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Calvary, West Side Baptist use merger approach to advantage
By LINDA M. LINONIS
YOUNGSTOWN
The congregations of Calvary Baptist Church, 1463 Shields Road, Boardman, and West Side Baptist Church, 304 Matta Ave., united for a worship service March 1, 2009, after voting to merge.
The congregations took an innovative approach. They use Calvary as the worship site, and the Baptist church is now West Side Community Center. Richard Scarsella of Sacred Places Dialogue said turning the church into a community center is a good example of re-inventing a church.
Ask Bridget Cramer, center director, how it’s working out, and the answer is genuine enthusiasm. “The merger was a good thing, though people were nervous at first,” she said. “We accepted one another’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Most of all, the arrangement is making a difference in the lives of the church members and children who frequent the center. “They’re our future," Cramer said of the youth. “If the kids do better, the schools do better — and then the community does better overall.”
The Girls of Joy, third- through sixth-graders, meet from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursdays for a social time, meal and craft project.
“We enter items in the Canfield Fair,” Cramer said.
The group attracts about 18 participants.
Boys of Hope, also third- through sixth-graders, meets from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays, and among its activities are robotics and field trips. The Rev. David Stone leads the group.
Leisure Timers for senior citizens gets together from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays for fellowship, devotions, activities and a meal. A women’s Bible study is from 7 to 9 pm. Sundays.
Teen night is from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Fridays for 14- to 18-year-olds. Jeremy Cramer, a junior at Youngstown State University, leads the group. Participants can get homework help and work on science-fair projects. The center has a computer lab funded by a grant.
These activities are in place, Bridget Cramer said, and there are plans for a more extensive after-school program next fall to serve students from McGuffey School, which is almost next door. Retired teachers already have volunteered to help. The center also has food and clothes pantries.
Carl Cramer, who is married to Bridget Cramer, is associate pastor at Calvary and children’s ministry pastor. He and Burl Jernigan, senior pastor at Calvary, had a conversation that eventually led to a merger committee and the actual process.
“We saw we could do good things together rather than separately with our resources,” Pastor Cramer said at the time of merger.
“This isn’t about our two churches. It’s about God’s vision,” Pastor Cramer said.
He said churches sometimes inadvertently build walls and keep people out. The community center is a way to invite people in, and in a casual, no-pressure atmosphere, the pastor said.
Pastor Cramer said the community center is already building partnerships with McGuffey School, Neighborhood Ministries and other organizations all with the goal to help the community and its residents.
In another instance, the Rev. Kelly Marshall, rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Boardman, said St. James has welcomed members of St. Rocco Episcopal Church in Youngstown, which closed about three years ago, and St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Canfield, which closed in 2009. There was no merger of the churches, but some items from St. Rocco have found a new home at St. James.
Father Marshall said the historic St. Rocco statue, carried in outdoor procession, is in a shrine at St. James.
“It’s about preserving the heritage,” Father Marshall said, adding that people are happy to see something familiar in a new place. “New traditions have added to our worship and spiritual lives.”
He said St. James also celebrates the Feast Day of St. Rocco, Aug. 16, with a cavatelli dinner. Father Marshall said St. Andrew’s Feast Day on Nov. 30 will be celebrated, and St. James has communion silver from St. Andrew.
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