At Easter, two Wichita churches look for a rebirth

On the Tuesday before Easter, candles flickered in a Lenten wreath as the congregants took turns discussing the meaning of the cross.

Nancy Phipps, who led the Lenten study, remembers closing the doors of her previous church, Faith United Church of Christ. It was like a burial.

Yet she said she sees a hopeful future for the two remaining United Church of Christ denominations.

Like many mainline churches, Fairmount United Church of Christ and Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ have struggled to grow as members age and their children move away.

Still, leaders like Phipps say they’re optimistic for the future.

The Rev. Phil Hodson, pastor of both the churches, hopes they are moving toward their own resurrection and rebirth.

There’s always dormant life in a garden, Hodson said. Sometimes the plants look as if they’ve died, but they’re just preparing to bloom in another season.

Death and rebirth are an essential part of the Christian faith, Hodson said, something made even more poignant at Easter.

The churches are seeking a renewal by questioning past practices, sharing their resources and striving for innovation.

Fear of change played a role in causing her former church to close its doors, says Phipps, who is now one of the elected leaders at Fairmount.

“We have to sometimes step out on a limb, maybe have failures once in a while,” Phipps said. “If we try something new and we fail, that’s OK.”

Declining attendance

Like many churches, Fairmount and Pilgrim are trying to stem the tide of decline by embracing change while maintaining their core beliefs and values.

The churches brought Hodson on as pastor in September. Rather than having a pastor for each church, the two decided to share Hodson, saving money and allowing them to work more closely with each other.

On Sundays, Hodson preaches a service at 9:15 at Pilgrim, then drives 12 minutes to Fairmount for an 11:15 service. Pilgrim is at 6000 E. Harry, while Fairmount is at 1650 Fairmount Street, right at Wichita State's campus.

“It’s just how far do we want to dream?” said Phipps. “I think together we can dream really big.”

Both churches have rich histories in Wichita. Pilgrim was founded 67 years ago in an old farm house in a field. At first, there wasn’t much in the area, but Cessna and Beechcraft drew people to that part of town.

Fairmount was built in 1910 and dedicated in 1911. The church encompassed the older Mayflower Congregational Church that had been moved to the site in 1907. The church, with its asymmetrical towers, stained glass windows and steep cross-gabled roof, was the result of the founding of Fairmount College, now WSU.

Now, Sunday attendance is usually around 40 to 45 people at Pilgrim and about 30 at Fairmount.

Many of the congregants are older, Hodson said. In the past, people usually remained in the church their parents attended. Now, children often move away, leaving churches with an older population and declining attendance.

It’s a problem facing many churches, particularly those in mainline Protestant denominations.

Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study reported that 14.7 percent of U.S. adults were affiliated with mainline Protestant denominations, down from 18.1 percent in 2007.

The total number of mainline Protestant adults had decreased by roughly 5 million in that time.

Pew reported that younger Americans were “significantly less likely to identify with mainline denominations.”

At one point in time, mainline denominations represented the majority of Christians in the United States.

In 2017, a perspective in The Washington Post pointed out that “if it doesn’t stem its decline, mainline Protestantism has just 23 Easters left.”

Into the future

Hodson is planning for many more Easters than that.

A church planter by training, Hodson has both started and consolidated churches. This task is different, since he’s trying to reinvigorate two churches.

“In a world that seems to be starving for hope, I believe we can offer that through bringing people into dialogue, bringing disparate groups to work together, sharing ideas and learning from one another and hopefully grow everybody as a result,” Hodson said.

Change doesn’t always come easy.

Phipps said many people were shocked when Hodson gave a trial sermon before being selected as pastor. He didn’t wear a robe. He didn’t even wear a suit. Instead, he wore blue jeans and a long sleeved shirt, and he walked back and forth while giving the sermon.

“People said, ‘This has got to stop,’” Phipps said.

Yet when church members voted, the majority wanted Hodson as pastor.

Joe Perkins, the elected leader for Pilgrim, said stagnation is one of the greatest threats to a church. When people say that something can’t be done, his job is to respond with a “why not?”

There have been innovations along the way. When Pilgrim was told it couldn’t purchase food from the Kansas Food Bank for its pantry without opening another day each month, the church teamed up with Fairmount. Now each church offers a food pantry once a month, meeting the food bank’s requirements.

Not only do the churches share a pastor, but they also brought their staff together under one roof.

By moving their staff, Pilgrim was able to free up its second meeting space, which they now rent out to other churches.

A few years ago, that wouldn't have been thought possible, Perkins said.

Pilgrim is constructing a new playground, hoping to draw younger families. The church is also implementing more electronics, bringing a visual element to the services.

Members of both churches joined together for the Lenten study, enriching discussion by adding more voices.

The churches are still in the early stages of development, Hodson said. Other ideas under consideration include a dinner church model, where congregants meet in the evening around a table, offering a Friday night service, changing up the music and offering online meetings.

Ultimately, they want to keep both churches open. To close either Fairmount or Pilgrim and consolidate into the other would be a loss, Hodson says.

They describe the partnership between the churches as like a marriage: The relationship is new and different, but the two parties maintain their old identities.

“How can we blend our best attributes and retain enough of a unique voice among each that will carry our story into the future?” Hodson said.

This story was originally published March 30, 2018 at 11:59 AM with the headline "At Easter, two Wichita churches look for a rebirth."