GERING, Neb. — The congregation of Gering United Methodist Church sang the same hymn two weeks in a row.
On Aug. 24, it was sung at the building that had been the congregation’s home since 1955.
On Aug. 31, it was sung at its new home, a space shared with Rejoice Lutheran Church.
No. 558 in the United Methodist Hymnal: “I am the church/You are the church/We are the church together/All who follow Jesus/All around the world/Yes, we’re the church together.”
“Our whole journey has been that we are the church, not the building,” Rev. Bethann Black said to the congregation that packed the sanctuary. “We are the church with all those who claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.”
For those at Gering UMC, the move from their own building was a decision of necessity, reality and stewardship.
“A little over a year ago, we found out our finances were not holding up to what we’re able to sustain the building we were in. We were losing money every month,” said Chuck Richter, chair of the church council. “It came down to, ‘We need to sell the building.’
“In its heyday, it was full. It’s not that way anymore,” he added. “With the size of our congregations dwindled down, we’re not able to sustain what we wanted to in that building.”
The frank discussion came about the time that Black began her appointment in Gering.
“When I came here their biggest issue was they didn’t know what they had for money. They didn’t know what they were bringing in versus what they were spending,” she said. “Part of the reality was knowing they weren’t bringing in enough to pay bills.”
The brutal truth was that the four-story building, the third incarnation of the church, was too much.
“We weren’t using the building. We weren’t even using half of the building,” Black said. “We looked at everything from taking off the top two stories of the building to putting up a new building on the corner of the lot. We really looked at every option and said, ‘How do we move forward and get to a place where we are not carrying something we can’t afford?’”
Time was of the essence, Black said.
“The money dictated that we didn’t have 10 years to figure this out. We need to figure it out before there’s no money left and no options left,” she said. “I tried to be very careful because I barely got here. I listened as much as I could.”
Meanwhile, Richter was in casual conversation with a friend, the board president of Rejoice Lutheran, whose one-story building was constructed in 1988.
Membership in the Lutheran church was down to 10 or 15 members, Richter was told.
“If we could share the space, it would be very good for us,” he recalled. “It turned out they were willing, and we were able, so here we are.”
Conversations began with the church board about the possibilities of making the move.
“Truly what I heard all the way around the table was that the congregation wanted to continue to be a congregation. And they wanted to be on this side in Gering,” a city in the Nebraska panhandle adjacent to the larger Scottsbluff, Black said. “While they live everywhere, Gering was where their heart was and where it mattered.”
More than 85 people attended a congregation-wide conversation on the move, and the 57 people attended the special charge conference voted unanimously to proceed.
“It worked out well, but it was a lot of hard work. The decisions were never easy, and when we took it to the congregation, we laid the groundwork as to why,” Richter said. “We had a great facility here to help us to continue going.”
Tom Smith, parish ministry associate for Rejoice Lutheran, said his church, realizing membership was dwindling, had considered a similar arrangement with a Disciples of Christ Church in Scottsbluff two years ago, but that church decided to close.
“We were very much open to it, no skepticism at all,” said Smith, minister of the church since 2020. “All the heavy lifting, emotional-wise and physical-wise, has all been on their side.”
Smith said the move was positive for his worshippers as well.
“We’re a really tiny congregation,” he said. “We stayed open for two reasons: Because we like each other, mostly, and we have a very successful day care, and we wanted to stay open, so we made sure that we stayed open. The fact that this is a nice, full place of people worshipping together, we can do things and interact together in various ways and that can be a big boost for us.
“If we were to dwindle away, we would know a good church would be here, and the daycare would still be here,” he added.
Since Black arrived in July 2024, attendance for Gering UMC has increased from 65 to about 80 to 85.
Black and Richter said they knew emotions would run high during the final weeks in the former church home.
“I grew up in that church, and I’ve been going there 60 years. It wasn’t an easy decision for me either, but it was the right one,” Richter said. “This is home. The building is just a building. It’s where we go, but it’s not who we are.”
With contributions of photos and written memories, Black is compiling a history of the Gering UMC building for a book this fall.
“At the last service there were lots of tears, but people felt like they could say goodbye in a way that had meaning for them,” she said.
Gering UMC kept a 20-minute chapel service that had been a mainstay of its worship schedule, that included a baby being baptized. The full service including the baptism of an adult and a new member who just started attending this summer.
The full worship service included church leaders bringing in two flower stands, candles, a Bible and Christ candle from the former United Methodist Church. A baptismal font from the church now sits in front of the altar.
A cross that was the backdrop for the Gering UMC will be installed in the lobby of the congregation’s new home — a window prevents it from being hung in the sanctuary — along with lighted stained glass that was part of an earlier incarnation of the church.
The United Methodists share space on the Lutheran church sign, but the former Gering UMC sign will be installed in the near future, Black said.
“We’re working on making the sign area look like it’s intentional,” she said.
An 85-inch monitor that was also in the former sanctuary is giving way to a smaller model, the first time a screen has been in the church’s sanctuary, with another in the daycare — licensed to serve 60 children — for Sunday school and overflow from large services such as funerals.
As long as the building is for sale – and several parties have expressed interest – the United Methodists are only continuing to pay their janitor who is now cleaning the Rejoice building.
The two congregations have already worked well together, Richter said, with plans for a combined men’s breakfast in September.
Black and Richter said relations have remained smooth with their new neighbors.
“We share the space, but we’re making sure we don’t step on each other’s toes,” Richter said. “Us stepping on theirs more than them stepping on ours.”
Richter said the United Methodist-Lutheran marriage could go on indefinitely.
“We’re just going to take it day by day, week by week, month by month and see how things go here,” he said. “This could be long term, it could be short term.”
Black praised her congregation for its grace and understanding during the transition.
“Just their care for one another in this — it is because they really like each other and have walked through a lot of life together has held this congregation as a whole together,” she said.
We have made a big decision; many will see it as a hard decision because we had to sell our building; but really the decision was the same one we have made each day and many times in the history of our congregation. That choice was to follow God.
We value the connections that God has given us with each other, formed in the daily living of our faith together, of raising our children, and in the joy, we have found in serving our community.
The building is a visible representation of the faith and faithfulness of those who have built and cared for it; but it was always intended to be a resource not a burden. As we have sought to find God’s purpose for it for future generations, we have had to look beyond it as a place to gather for our congregation. We have dreamed of ways it may continue to serve our community but found that they were beyond our ability. So, pass it on to those who can use it.
We, however, as the community God has called together will continue to gather in Gering and seek to serve God, that future generations will know the joy we know now because we have been and are the Gering UMC.
We don’t diminish this decision by saying it was easy or by letting go of the building without regret. It has indeed been a sacred space that has served many generations.
We laughed together here and cried. We shared our fears and walked through them together. We heard the bells with joy and gathered to sing with hope for a new day.
We have rejoiced as we watched the children grow and attended their programs over the years. We have made friends and mourned the loss of family members. We could never count the number of people who have been served or served a meal here or received assistance of some kind.
We walk the halls and see our memories in each room and gather them to take with us to our new place, where we will continue to walk with each other, and welcome new people as we follow Christ and put our faith in action by serving God and our community.