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Unity in Christ
By LINDA M. LINONIS
YOUNGSTOWN
Demonstrating unity in Christ, four United Methodist churches will celebrate a joint Christmas Eve service.
Trinity United Methodist Church, 30 W. Front St., will host the service at 6 p.m. Thursday. Participating will be congregations from Centenary, Mahoning and Richard Brown United Methodist churches. The Rev. Jerry Krueger is pastor of Trinity and Richard Brown, and Pastor Dawan Buie leads Centenary and Mahoning.
Pastor Buie said when Mahoning UMC sold its building a couple of years ago, it looked for another worship site and eventually settled at Centenary. Centenary services are at 9 a.m. Sundays and Mahoning, 11:15 a.m.
“We overlap in some cases,” Pastor Buie said of attendance, adding the choirs also intermingle.
Pastor Krueger, who has experience leading multiple congregations, has a joint Bible study with Richard Brown and Trinity members. Sunday services at Trinity are at 11 a.m. and Richard Brown, 9 a.m.
The situation led to the idea of a combined Christmas service. “Sharing the service brings together the faith community,” Pastor Krueger said. He added since the congregations have gathered for other joint services and activities, “this isn’t like going to a strange house.”
He said though the churches remain separate entities, the joint activities make them “more cohesive.” “Working together, we’ll figure out what to do,” Pastor Krueger said, acknowledging that as a main-line denomination, the congregations’ numbers have been in flux.
Trinity was chosen as the worship site because of “its great space,” Pastor Krueger said. Last year, at another combined service with other churches, there were about 200 in attendance. He hopes for that number or more this year.
The theme of the service is “Carols, Candles and Communion.” The pastors said choirs of the churches are rehearsing individually and will unite Christmas Eve to form one group. Singers will arrive early to rehearse together. The choir will sing “Lovely Child, Holy Child.” The Silver Bridge Strings, a string quartet, also will play.
Among highlights of the candlelight service will be a procession with a church family with children who will light the Christ candle. Another feature will be the traditional singing of “Silent Night.”
“I hope participants see Christmas as a renewal ... a time to reset,” Pastor Krueger said. “It’s about hope ... people want to hear a message about that.”
He continued that world events heighten people’s fears about the future and safety. “It’s a critical time to take comfort in the message of hope that comes from faith and believing in Christ.”
Pastor Krueger will deliver the sermon on “Let’s Go Now” from Luke 2:1-20, which focuses on Jesus’ birth and the message of hope that the Savior brings. He said he wants to convey that “God works miracles and also works without miracles.”
Pastor Buie added, “God has ordinary and extraordinary ways.”
The pastors said the combined service will bring together a diverse congregation – in race, age groups and economic and social status. “This is what we envision in the body of Christ,” Pastor Krueger said.
“It’s Christ’s family of people ... from the quirky aunt to squealing children,” Pastor Buie said, adding the congregations are all “in the stream of Wesley.” (John Wesley, a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian, and his brother, Charles Wesley, were founders of the Methodist movement in the 18th century.) “We are one in Christ and part of the same family,” Pastor Buie said. “It doesn’t always have to be the same ... why can’t [worship] be different,” he said.
Pastor Krueger said he is optimistic about how the churches will work together. “When members see a young pastor, it brings vitality and new ideas,” he said. Pastor Buie earned a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J. He is taking advance courses in the Methodist tradition.