And the Church Marches On

 

Massey's front door

I love to dig into local church histories.

Let’s back up to the year 2001 at Massey’s Chapel. I hadn’t even gone to divinity school yet. The church was small, and the Massey descendants were still the controlling family. Massey’s Chapel shared a pastor with Parkwood UMC, although the churches were not formally yoked on a charge together. He left one of his sermons behind, which I found when we cleaned out the fellowship hall in preparation for a renovation in 2021.

The sermon was intended to be prophetic, meaning the pastor was telling Massey’s Chapel in no uncertain terms what was going to happen to the church. It was a good sermon, and I found myself moved while reading it although nothing about it ultimately came to pass.

The printed sermon was saved because it became part of a church meeting soon afterwards. I found the notes from that meeting, too.

In the sermon, the pastor told the congregation: You can’t go on like this! You’re too small and pay too little to have your own pastor. When I depart from this church (soon!), with the way things currently exist, you have no future. There is not another part-time church close enough to form a two-point charge with Massey’s (The church had a history of being part of a multi-point charge). 

Parkwood was full time, and I guess the pastor served both churches out of the goodness of his heart? Hmmm. He served Massey’s and Parkwood together for at least two years. He followed a one-and-done pastor, who himself followed a half-year interim pastor, who followed a pastor who was appointed to Massey’s for nine years. They were all ordained elders except possibly the interim. The pastor in 2001 might have been appointed to Massey’s to give them some stability. But I was unclear – who disliked the Parkwood-Massey’s arrangement? The pastor? The churches? Everyone?

It was a disturbing sermon. I’m not sure what he was advocating for them to do. Pay more? Beg Parkwood to continue sharing a pastor? Accept a licensed local pastor? Possibly he wasn’t advocating anything, just telling them how he viewed the situation.

He reminded them that back in the early 1930s, Massey’s Chapel had talked with great excitement about expanding the little sanctuary. Visitors were coming, people were joining, and things were crowded. For an unknown reason, the church never followed through, and attendance and membership collapsed. The sanctuary that exists today (2001 and 2023) was/is essentially what existed in 1930. The implication was that Massey’s was stuck in the past.

At a special charge conference several weeks after the sermon, apparently the D.S. told Massey’s Chapel she could give them a retired elder to serve part time, which they instantly accepted – at very low pay. Embarrassing low pay, the current pastor chided them. Can’t you come up with $175 to make it an even amount? No. But the retired elder took it and stayed eight years.

He was Massey’s pastor when I came to know him through the pastors’ breakfast when I was a new pastor. He keeps in touch, wants to receive the newsletter, and clearly still loves Massey’s Chapel although almost everyone he knew is gone.

By God’s grace, Massey’s Chapel continued through 2001, through another rapid turnover of pastors (2009-2012), through a pandemic, and into 2023 and beyond.