Today is a big day in the life of First United Methodist Church, Fort Collins. For today, we are officially uniting with Wellington Methodist Fellowship and beginning our new partnership effort! As of now, we are essentially one church that meets in two completely different venues, each with its own identity and characteristics. It is a bond that we hope will allow our congregations to share strengths and move forward into a very exciting future. My dream is to look back five years from now and see this as the day when Wellington began taking steps towards stability and growth, while First Church reinvigorated itself into an even more dynamic congregation. It is a wonderful vision, but bringing it about will be quite a challenge. However, I am excited at about this opportunity and how God has lead us into it. Together, with God leading us, our united church can and should change the world!
Thankfully, I have been able to preach on this topic at both campuses within the last two weeks. In my sermon, I shared how we see our churches growing into relationship to bring this wondrous future about. However, I got several questions I was not expecting. Most people have not been in on the intensive conversations that brought this partnership into reality, so they were curious about our motivations. They were also wondering why I have been tagged as the "primary pastoral presence" for Wellington and what that really means. And, of course, there were many queries about the future.These are great questions, so I thought I would address them here and tell how and why I feel this partnership came to be:
1) How did this Happen? Back in January, we, the pastoral staff at First Church heard that Wellington Church was looking to drop down to a half time pastor. This was a very difficult decision, as Rev. Susan Warren had done an absolutely fabulous job there. Unfortunately, new church starts operate on a shoestring budget, so it is difficult to maintain the salary package required for a full Methodist Elder. So since it appeared that a change was imminent, the FC clergy put our head to see if we could help our northern neighbors. At the same time, I was feeling nudged by the Spirit. I began feeling that Wellington was a place I could live out my dream of helping a large, existing congregation (Fort Collins) explore new multi-site models of church and methods of worship. So we began exploring the possibility of this multi-site partnership and I am thrilled about how it has all come together. So, starting today, I have the chance to help Wellington do something new with the backing of an awesome church in Fort Collins.
2) What Does this Mean for My Presence at FCFUMC? Since we are technically one church, the pastoral staff at Fort Collins now serves both partner campuses. I, however, will be the primary pastor for Wellington and spend Sundays/half my weekly time up north. The other half will be spent at Fort Collins working with Outreach and Stephen Ministry. This system has a lot of benefits. Most notably, I can easily rotate back for Sunday's at Fort Collins and have another of our capable pastors preach up here. I can also draw on First Church's experienced lay leaders and ministry areas for help. For those of you use to Methodist jargon, my appointment will remain at First Church and they will continue providing my salary package. Wellington will be able to contribute however, and offset some of the cost. This (in conjunction with some other staff movements) has allowed us to bring on Rev. Linn Zink to cover congregational care. She is an absolutely fabulous addition to our clergy team and from the ideas she is talking about, I think she is going to revolutionize how our church cares for its members.
3) What is the Future Going to Bring? As I said in my sermon yesterday, we don't know! However, we think that the two most likely outcomes are that Wellington grows and 1) becomes an independent congregation again or 2) it becomes a permanent campus of First Church. Either path is honorable and has amazing prospects. So we just need to wait and see what future God calls us to experience!
I hope this answers some questions for you all. But if it didn't, or if you have other concerns, do not hesitate to ask! The clergy team is seeking to keep this process as transparent as possible and we would love you input. And we welcome you to come check out what we are doing in Wellington! That is the great thing about being one church with multiple expressions, there is always something different to experience! I look forward to walking the journey with each and every one of you. And may God reside inside us as our Strength, beside us as our Companion and ahead of us as our Trailblazer, leading us to an awesome future.
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