It was a dark and snowy night – a God
moment.
As most of
you know, Jeff Barnes chaired Grace’s Master Plan / Visioning Team from its
inception in early 2010. One of the
recommendations coming out of this team was to employ a consulting organization
to help us plan a strategy for achieving the goals that the team
developed. A company that came highly
recommended was one named Auxano, which from the Greek lexicon means to grow,
increase and become greater. The leaders
of Grace had conversations with one of the principals from Auxano, the Rev. Jim
Randall, in early January, and decided to contract them to help guide us
through this planning process. However,
before we actually set up the first meeting date, we thought we would have
conversations with the clerical and lay leaders of Allison and First, to see if
they would like to sit in, as we thought their individual church goals were
probably similar to ours, and that perhaps we could all benefit from this
venture. They agreed, accepted, and
Wednesday evening, January 26th, 2011 was set as our first meeting
date.
It turned
out to be a dark and snowy night. But we
braved the weather, and convened a group Carlisle United Methodists for what we
thought would just be some general conversation about what and where our three
churches were, what and where we wanted them to be, and how we might
individually get there. Participating in
the conversation, led by Jim Randall, were, from Allison, Pastor Tom Maurer, Ed
Owens, Bill Bunt and Jay Layman; from First, Pastor John Shellenberger, Jerry
Stuart and Ken Gossert; from Grace, Pastor Bruce Fensterbush, Jeff Barnes, Earl
Keller and myself (Randy Noaker); and our District Superintendent, the Rev. Dr.
Denny Keller.
The meeting
started with the representatives of each of our churches describing our current
situations, including attendance, building maintenance, programs and
ministries, worship services, trends, and most importantly, what we would like
to do and see in our respective futures.
Now you have to realize that by this point in time, the “Co-operative
Ministries” initiative, which included our three churches, was already well
underway, and was being successfully led by Joanne Reynolds. I had attended the
first couple of meetings of this group, and remember the primary ground rule
that was set – “There will be no talk of merging our churches”. So, despite the fact that there were some of
us from the three churches who had been privately discussing the pros and cons
of such a merger ever since the results of Allison’s January 2010 vote to sell
their building, we were not about to bring it up at our January 26th
meeting.
As the
meeting progressed, it became clear that all three of our churches had so much
in common. And then it happened. One member of the group – and I can assure
you that as far as I know, it was not one of the folks that had been discussing
it – said “What if we decided to merge our three churches?” For an instant, there was dead silence in the
room with everyone just looking at each other.
It was at that moment that we all realized there was a 13th
presence in the room – God was clearly there, listening and ultimately guiding
us! And from that point on, it was as if
the twelve of us mortals were speaking as one.
This was truly a “God moment”.
The rest, as
they say, is history. Thirteen members
from each of our three churches formed a team known as the co::Lab, and on
February 22nd, 2011, we held our first co::Lab meeting. Nine months later, on November 20th,
we rolled out the findings and recommendation of the co::Lab team for
unification, and on March 4th, 2012 we voted for that unification.
After that
first dark and snowy night meeting, there was a flurry of emails between
participants and other members of our respective churches expressing awe and
amazement about what had happened there.
I’d like to share just a few selected comments pulled from some of those
emails.
From Jerry
Stuart:
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending an inspiring
preliminary discussion about the future of Methodism in Carlisle. I say
“inspiring” because there was a genuine desire by every congregation to breathe
life back into our struggling denomination and to serve downtown and
surrounding Carlisle in a new and profound way in Jesus’ name. My gut feeling
is that a greater United Methodist vision or ship is going to be sailing here
in Carlisle. We are not mandated to be on it by any means. However, for the
benefit of First Church, I think it is in our congregation’s best interest to
be on board. Wherever that ship ends up sailing, we want to be riding the
wave.
From Pastor
Tom:
I think everyone present was
shocked with how God's Holy Spirit moved mightily among us and directed us
Wednesday night. I certainly never expected such a dramatic leap.
From Ed
Owens:
I also feel the work of our Lord at work as we move forward
with this great and fantastic journey. I
am in awe of what happened Wednesday night and am thrilled to be able help in
this journey in any manner that I can.
From Jeff
Barnes:
God had other plans for us on that snowy winter night. God was in the house! Everyone present was and continues to be
stunned and amazed at what took place.
We couldn’t believe what had just happened. And, I love this one. Jim Randall said to me after the meeting (and
this is a quote): “Dude, what just
happened in there???”
Presented to the congregation of
the Carlisle United Methodist Church February 10, 2013 by Randy Noaker
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