This is the first in a series of stories highlighting some of the ways God is at work in and through Calvary United Methodist Church and its many partner churches to transform the city of York, Pa.
Written by Sandii Peiffer, edited by Pamela Brossman
Five years ago, a revolution began in York, Pa., but it has nothing to do with baseball. In 2014, Rev. Dr. B. Michael “Mike” Brossman was appointed to serve Calvary UMC to infuse new life, renewed vision, and fresh energy into a dwindling congregation and underutilized church facility.
Located west of downtown York near the York Fairgrounds, Calvary lies in a culturally and economically diverse neighborhood. The community demographics are one-third black, one-third white, one-third Latino, and 1% other. “To be an all-white congregation in our community wasn’t working,” said Brossman.
Prior to Brossman’s arrival, the church had three worship services and Christian education on Sunday mornings and a service/community meal and Alcoholics Anonymous meeting during the week. “When Pastor Mike arrived, things started happening,” said church sexton Mike Gurtizen.
From less than 100 worshipers five years ago to a congregation of nearly 350 people; from three worship services to five, including a bilingual Spanish/English service; from two days of facility usage a week to seven, by more than 20 church and community groups—Calvary’s growth is reflected not only in numbers, but also in service, ministry, missions, and outreach. And there is a whole lot more going on in the community too.
Leadership Development
With a doctorate in Church Leadership Excellence and a church planter by nature, Brossman has been a “turnaround guy” for most of his 28 years of ordained ministry.When he arrived at Calvary, there were a lot of issues to process and understand and a lot of healing that needed to happen. Listening intentionally and caring were key. “The saying ‘people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’ really is true,” Brossman said.
Immediately, he started using “us” or team language. The church leadership assessed where they were so they could find out how to move forward, discovering a vision that they could test and tweak together.
“Our goal is to reach our potential as a leadership church. We had great leaders with great hearts and great willingness—it was just a matter of tapping into that by talking, healing, affirming, and being patient with each other,” said Brossman.
“We surround ourselves with people who disagree with us, who balance us, whose strengths are our weaknesses or vice versa, so we have to work together. Together we’ll make more of a difference than any one of us can on our own.”
“We pray that God will grow our impact, influence, and territory, and we practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, worship, Bible Study, and memorization. Then, led by the Holy Spirit, we present all ideas for mission and ministry and look for where God is nudging us.”
Brossman also encourages leaders to nurture a “Timothy”—a person they can mentor to carry on the legacy of leadership, ministry, and service.
A Strategy for Growth
“We can’t do what God calls us to do if we stay the same; we have to grow,” said Brossman. “We follow a pattern: Life involves change and always brings conflict which exposes our fears. Fears properly dealt with give us the breakthrough we are looking for.”Part of Calvary’s growth resulted from a merger with St Paul’s UMC in 2015. Then, Otterbein and Asbury UMCs merged in 2018, and some of those members came to Calvary, including First Spanish, who had been using the Otterbein building. Calvary hired pastoral couple Josué Marrero and Vivien Rodriguez to start and lead Genesis, a new Spanish/English congregation. The couple are originally from Puerto Rico.
Sunday school, Bible study, fellowship, fundraising, and mission-oriented groups within the church have grown, as have the connections with surrounding churches and the community.
Expanding the Territory
Three years ago, Calvary started reaching out to community leaders and formed Hope Church Leadership Network. The network has grown to more than 200 community organizations that help the under-served in York. They meet monthly at Calvary.Many community organizations were invited to use Calvary UMC for their meetings and programs.
Lenten and Advent services are shared with neighboring St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. “The advantage of ecumenism is that each church gets closer to finding their own identity,” said Calvary’s Associate Pastor Tanya Brubaker.
Recently, Calvary, Grace, and Asbury UMCs began holding Courageous Leadership Conversations, sharing about the unique things happening at their locations and focusing on four topics: youth, marketing, the Latino community, and vacation Bible school. What would it look like for the three congregations to work together on those four things, to pool and share resources and not duplicate efforts?
“28 years in and I’m full speed ahead,” said Brossman. Physical discipline and spiritual discipline are the same thing for him—he’s in shape. “I’m excited about what’s going on and excited about the leaders I work with and those I meet in the other congregations and in the community.”
To be continued...
