Photo by Erica Techo.
Morningstar UMC and New Heights United Methodist are both holding services at Morningstar’s campus on County Road 11.
On June 5, Morningstar United Methodist Church and New Heights United Methodist Church were treated with baby shower, marriage and wedding cakes.
That Sunday was the first day both congregations worshipped in the same building. Although an original welcome cake was ordered, Morningstar Pastor Mark Puckett said the event-specific cakes the churches got instead worked out even better.
“What I thought was fitting was we’re giving birth to a new ministry idea; we’re hoping for a new marriage, and we’re in the courtship phase of this,” Puckett said.
Puckett and New Heights Pastor Keith Beatty first came together after New Heights’ lease at Forest Oaks Elementary was coming to an end. New Heights was 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.
Puckett said he felt drawn to a partnership with New Heights because when he was a church planter, his church encountered leasing issues and could not find another church to welcome them. At that time, he said he told God that he would assist anyone in a similar situation if he had the chance.
“One of the things that I shared with Keith was you’re not going to have to worry about a place to worship,” he said. “I don’t know how the details are going to work out, but you’re not going to have to worry about that.”
Bringing two congregations together strengthens 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.”
Both churches also have a vision of reaching out to the community and welcoming new members. If someone moves to Shelby County, they might worry about encountering a “family church” dynamic where they will not fit in, Puckett said.
“It’s very hard for someone who moves here to fit into a family church dynamic, and Shelby County has a lot of those,” he said. “We’re a different option for people who don’t want that.”
The two churches coming together will allow for a ministry that is “large enough to make things happen, small enough that you’ve still got that family vibe,” Beatty said, and they said they hope to welcome individuals who have not found a church.
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 attend both services.
“A lot of that is going to be time preference for the family, too,” Puckett said.
The churches’ merger is a special situation, because both congregations are healthy, he said.
“In most merger scenarios, you either have one very strong church and the other church is struggling or close to death, and this is an entirely different scenario in that both churches are vital and have life,” Beatty said. “It’s the circumstances that brought us together, so this is a very unique and different concept.”
Both congregations have also been open to the merger, Puckett and Beatty said, and some of the youngest congregation members already have come together through joint Vacation Bible School classes and projects during Serve Week. The first Sunday after Labor Day, the Beatty said the churches hope to “ramp up” community involvement and merge small groups.
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.
