Lively Word and Sacrament ministry
By Stacey Egger
Obstacles to partnership
Just as partnerships succeed in similar ways, the same obstacles seem to arise everywhere. Here are a few that came up again and again:
1. Congregational identity
Many of these congregations have decades, if not centuries, of history. For some members, this history intertwines with generations of family history.
Sharing a pastor with another congregation can feel like a threat to this identity, especially if it means compromising on some of those traditions. Further, entering a partnership often requires replacing a past identity that members may be holding onto.
“Almost every member of either congregation remembers a time when there was standing room only on Easter Sunday, and when there were 30 people in the children’s Bible class,” said Scamman. “People have to grieve what was lost.”
2. Service times
Scheduling service times usually requires sacrifice by at least one congregation. Sometimes it means a service at a time other than Sunday morning.
“Everyone seems to want the Divine Service at ‘the divine time of 9 a.m.,’” said the Rev. Justin Panzer, president of the LCMS Kansas District. “How do we be flexible for the sake of the kingdom of God?”
When it comes to these practical details, it is difficult for congregations to sacrifice their routine practices.
3. Pastor’s time, residence and attention
When a pastor shepherds two or three or four congregations, tensions can arise over his work and his whereabouts. How often is he in our church office? If he lives in another town, do those members have more access to him? Are we getting what we’re paying for?
This can be especially difficult in partnerships where a larger congregation pays a larger portion of the pastor’s salary.
Congregations may also struggle with the loss of many services that their pastor once provided. A congregation unprepared to assume more of these tasks will likely feel a loss or overburden their pastor.
4. Prior community tensions
One district president shared a story of a congregation that was resisting partnership for months. He couldn’t understand it. Finally, an elder clued him in: “We can’t partner with them, they’ve been our rivals in football for years.”
Sports rivalries in rural and small-town settings — and all manner of other cultural rivalries in all settings — can pose real obstacles to partnership.
Facing the obstacles, refocusing on the mission
These obstacles, difficult as they are, can in fact bless the church as congregations work through them.
The formation of multi-congregation parishes gives congregations the opportunity to refocus on what the church is, what the pastor is for, and how they should work together as brothers and sisters in Christ and members of a Synod.
“We build our identity around so many things that are ultimately not Jesus,” said Conner. “If we can refocus on our mission and the ministry that God is doing in our buildings and out from us, we’ll find more we agree upon than we don’t.”
For example, multiple service times can have advantages, when they are not on Sunday. While not ideal, in an increasingly secularized world many end up with Sunday morning obligations. A Saturday night service can be a great blessing.
When the pastor’s time is constrained, both he and the congregation must focus on what he is really there for — and these things become valued as the primary things they are. The members, in turn, step up to fill other roles.
“These congregations become a lot more self-sufficient,” said the Rev. Brady Finnern, president of the LCMS Minnesota North District. “They are expecting their pastor to be their pastor, primarily.”
The pastor must “show up, preach, lead study, preside over the Sacraments,” said the Rev. Michael Lange, president of the LCMS CaliforniaNevada-Hawaii District. Other responsibilities can be taken up by the congregation: visiting and caring for members, leading home studies, secretarial work, proclaiming Christ to their neighbors and performing acts of mercy.
Partnerships also require congregations to look outside of their isolated existence and to consider what the church is.
Manning and Manilla, Iowa, are small towns that were “arch-rivals” for years, said Conner. “To watch these two churches in these two towns partner together has been amazing. They have risen above the historic conflict to celebrate what God is doing in these two locations.”
“It’s really how circuits and the Synod are meant to work anyway,” said the Rev. Todd Kollbaum, director of LCMS Rural and Small Town Mission.
“We need each other, whether we are in partnership or just neighbors,” said the Rev. Sean Daenzer, who is the director of LCMS Worship and previously served a dual parish in the North Dakota District. A dual parish can be “the first step in broadening our horizons to see that there are Christians all around the world and that we are truly united,” he said.
We need each other. MCP congregations understand this inherently.
The Rev. Mark Wiegert serves a tri-parish in Lewistown, Stanford and Denton, Mont. One year, when the Denton congregation sustained significant hail damage, the other two congregations covered an extra share of expenses. Another year, Denton ended up with a surplus and shared it with the Stanford congregation, which was struggling that year. “We do bear one another’s burdens, no doubt,” said Wiegert.
A blessed end
Keeping a struggling church open is not always the best option. However, there are many, many situations in which it is.
In Kansas, said Panzer, as in many places, often the closure of a congregation means the loss of an LCMS presence in an entire county. In Montana, it can mean “hundreds of miles without anyone proclaiming the Gospel,” said Forke. And maintaining a place where the Gospel is being proclaimed is full of promise.
“Just because a congregation enters a dual parish, doesn’t mean it’s permanent,” said Panzer. “The unchurched are everywhere. … The harvest is ripe.”
There are, of course, times when closure is inevitable. When lay leaders are tired and no one new is stepping up, a congregation can’t pay its utility bills, or a building is decrepit beyond the point of affordable repairs, a partnership may not be the way forward.
But even such difficult cases can witness to the reality of Christ’s church, as these congregations learn that they have not “failed.”
“Where is that first church in Jerusalem that the apostles started?” said Scamman. “It’s gone. The building is gone, the people are gone. And yet the church is thriving — the Church Triumphant only grows. If we can remember the 200 people that used to be here and now they’re all with Christ, that’s mission accomplished. That’s the church’s job on earth: that the last member be ushered into the kingdom of God, and our Lord returns. Then we close shop, lock the doors. We don’t need these buildings on earth anymore.”
This article originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of The Lutheran Witness.
