One long-standing partnership between a big congregation and a smaller one is the local mission partnership between Second Church in Indianapolis — a suburban church that stands more than 4,000 strong — and Westminster Church, an inner-city congregation that’s dropped to just 22 active members.
The partnership goes back to 1980, when Catholic, Baptist, and Presbyterian congregations in the neighborhood — a low-income area just east of downtown — decided to hold Vacation Bible School together. That led next to the idea of creating a summer-long program for area children, “a safe place to be,” said Donna Studevent, a member of Westminster since 1982. She is an educator who trains substitute teachers and now is Westminster’s clerk of session and commissioned lay pastor.
As things developed, the Catholics and Baptists dropped out, but Second Church jumped in. The program grew into what’s now known as Westminster Neighborhood Ministries. It has become a ministry of Whitewater Valley Presbytery as Westminster no longer could sustain a full-time pastor and has given up the deed to its property.
But the partnership — the collaboration — between Second and Westminster continues. Seminary graduates serving internships at Second Church, known as the Lake Fellows, preach at Westminster and provide pastoral leadership.
“I think it’s been beneficial to both,” Studevent said. “I think it has opened our eyes to the need for so-called suburbanites to become involved in mission. Mission is right here before our eyes. We don’t have to go very far to find the needs of the people.”
To be successful, partnerships between big and small churches need to be based on a relationship that grows over time and recognizes the contributions each can make, said Phil Tom, a former pastor at Westminster Church and now the associate for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s small church and community ministry office.
What doesn’t work, he said, is if the big church says, in effect, “we have the money and therefore you do what we want,” or if “the small church is treated like it’s not a successful church because it’s not growing” or is told “You’re the church through which we do our good deeds.”
Often, he said, larger churches will say they want to come and help — are looking for a project.
He has responded, “Why don’t you come visit with the families” from the neighborhood — get to know them. The suburban churches typically say, “No, we want to do something. We want to paint something” or build something.
But Tom persists, saying “Why don’t you come meet some of the members of our church, get to know us and we’ll get to know you. Get to know the people from the housing projects, see them as people — not just the receivers of your good deeds.”
That dynamic is an issue across the church, Tom said — from short-term mission trips in the Katrina clean-up zone to efforts of more affluent suburban churches to work in inner cities.
Sometimes the small church causes problems too, saying to the big one, “We have a boiler that needs fixing,” or asking for other financial assistance. But that “buys into the mentality that you see yourselves as a community of needs, rather than a community with resources and assets” to give, Tom said. “It really requires leadership on both parts, large and small, to have a larger vision. … And it’s got to be long-term.”
The relationship between Second and Westminster has had its growing pains, but “it’s not a one-sided relationship,” Studevent said. “We’ve been in this jointly from the very beginning,” and now the leadership has shifted to the presbytery.
The neighborhood ministry program has expanded to include a food pantry, an after-school program, legal assistance, and a Christmas basket ministry. A preschool and Mothers Day Out program are under development, as well as an English as a Second Language program to help Hispanic immigrants learn to speak English, Studevent said..
The neighborhood is changing too. Some houses are being renovated, others are boarded up and vacant.
Westminster congregation, while struggling, is still afloat. People meet weekly for Bible study, care for one another, and “we celebrate all the time,” despite the difficulties, Studevent said.
And over the years, the people from the two churches have come to see their work together not as “the wealthy people coming to the poor people,” but as “joint ministry as Christians,” Studevent said. “It’s opened their eyes, it’s opened our eyes.”
For the Westminster congregation, the changes have been painful. “One of the saddest days I’ve ever had,” Studevent said, “was having to sign the deed over to the presbytery.”
But this tiny, faithful congregation continues to worship and to pray and to try to serve the community around it.
Studevent thinks Westminster has survived so far because “we’re called to be there” and “God has a unique purpose for us in that neighborhood.”
She says she’s optimistic about what might come next.
