Churches merge congregations to better serve south Wichita

The way pastors Jay Lewis and Dioane Gates saw it, Sunday was the wedding day.

After nearly a year of dating and courtship, their two churches – South City Southern Baptist and Mending Place – merged into one, called Mending Place at South City, 1513 Galena.

Both had things the other needed.

South City Southern Baptist had an aging white congregation with 16 to 20 members, a big church building and 8 acres to work with.

Mending Place had 125 young multiracial members, but no building.

“The attempt is common, but success isn’t,” Gates, who was pastor at Mending Place, said Thursday afternoon. “There are always people trying to do it, but their vision and focus aren’t in the right place or they disregard the history and disagree on the futures they believe possible. Pastor Jay and the folks here have been very welcoming, and we have been really well received.”

The heyday of most mainstream congregations in Wichita was from the 1950s through the 1970s.

In recent years, some churches have struggled against shifting trends and populations.

A Pew Research Center study in 2010 showed that 25 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 were not affiliated with a church. That compares with 10 to 15 percent of baby boomers who said they were not affiliated with a church.

On Sunday, Lewis said the South City Southern Baptist Church had struggled as the population surrounding the church shifted from predominantly white to multiracial and multicultural.

The majority of the South City church congregation – in its heyday with 150 members – had either moved to other churches or had died. Lewis took over as the church’s pastor in April.

Tim Miller, religion professor at the University of Kansas, said while it may be somewhat common for some churches to merge, it is unique for two churches with such diverse backgrounds.

“Mainline churches have been losing membership for several decades, while evangelical churches have enjoyed a great growth spurt,” Miller said. “But churches are always looking for new audiences, trying to find a younger constituency.”

The most common form of mergers are within the same or similar denominations, said Jay Price, Wichita State University history department chairman.

Six decades ago, the South City Southern Baptist Church was founded by young white families living in the suburbs.

When Lewis became the pastor last year, he saw some changes were coming.

“We had a pretty good nest egg, and we could have kept going for awhile, but at the same time, we weren’t making any progress, and the future was bleak,” he said. “The majority of our members – the youngest were in their 70s and 80s. We had a few here that were in their 50s, but they were just tired.

“The church had gone through the difficulties of people leaving – most church congregations want a full service with amenities for children. Our church didn’t have anything to offer.”

But the Mending Place did. The congregation had been meeting in recreation centers, an apartment complex and on Saturday nights – wherever they could find a place to hold services, Gates said.

Lewis also was a chaplain at the Sedgwick County Jail. Gates was a Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Deputy in addition to his pastoral duties at Mending Place, which was only 6 years old. The two will be co-pastors at the new church, with Gates taking the lead.

They met at an urban church association meeting.

“I won’t say it was love at first sight, but God did put something in my heart and said this guy is special, pay attention to him,” Lewis told the congregation on Sunday.

A few nights later, Lewis said, he awoke thinking God was encouraging him to talk with Gates about merging the churches.

They broke from the Southern Baptist denomination.

“We did that,” Lewis said. “That part would have happened eventually. But we felt like we wanted to get rid of any obstacles people might have to a church. We want to do a church like you see in the Bible. Sometimes denominational structures just set up roadblocks for people. Some of the stands that Southern Baptists have taken nationally, like for instance back in the 1990s, they boycotted Disney because of Disney’s stand on domestic partners. ... In my mind, I didn’t see that as good strategy.

“With denominations in general, people often know more about what we are against than what we are for. We wanted to remove that. Our theology and doctrine wouldn’t be an issue for any Southern Baptist Church or Pentecostal; we still have pretty conservative theology. But we feel all people are worthy of love. We want to be sure and reach out to them and let God do the changing.”

Both pastors have a vision of a multicultural, multiracial, multigenerational church. And on Sunday, the parking lot was full, as were the pews.

“We believe the community is worth it,” Gates said. “We believe this is an underserviced community. We want to see broken things fixed, broken people fixed.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Churches merge congregations to better serve south Wichita."