Mad City Church, a small church plant that began meeting in Emerson School 14 years ago, grew and moved to East High School, grew some more and moved to LaFollette High School, exists no more. Members of the church held their last service yesterday, November 28, 2010, and then marched or drove to Lake City Church at 4909 E. Buckeye Road. The two churches have united into a new congregation that will be called City Church.
Both congregations have seen Sunday attendance as high as 1500 or larger in years past but current attendance in each congregation is currently about one third that number. The announcement of the possible merger was made last May. Over the summer the leadership of the two bodies worked through a process of discernment, decided to merge the two congregations, and announced the schedule for the merger in early September.
Lake City Church was formed as Madison Gospel Tabernacle in 1927 and has mothered a number of area congregations, including Mad City Church. Though theologically similar, Mad City Church has an informal come-as-you-are style that is more informal than Lake City Church. Both congregations anticipate some adjustments, beginning next weekend when they worship together as one body for the first time (with two services, at 8:30am and 10:30am).
At their last service, Mad City Church members heard from several former members of the pastoral staff and a member of the congregation, describing the impact of Mad City in their spiritual lives. A video was shown, which included a number of additional comments from attendees about the spiritual legacy of Mad City Church. After years of set-up and take-down in school gyms and auditoriums, the formal end of that task was greeted with cheers and applause.
About 100 attendees from Mad City Church marched behind a wooden cross that was carried from the LaFollette gymnasium, down Pflaum Road, across Stoughton Road, north along the frontage road to Buckeye Road, and along Buckeye to the gym at Abundant Life Christian School, which is connected to Lake City Church. Members of both congregations then got to know each other as they shared a pot-luck lunch.
Tom Flaherty, the senior pastor of the merged congregation, has been senior pastor at Mad City Church for three years. He was originally ordained more than 20 years ago as he served on the staff of Lake City Church. He has also served as pastor of two congregations in Minnesota. Both churches had staff vacancies that seemed to match the strengths of the staff members of the other congregation. No staff will lose their job because of the merger.
As the two congregations gathered for their meal pastor Flaherty prayed: “Lord, thank you for this amazing and historic event. You have brought these two churches together as a sign of your desire for unity in your body.”
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