Our Church's Communities

Old Union Church has more in common with John’s Bar, the Scoreboard, and Uncle Bob’s than it does with Family Christian Bookstore. And that’s OK.

I recently spent time visiting area businesses, asking them to post flyers for our upcoming Wednesday Worship (you can read more about that elsewhere in the newsletter). Nearly all of the businesses in Mars, Evans City, and along Route 8 were happy to post our flyers on their community boards, tape them to their windows, or put them on their counters. The staff and customers wanted to shoot the breeze with me, even if they had never met me. As I got closer to Cranberry Township, my visits changed. More of the businesses told me that their policies didn’t allow them to post flyers. Our conversations were short, polite, and professional.

The difference in my visits reflects a difference in the values and standards of the communities. In Evans City, Mars, and along Route 8, people tend to prefer personal interaction and strong relationships between people and community businesses and organizations. This may come from the area’s rural past, which focused upon neighborliness and close-knit groups. Residents of Cranberry Township tend to have fuller, faster-paced lives. They value brief, efficient interactions with people, in order to accomplish as much as possible as quickly as possible. They prefer large national chains because the selection of merchandise and food is large and predictable.

At its August meeting, the session began to talk about the core values that define our church. Not surprisingly, one of the main topics of our conversation was the fact that our church feels like a family. We value being with and caring for each other, and we easily welcome people into our fellowship. In other words, our church’s identity fits in well with the community standards of Mars and Evans City. But we are a poor fit for the values of Cranberry Township. It’s easy to see why large churches, with more polished worship services and less opportunity for personal interaction, do so well there.

It would be a huge mistake for us to think that we should change what our church is like, in order to attract more people from the Cranberry Township area. God gave our church the character that it has, and being faithful to our call means nurturing and developing this gift. That doesn’t mean that we should never change or offer anything new; it means that we should ensure that whatever we do builds upon the values and standards that have brought us together as a church.

By doing so, we continue to minister effectively to the Mars-Evans City community by providing a way to connect with our Lord in a way that feels natural to them. At the same time, we offer a “counter-cultural” presence to the Cranberry Township community. Some residents of that community hunger for a sense of belonging and connection with others. Others may be pleasantly surprised by a different type of life than we’ve known before.