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Tearing Down Walls: One Church - Two Denominations

Mercy Church and Good Shepherd Community Church voted on Sunday November 4th to formally merge, starting January 1, 2008. We have been in coversation about this for nearly a year. Through several joint worship services, outreach events, votes, town halls, joint ministry, small groups and other venues we have been getting know one another and being the church together. Some details regarding the merger:

Will we keep two Sunday services after a merger? YES! One will remain more traditional in nature and style and one will be contemporary/emerging/charismatic in nature and style.

-Our hope is to add MORE worship opportunities, not less. The nature and style will change over time depending on the people committed to those worship times and who we are connecting with.

Will we still be Alliance (or Mennonite)? Yes, both. We will be one church with a dual affiliation.

This merger harkens back to the Alliance's founding as a cross-denominational missions agency, uniting christians in supporting, sending and going as missionaries. It also is an affirmation of Alliance-building values and the big-tent, desire to be "movement-like" great commission church.

The Mennonite Church is much older (nearly 500 years old) and one of the primary founding movements of all of evangelicalism. It was one of the founding movements of the radical reformation. In 1525 the first public beleivers baptism of the reformation took place and set the mennonite/anabaptist renewal in motion. Today many evangelicals can trace their spiritual ancestory back to the Anabaptists/mennonites. Moreover, the Mennonite Church is one of three Historic Peace Churches in the United States (Mennonites, Quakers/Friends, and Brethern Churches).

Can I still give to the Great Commission Fund(GCF) or Mennonite Missions or MCC, etc. Yes! -what ministries our church will support will depend upon our sense that they reflect our values. We will continue to support these ministries.

Will we support and be involved in the Northwestern District and the Central Plains Conference? Yes. -Again this will be creative and a learning adventure. Mercy was supported by and now monthly supports it's District and the Great Commission Fund. Good Shepherd has annually given to the Central Plains Conference and Mennonite Mission Network (In the past year pastor Shel has worked hard at increasing awareness and 'ownership' of the Mennonite Church theological identity at GSCC).

What will be the size of the new church? GSCC has around 30-50 active attendees and Mercy has around 130-150 active attendees. If everyone makes it through the merger, Good Shepherd's core continues to stabilize and then grow (instead of decline), Mercy's growth rate continues, we would be a church of 160-200 adherents.

Who will be our pastor? Pastor Shel will continue as pastor. Until such time as a normal "in the life of the church" transition would occur. There are many studies that show long-term (10+ years) pastorates tend to be one of the biggest indicators of growth and overall church health. And that a pastor doesn't enter fully effective ministry until 4-6 years in a church. This comes down to the fact that trust takes time and a track record.

-Our staffing would be reviewed in the merger process.

Has the Conference/District been involved? Yes. Both leaders have been updated from time to time. We will plan a meeting with them in the near future.

Can we use our denomination's curriculum? Yes, but… The Alliance DOES NOT have a denominational curriculum. The Mennonite church does. We will use whatever curriculum teachers find most helpful. Of course we will always look at our denomination's material first, and use it as long as we sense it is best for the children.

Who will "own" the current building? The joined congregation will. We will not put the building in "trust" of either denomination. It will be/remain in trust of the new local church body.

Will we still plant more churches in Sioux Falls? Yes! Our vision at Mercy is to plant churches. We have already planted one cross-culturally. We will continue to do so as a merged church.

Perhaps that means we will plant an Alliance church and then a Mennonite church and rotate… Mercy is in process of starting another worship service venue that may become a satellite or daughter church at some point if it reaches viability.

What about land or future property purchases? Any property purchased using the resources and financial instruments of the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination is subject to a property reversion clause. If the church would decide to leave the C&MA, property and buildings would need to be negotiated for or in the worst case scenario, vacated. A "divorce" from either denomination after the merger would be messy.

If we desire to retain property via other means this would need to be discussed and negotiated at that time.

The Mennonite Church does not structure itself in the same way and conference church property is not subject to a corporate reversion clause. E.g. a Mennonite church can vote to leave a conference and there are no "trust" or property reversion issues.

IV. NEXT STEPS What will happen in the first year after a formal vote to merge?
We will merge the few overlapping structures right away:

1) We will bring together the Council and Vision Team of Both churches immediately.

2) We will merge the budgets immediately.

3) Christian Ed and Small Groups will plan together (this already is occurring to some extent).

4) We will develop a constitution and have a new leadership structure within the first year. The Alliance has a uniform constitution for local churches that could be adopted with bylaw modifications and editing or removing the property reversion clause.

5) We will continue to focus on outreach and discipleship.

What will the name be? That will need to be decided. We will in the short term use both names legally. Mercy Church of the Christian & Missionary Alliance AKA Good Shepherd Community Church.

There are many points to be made for the use of either existing name. Good Shepherd has changed their name 3 times.

Mercy Church picked the name based on the mission, vision and uniqueness of the name. (the only other "Mercy Church" that we know of the in USA is in California.) We could remove the denomination tag (on Mercy's legal name) or modify it to include Mennonite Church USA.

There are 2 other "Good Shepherd" churches in Sioux Falls and one homeless/feeding shelter with the name Good Shepherd in Sioux Falls).

Both names are very Biblical. Both speak to attributes of God.

How will we mark the merger? After a vote we would plan a big celebration, invite city leaders, denominational leaders, and most importantly people all over Sioux Falls.

Next year (2008) the Good Shepherd part of our church will be 50 years old and Mercy will be 3 years old. But in one sense we are starting a new phase. It could be a 50 + 3 Anniversary?!

Or just a tearing down walls celebration focused on the power of the Spirit to create and renew. Whatever we do it will be honoring the past while reaching forward to the future-and will focus on reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!