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

OTHER:

The Appalachian District Church Vitality Team has been prayerfully seeking ways to help support you and the ministries of your local congregation during this COVID-19 pandemic. Together they have diligently researched and connected with others throughout the conference and our denomination to identify resources and offer them to you. We hope they will be helpful to you and bless you greatly in leading your churches and communities through this unprecedented time. We are very grateful to the District Vitality Team and other contributors for their great work on this resource.

This faithful team has created three documents, two of which you are receiving today. They include:

Family Home Worship – designed to help families establish a regular worship space within their homes as well as a time where they can worship together.
Tech Strategies – to help guide you in selecting effective tools and resources within your budget to best communicate in the digital world.

We believe these resources will be of great benefit to you. Also know that the District Vitality Team is available to answer any questions you might have in regards to the documents attached. If you have questions, you may email Rev. Howard Fleming at hfleming@wnccumc.net.

Resources