SouthPark church says goodbye to ‘ski slope’ home, embraces change
This article was posted on Sunday evening in the Charlotte Observer:
By Tim Funk
tfunk@charlotteobserver.com
There were tears of grief and smiles of excitement Sunday as members of Sharon United Methodist in SouthPark said goodbye to their “ski slope” church building and looked ahead to a new start as the spiritual anchor for a future plaza of stores, restaurants, offices, apartments and a hotel.
A Charlotte landmark for decades because of its distinctive architecture – a steeple and roof that look like a ski slope – the church is directly across the street from SouthPark mall. It’ll soon demolish its current building, but keep its choice location. And sometime in 2019 or 2020, the congregation will get a new 750-seat home at the center of what developers and city planners call a mixed-use development.
Until then, church members will worship every Sunday at the nearby Regal Phillips Place movie theater.
When the new sanctuary is finished, they will return to the corner of Sharon Road and Morrison Boulevard and share 7 acres with a performing arts center, a fitness center, nearly 500 residential units and up to 170,000 square feet of commercial space. And their prayer is that a lot of the people who will eat, shop, work or live near the reborn church will stop in and worship there.
At a time when many United Methodist and other mainline Christian churches are declining, even dying, the nearly 51-year-old Sharon United Methodist is looking, Senior Pastor Kyle Thompson told his flock Sunday, “to literally re-launch the church … and, in a fresh way, reach the community around us,” including millennials and the baby boomers who are retiring.
Resources for Vital Congregations
CHURCH LEADERSHIP
Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Lewis Center for Church Leadership: Books
Lewis Center for Church Leadership: Serve Your Neighbor
GBHEM Leadership Resources
eLEAD
Living Faithfully: Human Sexuality and the United Methodist Church
Englewood Book Review
Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations
Ted Talks: The Golden Circle
Ted Talks: The Power of Vulnerability
Ted Talks: The Price of Invulnerability
Design Thinking
Meditations on the Ministry of All Christians
DISCIPLE FORMATION:
Be A Disciple
A Disciple’s Path; A Guide for United Methodist
Lewis Center for Church Leadership: Adult Christian Studies from the Wesley Ministry Network
Traveling Together: A Guide for Disciple Forming Congregations
WESLEYAN STUDIES:
Living As United Methodist Christians
Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials
Reclaiming our Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley’s Sermons for Today
John Wesley Sermons: Anthology
REACHING PEOPLE:
Get Their Name
Evangelism & Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit
Canoeing the Mountains
Fresh Expressions
Fresh Expressions: Dinner Church
Lewis Center for Church Leadership: Reach New Disciples
Lewis Center for Church Leadership: 50 Ways to Reach People
Community: The Structure of Belonging
RESOURCES TO CONNECT WITH THE COMMUNITY:
Institute for Emerging Issues
Congregations 4 Children
GRANTS:
The Royce and Jane Reynolds Ministry Fund Grants
The Duke Endowment