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| Pastor Andy Ervin of Uriah UMC worked with Mt. Victory UMC, both in Gardners, Pa., to run VBS in June. |
By Sandii Peiffer
When it came time to plan the 2019 summer Vacation Bible School, Pastor Andy Ervin of Uriah United Methodist Church in Gardners, York District, struggled to find the number of volunteers he needed. So he started thinking outside the box.
Ervin suggested they team up with a sister church and do VBS together. They chose to partner with Mt. Victory UMC, a mile to their north.
Everybody who wanted to be part of the steering committee came together and the first thing they did was pray. “We prayed that the Lord would open our minds and hearts to this possibility,” said Ervin. After praying they started the conversation and it rolled along and took off.
Together, the two churches laid the foundations for the VBS program. It was a huge leap of faith because each church had their own way of doing things, so there were some logistics that had to be figured out. One of the churches didn’t have many children and hadn’t done VBS for awhile but they provided leadership and new volunteers.
First, they decided to host the VBS at Uriah UMC. The marketing materials emphasized the church partnership, including contact and location information for both churches, while steering participants to Uriah UMC for the program. “People said, ‘Wow, you’re doing this together. That’s going to be really cool.’”
The steering committee put together a budget that covered what they typically do and added a wish-list of what they would like to do, then both churches looked at how they could contribute and pooled their funds.
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| Pastor Tom Phillips of Mt. Victory UMC in Gardners, Pa., worked together with Uriah UMC to run VBS in June |
It wasn’t one church doing VBS and inviting another church to come along, but a real partnership to make something bigger and better, something that made people say, ‘Wow, there’s a whole different feel about this.’
The VBS was a week-long event in June with an energy level that had not been seen in previous years. About 35 kids participated. “The first night was really exciting and energizing,” recalled Ervin.
For their missions project they chose to support Cure International, a local Pennsylvania-based organization with global impact. As an incentive to raise funds, Mt. Victory came up with the idea that the kids who brought in the most money for the missions project could “sweeten” the pastors by dumping all kinds of ice cream toppings on them. The winning team raised over $300 of the more than $800 total. Ervin and Mt. Victory’s pastor, Tom Phillips, wore trash bags and put swimming goggles on and the kids poured on chocolate, caramel, and strawberry toppings with whipped cream. “I’ve done pies in the face and have taken one for the team many, many times over the years. This was really fun!” laughed Ervin. “The cool thing was seeing how the kids really got into this and the parents too.”
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| Pastors Andy Ervin (left) and Tom Phillips (center) and their churches, Uriah & Mt. Victory UMCs in Gardners, Pa., worked together to run VBS in June. The rewards were "sweet"! |
Sunday worship following VBS usually includes a recap and celebration of the event. What happens when two churches are involved? Mount Victory UMC talked it over and decided to worship at Uriah UMC so both congregations could celebrate together. “That brought an incredible energy,” said Ervin. “Our churches normally have 50-60 people each on Sunday mornings. We had over 130 for our combined worship, including new families from the community. It was a great witness to our community to see our churches working together.”
It was a shot-in-the-arm for both churches,” he said. “When churches invest in something together like this, it creates a sense of ownership. It wasn’t just something that we attended or consumed or benefited from. We were all a part of the mission. I think that’s very contagious.”
In the wake of this collaboration, the Gettysburg Cluster has been talking about doing some Wednesday night services in September that would involve combined fellowship and worship, and next spring, doing some Wednesday night services for Lent where each cluster church would host a Lenten service that would prepare for and lead up to Holy Week. As they do these projects together in intentional, strategic ways the blessing moves forward to the next gathering and people begin to feel more comfortable with each other. “Shouldn’t we feel comfortable to be together as the body of Christ?” asked Ervin rhetorically. “I think this fosters that kind of working relationship. It’s not about my turf vs. your turf. It’s not about my budget vs. your budget. It’s about us - small country churches seeing that there really is beauty in working together. It’s only going to bless our churches.”
Ervin’s tips for working with another church include having both churches come to the table with people that are there as leaders and as helpers. Gather people who understand or ‘get’ the event or mission. Although you might already have ways of doing things, be open and ready to do things differently, but don’t reinvent things entirely. Talk openly about logistics, finances, schedules, and marketing. It’s a partnership, so include all churches’ names, addresses, and contact information, and all pastors’ names. Show everyone that it’s two churches coming together, planning, promoting, and doing it. Talk about Safe Sanctuary protocols and make sure that both churches have copies of the volunteers’ background checks and records.
For more information, contact Pastor Andy Ervin at aervin@susumc.org.
