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Two Northeast Churches Merge for Mutual Support Amid Challenges

Por Bobby Ross Jr.
maine northeast new england
The Piscataqua River Bridge connects Portsmouth, New Hampshire with Kittery, Maine, (Photo via social media)

A white poster board decorated with four red hearts greeted worshipers at the Seabrook Church of Christ in the Northeast state of New Hampshire, on a recent Sunday.

“Welcome Brothers & Sisters From Kittery Church of Christ,” declared the handwritten sign near the front entrance.

The simple message reflected a new beginning for the two coastal New England congregations — one in New Hampshire, the other in Maine — as they became one body.

“God has placed us together for a purpose,” minister Nathaniel Hios said in his sermon.

Back in the 1950s, the Kittery church — in Maine’s southernmost town, just across the Piscataqua River from New Hampshire — actually planted the Seabrook church, about 15 miles away.

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A sign hung in the entryway of the Seabrook Church of Christ in New Hampshire. (Photo: Bobby Ross Jr. / The Christian Chronicle)

“Life sometimes is full circle,” said Robert Allen, 69, who first attended the Kittery church as a week-old infant. 

Later, Allen’s family became a part of the new Seabrook congregation. In more recent years, he has worshiped at Kittery.

Pam Johnson, 72, came to New England as a child with her Air Force family. 

A Seabrook member for decades, she still remembers Sunday school as a young girl in Kittery.

“My father was one of the men who brought the church from Kittery down here,” Johnson said of Seabrook, recalling that he helped create the first baptistery. 

“It’s like we’re all home again,” she said of the congregations joining together.

Big buildings, smaller numbers

For years, the Kittery and Seabrook churches both grew as military families from the Bible Belt served at Pease Air Force Base in nearby Portsmouth, N.H. 

“That’s why we have these big buildings,” said Mary Simonds, 88, one of the original Seabrook members. 

Simonds moved to the New Hampshire beach town, just north of the Massachusetts state line, in 1957. 

“Most of the people were from the base,” she recalled.

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Robert Allen and Mary Simonds were children when the Seabrook Church of Christ in New Hampshire began meeting in the 1950s. (Photo: Bobby Ross Jr. / The Christian Chronicle)

But the base closed in 1991.

As membership numbers fell, sustaining church facilities built for larger flocks became more difficult.

The Maine congregation faced rising electric bills and deferred maintenance needs estimated at $200,000 — money the church did not have.

Meanwhile, the Seabrook church bid farewell to its longtime minister, Bruce Pierce, who retired and moved to North Carolina this past summer.

Hios, the Kittery church’s preacher since 2016, wondered if the two groups might enjoy a brighter future together.

The congregations aligned doctrinally. Each emphasized a commitment to New Testament Christianity and practices such as a cappella singing, weekly communion, Bible study and prayer.

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The marquee sign outside the Seabrook Church of Christ in New Hampshire. (Photo: Bobby Ross Jr. / The Christian Chronicle)

Many of the members already knew each other. In fact, some had left Seabrook for Kittery in a dispute years earlier.

“There was a split back in 2005,” said Eric Wallace, one of the Seabrook leaders. “A bunch of people wanted to get a new preacher, and a bunch of us didn’t. And all the details on that, I’m still not clear on exactly what it was all about.”

Seabrook’s recent minister transition, Hios said, “offered a really good opportunity to reconcile a whole lot of people.”

Combining two New England flocks

After discussion and prayer, the Kittery church decided to put its building up for sale and begin worshiping with Seabrook.

Seabrook, with about 25 regular worshipers, expects to more than double that number with the addition of the Kittery group. 

The Maine congregation’s attendance was hitting 45 on a good Sunday, leaders said. For most of those folks, the distance to church will not increase. But the drive will be too far for a few.

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Worshipers pray as the Seabrook and Kittery congregations join together as one church body. (Photo: Bobby Ross Jr. / The Christian Chronicle)

Seabrook hired Hios, a native New Englander and 2002 Bible graduate of Universidad Harding in Searcy, Ark., as the preacher.

A potential buyer has proposed a $1.5 million sales price for the Kittery building, Hios said, but no deal has been finalized.

At some point, proceeds might be used to plant a new church on the Maine side of the river, the minister indicated.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re definitely going to save that money and try to grow,” said Hios, who has kept preaching Sunday nights and leading Wednesday night Bible study at Kittery.

A domestic mission field

New England is a domestic mission field with some of the highest rates in the country of unchurched people.

Among all 50 states, Vermont (75%), New Hampshire (66%) and Maine (66%) have the highest share of adults who say they never or seldom attend church or religious services, Axios reported, citing an analysis of Household Pulse Survey data. Those figures in the Northeast region compare to a national average of 49%.

Born into a Catholic family, Hios was about 11 when his parents studied with a Church of Christ member and later were baptized.

He voices concern for the fellowship’s future in Maine.

“The churches, they are all very, very small and sick,” Hios said. “. . . The culture is with the megachurches — the low-commitment, high-entertainment churches.”

Hios noted that the churches in his denomination “did really well in the 1980s and 1990s because it was getting away from the stained-glass formality of, like, the Catholic Church. It was very appealing. It was like we were just regular people. But now it’s a production and a show, and I think that’s where most people are going.”

But he remains committed to reaching the lost with the Gospel.

“Even if the times are not with you,” he stressed, “it still doesn’t give you an excuse not to reach out to people and evangelize.”

An influx of new faces

The influx of new faces pleases Alice Van Dine, one of Seabrook’s oldest members. 

The 91-year-old Christian is especially glad to welcome a new minister.

Originally from Dallas, she moved to New Hampshire to be closer to her children and grandchildren.

“Bruce, of course, was getting older,” Van Dine said of the previous preacher. “It was time for him to retire.”

But she said, “A lot of people just left because they didn’t like not having a minister, and now they’re gradually coming back.”

Micah Houtz, a father of three school-age children, previously worshiped at Kittery. 

He’s excited about the move to Seabrook.

An engineer, Houtz grew up in Alaska and met his wife, Darlene, at a church in Terre Haute, Ind.

“I think it’s good that we’re trying to be strategic with the Lord’s work, with the resources that we’ve been given,” Houtz said. “So I think it’s a wise decision … that we’re stepping out in faith and willing to make some sacrifices.”

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Pam Johnson reflects on the Seabrook church’s food ministry. (Photo: Bobby Ross Jr. / The Christian Chronicle)

Johnson, the member whose father helped launch the Seabrook church, said “it’s going to be interesting” as the two groups — now one — get to know each other better.

She’s active with Seabrook’s food pantry, which each Wednesday distributes canned goods and frozen meats to the poor. Many of those helped are immigrants and senior citizens on fixed incomes.

“We don’t want to see anybody go hungry,” Johnson said of the ministry’s importance.

Certainly, Christians face challenges in New England. 

But Johnson said she sees God at work — and she’s eager to serve the Lord alongside her newly arrived brothers and sisters from Kittery.

Este artículo apareció originalmente en La crónica cristiana y ha sido reimpreso con permiso.

Bobby Ross Jr. is editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle and a columnist for Religion Unplugged. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.

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Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Healing What’s Within” by Chuck DeGroat.