ANNANDALE, Va. — Each year thousands of churches sense they could better fulfill their God-given mission together than separately and explore new ways to join forces for the advancement of God’s kingdom.
That’s the story of United Baptist Church in Annandale, Va., which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary — the result of the consolidation of First Baptist Church of Annandale and Boulevard Baptist Church in nearby Falls Church.
Wayne Yawn, pastor of First Baptist since 1991, and Gerald Young, pastor of Boulevard Baptist since 1989, became co-pastors of the new congregation, which held its first service on April 27, 2003, in what had been the facilities of First Baptist.
Wayne Yawn (left) and Gerald Young cut a cake honoring the 10th anniversary of their church.
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Both pastors recently reflected with the Herald on the past 10 years — starting with their insight on serving as co-pastors of one congregation in suburban Washington.
“For me it has provided a built-in relationship to stimulate and challenge my thinking,” said Young. “Preaching every other week has allowed for much more time to think about and prepare sermons, which I think is a great benefit to the congregation.
“We decided early on that rather than divide up pastoral responsibilities in a formal way, we would allow our gifts and passions to work that out in the course of time,” he added. “That has indeed happened and allows both of us to invest most of our time and energy in those areas of ministry for which we have both gifts and passion.”
Young acknowledges that there are people in the congregation who question the need for two pastors.
“But this is who we are. Both of us are committed to this process and do not feel any leading of the Spirit in any other direction,” he said.
“The expectations brought with congregants made the difference in whether they were satisfied with supporting or funding two pastors,” said Yawn. It also depended on whether members assumed that weekly offerings and the morphing of “brick and mortar” into funds for ministry were embraced, he added.
After consolidation the Boulevard Baptist facility was sold to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and is now home to a Hispanic congregation, said Young.
For United Baptist, being one congregation in one building has “freed us to emphasize our theological belief that the church really is people rather than either a building or an institution,” said Young. “The ministry done by the church is not done at our building or as an institution, but when church people live as Christ’s presence in their homes, jobs, schools and community responsibilities.”
“Our focus has been on empowering our people to be ministers in the course of their lives as opposed to doing ministry through some program at church,” said Young.
Shift in thinking
Yawn added that it’s not just empowering but trying to get church members to stop thinking of themselves as members and begin to see themselves as spiritual people.
“It is harder for us all to think of ourselves called to live as Jesus lived with everybody we encounter than I think it is to build a church membership,” Yawn said. “That we have been thoroughly submerged in the membership idea — forever — makes focusing on how we live with people daily in all venues not seem like being church. We know it isn’t true, but our long-term church patterns make it hard to change.”
Recent data indicates when two congregations become one, five years later the congregation is typically no larger than the total of the two pre-consolidation congregations. Young said this has been true for United Baptist Church.
“Both congregations were older congregations in terms of members’ ages, and we have lost scores of members to death over the past 10 years. We also lost a few families at the consolidation, although surprisingly few for such a radical change,” he said.
While Young admits he seldom does it, on a recent Sunday he looked out on the congregation and could identify approximately a third who were former Boulevard members, a third who were former First Baptist members and a third who had joined since the consolidation. He found that encouraging, he said.
For several years the new congregation tried to find suitable land or a building to purchase, but Young said that was difficult to find in fast-growing and affluent Fairfax County. About three years ago, the congregation made the decision to stay in its location and renovate the building. In doing so, however, Young said the church continues to be guided by its conviction of investing no more funds than necessary in bricks and mortar.
What advice would Yawn and Young offer pastors or congregations considering consolidation?
“I believe that it is an option that should be considered by many congregations today and that changing demographics and culture will make it an even more viable option in the future,” said Young. “The biggest key to me is to keep the whole process focused on the Kingdom of God. The basic question should be: ‘Will the Kingdom in this place be stronger going forward with a consolidated witness?’ It is about the Kingdom, not about individual congregations.”
“The fact that we have consolidated from two to one church is in some ways a temporary stop on the way to more and more of us embracing each one as not a member of a church, but the church, as some of us used to say it, ‘without walls,’” said Yawn. “But the walls of each of us thinking theologically that we are a church opening its doors everywhere to welcome people to enter a relationship — temporary or long-term — in which we both experience the fruit of the Spirit of God.”
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.