When Two Churches Become One

Tim Dubeau, Mideast Regional Pastor

Too many churches are struggling in our day.  Yet, by God’s providence, there are times when churches facing difficulties can become lifelines to one another.  This is exactly what happened in Stowe PA.

Established in 1886, St. Paul’s Church of Stowe became a conference member nineteen years ago. As time moved on, the church experienced lagging attendance and ministry challenges that grew ever deeper. Eventually they made some financial decisions that helped them continue for a few short years and allowed them to call a new full-time Pastor. Still, despite the Pastor’s best efforts, the decline persisted.  The thought came to him that the solution might be a merger between St. Paul’s and a neighboring church.

That church, Grace Covenant, was planted in 2014 as an independent body of believers meeting in a school. Two years ago they began to lease space in a Lutheran church just down the street from St. Paul’s. This lease gave Grace Covenant an adequate worship facility but any additional ministry space was unavailable.  In God’s sovereign plan, it turned out that St. Paul’s had a building in generally good condition with LOTS of space for new ministry that could accommodate Grace Covenants’ larger congregation. Could the two congregations merge under one roof in St. Paul’s building?

This was the beginning of a journey that would lead to the birth of Grace Renewal Church, a testament to the power of renewal in the face of adversity.  Several months of behind-the-scenes dialogue and prayer occurred between the Pastors of both churches and the CCCC transition team.  In early June Transition team members introduced to each congregation the proposed terms of the merger for their prayer and consideration.  After two weeks, a Q&A session was conducted at a joint worship service with the actual vote scheduled for the following week. The next week, after introducing a few minor revisions to the merger proposal, the final votes in each church were unanimous whereupon the two church bodies united as one.

While such a merger signals new life, it also marks the loss of identities that may not be quite the same again for either church body.  Even so, the benefits derived from this rebirth far outweigh what was lacking in both churches – and now, by God’s grace, Grace Renewal Church is larger, stronger and better prepared to emerge as a powerful witness for the sake of Christ throughout Stowe and beyond.  Please continue to lift them in your prayers as they work out all the details.