Kansas congregation, mission agency to share church building
6/3/1998 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn By Kathy Kruger Noble* WICHITA, Kan. (UMNS)- A covenant agreement between a United Methodist congregation and a mission agency in Kansas allows for sharing of church facilities to enhance the lives of both entities.
Hyde Park United Methodist Church and United Methodist Urban Ministry (UMUM), both of Wichita, have entered a covenant agreement, effective July 1. The agreement gives the congregation the assurance it can continue to worship in a familiar setting. The agency gains additional facilities from which to be in ministry.
UMUM is an operation of the Kansas West Annual (regional) Conference which connects local churches in a variety of collaborative efforts. Approved by the denomination to receive voluntary gifts through the Advance program, UMUM is one of the channels through which the church connects to the needs of the world.
On May 17, the active participants of the 160-member congregation voted 36-7 to deed its church buildings, land and parking lot to UMUM. In return, the agency will provide pastors for worship services each Sunday, pastoral care to members, and maintenance of the building which will be known as the Hyde Park United Methodist Family Center. The center will provide services to people living in the neighborhood.
Applauding the agreement, the Rev. Chuck Winkler, Wichita District superintendent, said, "The arrangement gives (Hyde Park members) some more time to exist as a congregation and to feel good about who they have been and who they are as a missional church."
"It is to their credit," Winkler continued, "that they are willing to give their real property to a mission agency of the church that hopefully can enhance ministry to the people of that community and to Wichita."
The future of Hyde Park church has been in question for more than a decade. The downtown neighborhood where the church is located has changed from residential to commercial and light industrial. Two other United Methodist congregations (Calvary and Asbury) relocated earlier as the number of people living in the area steadily decreased.
Pointing to the aging of the church members, the Rev. Chuck Hadley, co-pastor at Hyde Park, said he is often the youngest person at worship. Expressing excitement about he possibilities for future ministries in neighborhood, he said his first vision for a new direction at Hyde Park came when the church cooperated with the Kellogg School Neighborhood Association to sponsor a "Klothes Kloset" for needy families.
Exactly what form the ministry will take is yet to be determined, according to the Rev. Garry Winget, executive minister of UMUM. One possibility, he said, is child care. He will meet with representatives of the neighborhood association soon to begin discussing ministry possibilities.
The mission agency does not plan to relocate any of its ministries to the Hyde Park location. The church will house new ministries and part of the building may be used as office space for other non-profit agencies.
Winget and the Rev. Joe Cobb, coordinator of volunteers for UMUM, will be among those leading worship at Hyde Park beginning July 5.
The agreement states that Sunday School classes and fellowship groups will continue to use the space they presently occupy for as long as they wish to meet. A room is also to be designated for the church archives. Some of the financial assets will be used to print a final edition of the church's history.
For many years, Hyde Park was recognized as one of the leading congregations in the former Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church. The church was the site for many of that denomination's annual conference sessions. The EUB Church merged with the Methodist Church in 1968 to become the United Methodist Church.
Part of the UMUM staff's pastoral ministry, Winget explains, will be "helping Hyde Park to close, to ease people into another faith community."
The covenant agreement says that when the membership declines to 40, the district superintendent will follow the disciplinary provision for transferring the remaining members to other local churches. At that point it is believed that the remaining members will be in nursing homes or homebound. Hyde Park is expected to continue as a worship center for no more than three years.
According to the agreement, UMUM will receive the church operating account and the remodeling fund to pay church bills and for repairs to the building.
Five organizations will each receive 20 percent of the remaining funds: UMUM's Hyde Park Family Center; Horizon United Methodist Center in Arkansas City, Kan.; McCurdy Mission in Espanola, N.M.; Red Bird Mission in Beverly, Ky.; and United Methodist Youthville in Newton, Kan.
# # #
*Noble is associate director for communications for the Kansas West Conference and editor of Crossfire, the newspaper of the conference.
|
Back : News Archives 1998 Main
|
|
“We believe in God and in each other.”The people of The United Methodist Church
Still Have Questions?
If you have any questions Ask
InfoServ
Purchase a $20 buzzkill t-shirt and help save a life
Buy a t-shirt
|
Korean News