By Sarah Henning
Lawrence, KS --A little more than two years ago, Indian Hills Church of God was on its last legs with every sign pointing toward a coming demise. It had been without a pastor for more than two years, its number of weekly worshippers had dwindled to the teens, and a lack of new blood left its children’s ministry with no children of which to speak. Something had to change, or the church would die.
“A lot of churches of an age as ours is, the original folks have died off, and it’s just kind of the cycle of an organization that after the first and second generation, you just kind of lose focus,” says Mary McLees, member for 35 years. “The newer folks, the younger folks, need to be reached in a different way.”
And reach them they did.
Today, Indian Hills Church of God has been reborn — as the thriving BridgePointe Community Church.
Weekly attendance has more than doubled, the children’s ministry has been restored, the building remodeled and services updated with modern concessions like video screens and sound boards.
The turnaround has been the brainchild of Pastor Dennis Carnahan, who was called to the church from Indian Creek Community Church in Olathe. What he saw in Indian Hills was a church able to flourish, if its congregation was willing to go through radical reforms.
“The church had gotten older and saw a decline, and they were basically ready to shut down,” Carnahan says. “And when they called me they said, ‘What do you think?’ and I said, ‘Well, I believe that things can be viable ... and if you’re willing to change and try some new things, I believe it can still work. But if you continue doing things the same way and try to expect different results, I think they say that’s the definition of insanity.’”
New presence
The church, around since 1931, wasn’t ready to go quietly into the night. It hired Carnahan, and he went straight to work, rebuilding the church, one modernizing block at a time.
Carnahan, who has skills as a contractor, and other church members redid the children’s space, adding a castle, perfect for attracting young families with a series of vacation Bible school events.
Marsha Pomes’ family has been attending for a year since bringing youngest daughter Jennifer, 9, to the church.
“Everybody is extremely friendly, and we just didn’t want to go anywhere else after the first time,” Pomes says. “It’s a real fun environment, and it’s fun for her. Getting a kid to go to church is sometimes a hassle, but she doesn’t seem to mind.”
Carnahan also added video screens, lights and a contemporary sound to services. He installed wireless Internet and put in a cafe, the Koinonia Cafe, which offers free coffee and music the first Friday of each month.
With each change, the congregation grew. New people, young and old, families and singles, began flocking to the building at 601 W. 29th Terrace.
Soon the church decided that a name change was in order — everything else had changed, so why not celebrate that with a new moniker?
“We’ve broken free from kind of a lot of the ways the church had been run in the past,” Carnahan says. “We just felt like it was time to sort of re-establish ourselves as a new presence in the community.”
After months of debate, the church was officially renamed Bridgepointe Community Church — seeking to underline the fact that it wanted to be a bridge to Jesus that everyone in Lawrence was welcome to use.
Changing of the guard
The church will reintroduce itself to the community with a reopening Sept. 21. But it will do so without some of the people who supported it during its lean years. In the process of gaining members, there was some attrition, Carnahan admits — growing pains to go with the church’s multi-pronged plan to stay afloat.
“For the most part, I’d say about 90 percent or better have had very favorable comments,” Carnahan says of the changes. “We did lose a couple of families. You know, some of the changes were just a little too much. And I just encouraged them, I said, ‘You know, it’s OK to feel that way. If you’re not happy here, perhaps they should try to find a place where that was a little bit more along the lines of what they’re used to or what they wanted.’”
But the longtime members still with the church are quick to say they believe that the changes are for the good of the church.
“I’ve been one of the people pushing for change,” McLees says. “I felt like it was time for us to revise things because what we were doing wasn’t working. The older folks had died off, and we weren’t getting new people in, and you just kind of have to (change). It’s the same message, but it’s just different packaging.”
McLees, 75, was tapped by Carnahan to help some of the older members with the transition, making sure they would still feel at home at a church that didn’t feel like the one they had come to love. She occasionally preaches during “unplugged” services and meets with those struggling with the church’s new identity. It is a rewarding scenario and one that couples well with the reward of seeing new families coming — and returning — week after week.
“I’m having the most fun I’ve ever had, really,” McLees says. “I didn’t think I was going to live this long, but I’m really having a good time working with all these changes, and it’s good to see the young people and kids coming in.”
Another longtime member, Steve Meseraull, agrees. As the church’s lead elder, he says it’s invigorating to see the church spring to life and is proud of his church’s will to survive. After all, it’s the people who make the church.
“The name doesn’t make a bit of difference, what you call it, it’s just what you have inside,” Meseraull says. “I mean, you could change the name on everything, but if the inside doesn’t change, it’s still the same. We’re changing the whole thing.”
Article courtesy of the Lawrence Journal World News. Originally published at: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/sep/06/change_inside_out/