Celebrating past visions and embracing new ones
On June 23, the Rev. Erica Munoz along with church leaders past and present gathered to burn the mortgage of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hackettstown, NJ. Their celebration sparked a leadership lesson. As they traced the history of the mortgage, leaders at Trinity UMC told the story of the congregation’s vision and folllowed the way that vision was re-shaped over time.
Trinity UMC took out the mortgage in 1990 to finance the late Rev. Frank Fowler’s “Trinity Y2K” vision. Rev. Fowler envisioned a new addition to the church that would include classroom space, a multipurpose room, kitchen and parking. That addition became what is now known as Starr Hall.
While the congregation was working on paying off the mortgage, the lumber yard behind the church went up for sale. Trinity didn’t hesitate. The leaders saw something beautiful in the ramshackle lot. They increased their mortgage and purchased the lumberyard showroom, which would eventually become Trinity House, “a hub for community activities and support, including the vibrant food pantry serving over 400 families each month, and a thrift store providing affordable goods,” said the Rev. Don Gebhard, a clergy staff member of Trinity UMC.
This bold move forever-transformed Trinity’s missional capacity. As the celebration continued, Rev. Gebhard noted that not every dream became a reality. Some of the plans for renovation of the sanctuary and the construction of Family Life Center were left on the cutting room floor as the church confronted the reality of the 2008 recession.
The gathered leadership told the story of how God had been working in Trinity UMC. The Holy Spirit inspired big dreams, and then the Holy Spirit gently pruned some of those dreams. In both the visioning, and the re-visioning, Trinity UMC faithfully followed where God was leading.
Rev. Erica Munoz, senior pastor of Trinity UMC, helped those gathered to see the hand of God in all that they were doing as she told the story of a couple who built a home together from natural stone. Every day the couple would go out and dig stones from the earth and cart them to the site they had selected for their future home. Together they sorted the stones, took note of their shape and the quality of their edges, and turned them over and over again, until they found each’s place. Stone by stone this couple built their house together. Rev. Munoz invited those gathered to consider the way that God had chosen them, gathered them in, and was at work in and among them, building them into a living house of worship even as things change.
“People of God… we are a house built by the loving hands of God… Each one of us carefully chosen, picked up, turned over and over by God’s grace. Each one of us held together and made strong by the power of the Holy Spirit and set firmly on the bedrock, the cornerstone, the living stone which is Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.”
Millersville Community Church prioritizes truly being a “community” church
Millersville Community Church, under the leadership of head pastor Rev. Kerry Leeper, is engaging in similar work. Millersville Community Church was formed through the merger of First UMC Millersville and Grace UMC into a multisite church in 2013, and the joined-congregation discerned a vision to add a third campus. They undertook a mortgage of $2.5 million and built the Hope Campus of Millersville Community Church in 2015.
The church was thriving but was also concerned about the debt they carried. Through it all, the church faithfully listened for the Holy Spirit’s leading. They understood their vocation was to be a “community” church. They soon realized that they didn’t need three properties to do that. They first discerned that they should sell the 1st UMC Millersville building.
It was not an easy decision. The 1st UMC Millersville building housed both Meals on Wheels and the HUB, an outreach ministry to students at the local university. God provided. A local church expressed interest in the property and in partnering with the HUB, which became its own 501c3. The church that purchased the building overhauled it, adding a commercial kitchen, and making it into something fresh and new.
Rev. Kerry Leeper said, “Look what God can do when we let go of a building.”
Having gained confidence from the sale of 1st UMC building, Millersville then discerned that it was time to sell the Hope campus that was built in 2015. Again, God provided another faith community that was looking for a building, and the process of the sale is well underway.
Proceeds from the sale will help to finance Millersville’s vocation to truly be a community church and expand its ability to fund its missions.
In the midst of the vision and revision process, Rev. Kerry Leeper is filled with enthusiasm and hope about God’s possibilities. The decision to sell the first building “turned into a missional decision that continues to have a great ripple effect into the Millersville community. When we sell our Hope campus, it’s going to have a great ripple effect into the Penn Manor community and help us fund future ministries.”
Millersville Community Church is in the midst of a great re-vision. As it leans into its calling to truly be a “community church,” it is continuing to launch new ministries, including a Cancer Care outreach project, Gardens of Grace (a gardening ministry that provides fresh produce to local food pantries), and Next Gen ministries that reaches 70-150 middle schoolers every week. The sale of the Hope Campus will allow it to continue to invest deeply in local mission and outreach.
Our lives, our churches, our God-sized visions for our ministries, each of these are stones in the hand of God. The question for us, in this new season of The United Methodist Church, is will we continue to dream boldly, and trust God with the results? Will we look for the hand of God shaping both our vision and our revisions? Will we allow ourselves to be built, stone by stone, into a house of the Lord’s design?