and mission and then
decide how to move forward.
The Rev. Bobbie Kaye Jones, the district superintendent who conceived
the project, had served most of her ministry in the Austin area, so she
knew which churches were chronically stressed and distressed – and had
been for 20 years. She also knew 21 United Methodist churches were
located within five miles of the state capitol building.
She gathered statistical information about the churches, met with the
pastors, got funding from the Texas Methodist Foundation for a staff
and a facilitator, and began the intensive focus on the churches.
Many members of the 11 churches chosen for the project were angry at
being included and believed the goal was simply to close them.
“We did everything we could to say, ‘None of this is your fault. Many
decisions got us here.’ I told them I wasn’t going to close them; I was
going to help them look at the options,” Jones said. She said it was
helpful for many to know other churches were struggling, too.
Chuck Ragland donated the use of his vintage Ford Mustang for the parade
to Trinity United Methodist Church’s new home. A UMNS photo courtesy of
Trinity United Methodist Church.
View in Photo Gallery
“We honored their pain. Some said it felt good to know they weren’t alone.”
So far, Hyde Park, which had an average Sunday morning attendance of
about 68 people, is the only project church that has closed.
One church increased its attendance and no longer has a budget
deficit; another voted to allow a new church start in its facilities. A
third welcomed an equally small Korean church to share its facilities,
and another re-engaged its outreach with the Hispanic community. One
substantively increased its ministry to the surrounding community by
working with other nonprofit organizations, and yet another is creating a
nonprofit and opening its doors to arts and humanities groups that want
to use its space.
The Rev. Sid Hall, pastor of Trinity, the church that has moved into
Hyde Park’s building and is renovating the space, said his church would
have had a hard time staying in the neighborhood without the gift from
Hyde Park. With about 230 attending worship each Sunday, Trinity outgrew
its own space — which held about 110 people for worship —10 years ago.
In fact, the church had already started a service at another location
with more room.
Slowly, members of the closed church are embracing their new neighbor.
“Some former Hyde Park members are coming every week; some are
cautiously looking in,” Hall said. “The main thing we’ve done is try to
be really respectful. I’ve told my leaders that when they see someone
they don’t know, they might be from Hyde Park and when we have a break, I
need you to be talking to them and making them feel welcome.”
‘In mission right up to the end’
Struggling churches in rural areas often have few options. There may
be no church with which to merge and there is no huge demand for empty
church buildings.
When the seven members still attending Bethany United Methodist
Church in Fairmont, N.D., voted to close, they gave their furnishings to
a small church that was destroyed by a fire.
Members of Bethany United Methodist Church in Fairmont, N.D., were
reluctant to leave after the final worship service on Sept. 12, 2010. A
UMNS file photo courtesy of Bethany United Methodist Church.
View in Photo Gallery
“They were active in mission right up to the end,” said the Rev. Fern
Bailey, the part-time local pastor who served the church. “It made them
all feel good that we were able to give everything to Humboldt United
Methodist.”
Bailey said Humboldt, also a small congregation of about 50, had
insurance money to repair the building, but members were not sure they
could afford hymnals, pews and other furnishings. A farmer is purchasing
Bethany’s building once the closing is officially accepted by the
annual conference later this year.
Mildred Osborn, a longtime member, said fewer and fewer people lived
in the area and many just went to different churches. She said she
probably would attend Fairmont United Methodist, which is 10 miles from
Bethany.
“It was hard to see it close, but there really wasn’t anything we
could have done. Some members passed away, and that made a difference,”
she said.
Ask the hard questions
Jan Berger, a facilitator hired by the Southwest Texas Annual
(regional) Conference to work with the 11 churches in the Ecclesiastes
Project, said United Methodists need to spend more time talking about
what and who the church is for.
“I don’t know that we do enough talking about what it means to be the
church. What does church look like, and who is it for? Many are small
neighborhood churches. They’ve been doing what they’ve done since they
started doing it. It feels good, and it’s always worked in the past, so
why change?” Berger said.
But even thriving churches need to ask the hard questions and really
look at how they are doing on a regular basis, Berger said. She and
others involved in the Ecclesiastes Project hope to develop tools that
can be used by others.
“We’ve talked about setting some benchmarks beside the quantitative
ones like budget, membership, attendance. We would like to develop a
tool to measure qualitative things like leadership and creativity.”
The Rev. Sharon Moe, a district superintendent in Tacoma, Wash., said
churches shouldn’t be satisfied just because they are taking care of
themselves and are happy.
“The United Methodist Church is really about encouraging people to go out and change lives.”
*Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation,
United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, Nashville,
Tenn.
News media contact: Joey Butler, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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