Chelsea churches Morningstar and New Heights join forces
On Sunday, June 5, the congregations from Morningstar United Methodist Church and New Heights United Methodist Church worshipped in the same building for the first time.
Morningstar Pastor Mark Puckett and New Heights Pastor Keith Beatty first came together after New Heights’ lease at Forest Oaks Elementary was coming to an end. They were looking for a place to worship and hoping to partner with another church and gain momentum in Chelsea, Beatty said.
“Morningstar was very gracious, welcomed us, and given the similarity of age in our two congregations — both of our congregations are fairly young — so we have a similar vision, and both churches are able to reach out to our community as we worship God together,” he said.
Bringing two congregations together allows them to strengthen both churches and their ties with the community, Puckett said, and each church has brought its strengths to the partnership.
“The strengths they [New Heights] have is a very strong children’s ministry and youth ministry,” he said. “The beauty of that, being in the same location, is that our children are students that go to school together, they know each other, so it hasn’t been this huge ‘get to know you’ season.”
New Heights also has a great worship band for modern worship, which Puckett said Morningstar was in search of.
“Anytime you blend groups that have a unique set of skills, it is going to increase the quality of what you’re doing,” Puckett said. “To me, that’s one of the biggest benefits of what we are doing because talent and the ability of the team, so much hinges on the right amount of that, as to how successful you’re going to be.”
Morningstar continues to hold its worship service Sundays at 9 a.m., and New Heights worships at 11 a.m., but Beatty and Puckett said members of both congregations will attend both services.
“A lot of that is going to be time preference for the family, too,” Puckett said.
Both congregations have been open to the merger, Puckett and Beatty said, and some of the youngest congregation members have already come together through joint Vacation Bible School classes and projects during Serve Week. The first Sunday after labor day, the churches hope to “ramp up” community involvement and merge small groups, Beatty said. The goal is to get to a point where everyone says “our” rather than “us” and “them,” Puckett said.
“It is still two churches operating under one roof with the hope and expectation that within 24 to 36 months that we will be able to officially merge, although that process has already officially begun,” Beatty said.