The historic stone church on Cuyler Avenue, kitty-corner from Beye School, has seen decades of slow decline as its Methodist congregation aged and shrank. Eventually the congregation merged with another local Methodist church and for the past few years the 113-year-old stone church sat waiting for new life.
Now, with locals leading the way, a traditionally focused but very growth oriented unit of the Anglican Church in North America purchased the church building at 171 N. Cuyler in early January for $844,000 and services have returned on Sundays.
What was the Cornerstone United Methodist Church, and for decades had been Faith Methodist, is now Cornerstone Anglican Church.
Obviously not all church plants grow at anything like this one, but still, it is very encouraging to read about: From five couples meeting in a home, to a refurbished stone church building in 18 months!
[blockquote] Bill Clapp, who lives in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side, was attracted by the traditional doctrinal stance of the new church and its implications for a changed life. He said, “I am coming here because it’s a church that focuses on the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, the atonement, which frees me to be the person I was created to be.” [/blockquote]
Yep, that’ll do it.
That is a remarkably small acorn from which to grow. Good for them.
#1 MichaelA – yes, it’s not rocket science.
Yes, MichaelA.
I know William Beasley+. We went to Wheaton College together and then to Yale Div. School together (although he was a year ahead of me in both places). He’s a real visionary as well as a missionary (he and his wife Anne were missionaries in Costa Rica, where they became fluent in Spanish, hence the Spanish services at this new church). William is helping to pioneer the “Greenhouse” method of multiplying new churches, and I think that method has enormous potential. (And don’t woryy, Michael, my friend William is both more low church and more conservative than I am).
I can’t wait to see how things continue to develop in the next few years. May God pour out his Spirit upon them, so that they might bear bold witness to Christ and increasingly show us all in North America one exciting new way to “be fruitful and multiply.”
David Handy+
Another Anglican congregation began meeting last fall in the Uptown area of Chicago with a core group of about 35. Six months later, Immanuel Anglican now has an ASA of around 110, mostly young single adults and families with preschoolers.
Barbara at #4, that is even more good news.
Truly the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that works its way slowly and unseen through the whole mass of dough (Matt 13:33)