Our Future in the Parish: Some thoughts…
By Linda Mellor
September 2024
Can you name at least one person in each of the 11 other churches in our Cooperative Parish that you know or have connected with in some way in the past year? Fellowship, ministry, and worship with others across our Parish is not simply another “nice thing to do”, but may become vital to the survival of our United Methodist Church presence here in the Hudson Valley, and possibly to our very own survival in New Paltz.
The Parish Council met last April to discuss the futures of our Parish. Angela Redman from NYAC presented enlightening information and sparked some hard conversations about the current reality of our Parish churches and their inability to remain sustainable either now or into the very near future. Every church within our Parish is struggling financially, dealing with poor attendance, and finding it difficult or impossible to provide important ministries to their church and local communities, much less be able to step into areas of outreach and social justice on a larger scale. How can we be God’s hands and feet and truly live into our hearts of Love if we are consumed with trying to figure out how to keep the lights on and provide heat for our buildings? This led to thinking about some exciting possibilities for our future.
One proposal that was presented was what if we were to change the entire structure of the churches across our Parish? To not consider ourselves as 12 individual churches that loosely and sporadically offer an occasional worship service, book study, or ministry service as just a nice thing to do in another level of our UMC connectionalism, but to seriously become more integrated into a more cohesive and functioning church body. To begin to think of ourselves as ONE church, ONE congregation, ONE supporting and sustaining family.
Instead of 12 churches each one trying to hold a Sunday morning church service for a handful of people with limited pastoral and music capabilities, what if we were to combine our worship into 2 or 3 locations across the Parish? Would you be willing to worship somewhere else if it meant there were more than a dozen people in the pews, the opportunity to have a full choir, inspirational music (even a contemporary band?!), more extensive and solid tech on Zoom or Facebook Live, air conditioning in the summer (oh, right, we did do that one this summer!). That might not mean we give up any form of worship in our church, but might free us up to something new and exciting and different that is not on a Sunday morning or feeds hungering souls in a different way.
Instead of 12 churches each one trying to convince a handful of very overworked and exhausted people to stretch a little more to put energy and effort into a ministry that is of critical necessity to their community, what if we were to create ministry “hubs” at different locations? Identifying those vital ministries and having a much larger church body to engage in to build, staff, and maintain amazing and exciting ways to serve others. Would you be willing to travel a few minutes further to participate in an effort that truly tugged on your heart and felt like it was what God is calling you to do? Or have a larger creative group of people to work together to dream up ministries that might not require a physical presence, but can be done remotely from your home?
So much to think about, to talk about, to dream about, to envision. So many ways we can open ourselves up to new changes and possibilities. A perfect time to listen to how God really loves us and cares for us, and wants to work in our lives in ways that are deep and meaningful to us and to those we love and care for. A chance to reinvigorate our souls, and renew our spirits and our purpose for being.
How will all this shape up and come to pass? That is up to each one of us to help make happen. It starts with hard and deep conversations. The Parish is looking for a group of interested people to prayerfully and seriously consider moves into the future for the Parish, whether they be something like the proposal above or another idea entirely. At our last NPUMC Administrative Council, we also started discussions within our own church. We will be holding a meeting soon to dive into this deeper. Would you like to be part of one or both of these conversations? This is YOUR church. Let us make it what you want it to be and what God is calling us to be.
Finally, next time you see a flyer or see something in our weekly Announcements, not only are you invited, but implored to participate in Parish events, ministry efforts, and worship services. Fostering these relationships with people across these 12 churches is far beyond simply just a “nice thing to do”, but is critically important to our future sustainability.
