Three church congregations from Chinook held a joint Christmas Eve service this past week. The evening service was held at the American Lutheran Church in Chinook and joined with the local Presbyterian and Methodist churches. American Lutheran and Chinook Presbyterian churches are currently without pastors. Rev. Jack Mattingly, pastor of the Chinook Methodist Church, led the worship and was assisted in serving communion by Rev. Sherry Edwards, retired and former pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Musicians from two local churches provided music. The service was well attended.

Though combined services among these three churches have occurred in the past, this recent service may have launched a new path for how these, and other regional churches, may do ministry in the future. Representatives from these three congregations and three others in Blaine and Hill County met in November to discern new paths forward for their churches.

"Discerning paths forward" discussion held in November

Rev. Dr. Loren Shellabarger, an ordained Presbyterian Minister and adjunct professor at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Iowa, facilitated a meeting among the three Chinook congregations plus the Yoked Parish in Harlem (Presbyterian and Methodist groups) and the Havre Presbyterian Church. Before attending seminary and becoming a minister, Shellabarger worked as a corporate manager in Texas creating and facilitating work groups for a large technology firm.

Later, as a pastor, he helped a group of small, rural Iowa churches identify and use their strengths to function in new ways as the populations in their region declined. About twenty locals from the five congregations mentioned above met with Dr. Shellabarger to learn ways to strategize for their churches' futures. During the conference locals began looking at their congregational strengths and ways they could effectively use those strong points to minister in a changing world.

What's next?

In mid-January selected representatives from the participating congregations in Chinook, Harlem and Havre will meet again to assess where they are and how to effectively begin move forward in new directions. Two other regional congregations have expressed interest in attending this first exploration committee meeting. That meeting will be an opportunity for all the congregations to look at their strengths and identify ways they can work together.

One major problem all the churches face is the lack of seminary-trained pastors to fill vacancies in rural churches. This is a nationwide problem as the number of seminary-trained pastors has become smaller and many new ministers are less inclined to serve in rural areas. Rev. Jack Mattingly, currently serving the Methodist church in Chinook and the yoked parish in Harlem, will be retiring in 2022. The Havre and Chinook Presbyterian Churches have shared a minister for the last few years and are currently without a minister. The American Lutheran Church in Chinook is also searching for a candidate to fill their pastoral vacancy.

Church leaders, at the regional level, for all three denominations are aware of the difficulty in finding new ministers for rural churches. They are encouraging the churches to explore new ways to face the challenges of declining regional populations and lack of seminary trained pastors. For local church leaders the turnout for the combined Christmas Eve service in Chinook was taken as a good sign of a desire to work together.

The Rev. Dr. Loren Shellabarger, and his wife Becky, were in Chinook last November to meet with representatives from several regional churches. Dr. Shellabarger helped create a parish of rural protestant churches in Iowa that uses both seminary-trained ministers and trained volunteers to do rural ministry. He met with representatives of local churches in our area and shared ideas about new ways rural churches are ministering.

Dr. Shellabarger, in the discussions held in November among the churches, summed up the challenge: "To see the potential in your midst and then place your options before God, allowing God to lead you." That process of discernment is now underway.