​‘We can be bound together even if we are different’

Wednesday night was hopping at the First Baptist Church in Franklin as three congregations representing three Protestant denominations celebrated Christmas under the same slated roof.
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Since the fall, parishioners of the Baptist parish, Christ Church of Franklin (formerly the Christ United Methodist Church) and the more recently formed Redeemer Anglican Church currently all call 1041 Liberty Street home.

Christmas Eve was no different.
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Rev. Randy Powell of the Baptist Church and Darrell Greenawalt of the Christ Church joined together to lead services at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the sanctuary.

In between, Rev. Eric Phillips led the Redeemer congregation in a more formal service in Clark Hall.
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“Darrell, Randy and I have been working together, have been friends, meeting together but also helping each other with different ministry needs and stuff like that,” Phillips said. “We already had a relationship and friendship as pastors, so it’s been kind of neat having all three of our congregations here.”
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Phillips came to Franklin about four years ago seeking to start an Anglican congregation and approached Powell about his knowledge of available spaces that could be used for worship.

Powell offered him room in the century-old Baptist church.

Greenawalt and Christ Church came to Powell, as well as a few other local churches, seeking temporary digs as his congregation split from the United Methodist denomination in October. Powell again laid out the welcome mat.

It is the second time the Christ congregation has set up shop at the Baptist church. The first was in the 1980s after the Christ U.M. building on Buffalo Street burnt down.

“The board and the (Baptist) congregation didn’t bat an eye,” Powell said of the requests to share.
“It’s kind of a juggling act,” Powell said of the new routine between the three groups. “I’m happy to have them.”

The churches are in distinct positions as far as membership size.

Christ Church regularly has more than 200 congregants on Sunday mornings, down from more than 400 before COVID.

Redeemer has been steadily growing over the last few years, drawing about 80 attendees each week, including more than 30 college students from Grove City.

​The Baptist church has been declining over the years with only about 30 regulars.   

“We used to have three services over there (Buffalo Street) and now we are doing one, but the congregation loves it because they are experiencing greater community,” Greenawalt said of their current schedule.

Many of his members, who formerly gathered in a modern building, also enjoy the opportunity to worship in the Baptist’s historic building with vaulted ceilings.
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The three churches have different worship styles and some theological variations. But Powell, Greenawalt and Phillips say the divergences are smaller than their similarities.
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“Our congregations, worship style aside, are not much different,” Powell said. “We are in the same evangelical space … it just looks different.”
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On Wednesday night, Powell had a chance to introduce on of the Franklin Baptist Church’s longtime Christmas traditions – moving out the pews to make a figure eight through the sanctuary to pass the candlelight while listening to a recording of former member Lois Ann Schaeffer (deceased) belt out “O, Holy Night.”  
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It presented a visual of community that was also evident when earlier Powell followed up Greenawalt’s homily with remarks of his own, joking that those in attendance got the holiday surprise of two sermons in one night.

​Two preaching styles and two messages inspired by the same passage from the Bible. An unplanned but welcome turn of events for the pastors.
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“What I do love is our congregations … represent the spectrum of expressions of Protestant Christianity,” Phillips said. “We are all three very different expressions … (yet) we work together and are close friends and worship in the same place, it’s kind of a cool story to tell. We can be bound together even if we are different.”