Key points:
- A merger of two United Methodist congregations in North Carolina is resulting in help for other churches in the area.
- Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church and Burkhead United Methodist Church have joined forces to make one strong church out of two with uncertain futures.
- The new church, Sherwood Forest United Methodist Church, is granting some of the money from the sale of its old building to two other United Methodist churches in the area.
In a time of shrinking congregations and consolidation, three churches in North Carolina found a way to make needed changes benefit them all.
It began with a tricky position for Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, which had about 35 people worshipping on a typical Sunday.
“We were functioning very well, but we were just aging,” Nancy Kelly said. She and her husband, Steve, were longtime members.
“We had some younger members, and they were dedicated,” she added. “We had the mission work going on. We were meeting our financial obligations, but we could just tell that it would not last.”
It turned out another Winston-Salem United Methodist congregation, Burkhead United Methodist Church, was in a similar position.
The Kellys were part of a singing group, The Joy Singers, along with a couple from Burkhead.
According to Steve Kelly, “Nancy and I were riding, and we passed by Burkhead and thought to ourselves, ‘I wonder how they’re doing?’”
After getting the scoop on Burkhead from their fellow Joy Singers, Steve Kelly suggested to the Rev. Ben Sloan, Wesley Memorial’s pastor, that the church merge with Burkhead.
Sloan had been at Wesley Memorial about 18 months at that point, and had come to agree with the Kellys that something had to change if the church was going to survive long term.
“One of the big things was that our building was larger than the congregation needed, and so we were spending a lot of resources maintaining a large building,” Sloan said. “I felt like potentially, if we downsized and purchased a smaller building, that we could use less resources and invest more in new staffing to try and turn things around for the church.”
When talks began, it became clear to both sides that a merger was the way to go.
“It became immediately apparent that it was just a really incredible, providential kind of fit between the two congregations,” Sloan said.
It was decided that Wesley would sell its building and throw in with the Burkhead congregation. Sloan would pastor the new entity, Sherwood Forest United Methodist Church.
In another fortunate coincidence, Burkhead’s pastor — the Rev. Julie O’Neal — wanted to retire.
“That provided some balance,” Sloan pointed out. “Wesley was giving up their building, which is a big sacrifice. But they kept continuity in terms of pastoral leadership.”
This is where Christ Church Winston‑Salem, an Anglican Church in North America congregation, gets involved. That congregation had rented space to worship in the Wesley building in the past, but had been turned down when they asked to buy it outright.
Now, it seemed like a perfect situation. The Anglican church bought Wesley Memorial’s building for $2.75 million.
“That made it more palatable for Wesley Memorial people that the building wasn’t going to get torn down and turned into a strip mall or office buildings or something like that,” Sloan said.
The next question was what to do with the nearly $3 million Sherwood Forest would get for selling to the Anglican congregation.
Sloan felt that in addition to adding staff, it was appropriate to spread some of the wealth to neighbors who could use a helping hand.
“We’ve used some of that money on replacing the (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) here in our building,” Sloan said. “We’ve got some more creative ideas, like we’re going to turn one of the hallways into an art gallery that we can invite local schools to share their student artwork to maybe attract some families.”
Then it was time to discuss helping neighbor churches.
“The goal was not to just give to a United Methodist congregation in need, but particularly to a minority United Methodist congregation in need,” Sloan said.
“Redlining property values has a relationship to racial history here in the United States. I think that we, as a United Methodist and an overwhelmingly white church, have a responsibility to try and rectify some of those historic injustices.”
The Sherwood Forest congregation voted to give grants to Celia Phelps United Methodist Church in Greensboro ($50,000) and Marvin United Methodist Church — Comunidad de Gracia in Winston-Salem ($100,000).
“It’s an amazing blessing to receive this kind of grant,” said the Rev. Ellis Carson, pastor of Celia Phelps. “I’m thankful for Sherwood Forest and other partners who came alongside us to help us rebuild our church.”
In August 2021, an errant air conditioner ignited a fire at Celia Phelps, destroying the sanctuary and damaging the fellowship hall.
“The fire for the congregation was extremely traumatic,” Carson said. “It’s over 100 years old, so generations of people have been worshipping here. The fire got people thinking about the weddings, the baptism, even the funerals that have happened in this place.
“And some of the older members were rightly concerned that … they might not be able to get back in the building before going to be with the Lord.”
Getting the facility up to snuff will cost more than $1 million, but the $50,000 from Sherwood Forest was a significant boost for the congregation, Carson said.
“We’ll probably have to borrow some money, but the money from (Sherwood Forest) significantly reduces what we’ll have to borrow to do the project,” he added.
At Marvin United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, also known as Comunidad de Gracia because it now has a mostly Hispanic membership, there is a long list of needs to upgrade the building.
“The building is an aging building,” said the Rev. Sonia Baca-Zuniga, pastor of Marvin. It requires constant maintenance … and we are straining financial resources.”
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Among the needs are an air conditioning upgrade, mold concerns, a leaky boiler, an updating of the bathrooms and new windows for the education building.
“We are so blessed by the extravagant act of generosity of Sherwood United Methodist Church,” Baca-Zuniga said. “Also, two weeks ago Sherwood Church installed a blessing box outside of our building and they are committed to stocking it.”
Sloan isn’t seeking accolades for his congregation.
“It’s not about lauding what we’re doing,” he insisted. “I’ve worked as an associate in a larger church where they have over a million-dollar budget. These are a big gift for a church of our size to give, but there are lots of churches that I feel like could do something similar.
“I would just really love to see what could happen if other churches were to give generously to our racial minority churches and to our smaller churches, where vital ministry is happening.”
Patterson is a reporter for UM News. Contact him at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
