| 2 min | by Doug Marrin |
Dexter United Methodist Church is considering the adoption of Calvary United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor. In a church-wide meeting held via Zoom, Thursday, May 7, 2020, the church’s administrative council laid out the opportunity to members to get their feedback.
Calvary UMC has seen their congregation dwindle over recent years to the point where the handful of members still attending decided last fall to end services and programming at the end of the current school year. This was announced to the Michigan Annual Conference, the governing body for the denomination in Michigan.
“One of the things that the Conference considers rather than just giving the building and property back to the Board of Trustees for the Michigan Annual Conference is to look at, see if there is a vital church nearby that would consider adopting it perhaps as a second campus, perhaps as a ministry outpost,” said DUMC Senior Pastor Dr. Matt Hook in the Zoom meeting. “It’s a real honor and a tribute to the faithfulness of you, the congregation.”
The Michigan Annual Conference then chose to explore a growing practice for such situations – church adoption. The idea involves a church with dwindling engagement and resources being “adopted” by another church that has experienced vitality and growth.
Just a 15-minute drive from Calvary UMC is Dexter United Methodist Church (DUMC), a body that has experienced sustained growth in membership and expansion in ministerial services for the past dozen years. Most notably, the church recently completed a massive construction project to its campus on Huron River Dr. which included among other things a new commercial kitchen, expanded third space amenities, and Newkirk Commons – a large, multi-use community room used for recreational activities, dinners, and other social gatherings. The Annual Conference approached the church to see if they might have any interest in bringing their spiritual DNA to western Ann Arbor at Calvary UMC, located at the corner of Miller Rd. and Newport.
In the meeting, Pastor Hook told members that in regard to the church’s mission, he has an “excitement of having a larger presence on the west side of Ann Arbor and the opportunity to make disciples in a new way and about how this is working as a catalyst thinking about how we do ministry, how we make disciples, how we share Christ, how we’re in missions.”
In the agreement, the Calvary property, which is debt-free and includes a parsonage, would be deeded over to DUMC. In spite of how attractive this may at first appear, the church is proceeding with caution. They have spent the past three months in due diligence to assess the condition of the structures, costs of operating the facilities, legalities, and what financial impact this may have on their existing budget.
During the meeting, church administrators presented the results of their due diligence. The big take away is that DUMC would need to make an approximately $40,000 investment in the parsonage to update and get it “rentable.” After that, it is projected that Calvary UMC campus operating costs would be covered by renting out the house for a balanced budget for the new property.
If DUMC chooses to proceed, the church would take months to plan and prepare before reopening the doors. DUMC would “launch a visioning team that would receive training in multi-site church, and coaching in fresh expressions of ministry for the 21st century,” said Pastor Matt Hook in a church-wide email. The church expects to take 18-24 months to prepare should they move ahead with the adoption.
While DUMC is conducting meetings to garner member feedback, the decision whether or not to adopt Calvary UMC will not be put up to a church vote. The denomination’s bylaws dictate such a decision is to be made by the Administrative Council. The decision is set to be made on Monday, May 19, in a special meeting presided over by the District Superintendent.
