Congregations of two Shawano churches are planning to meet Sept. 7 to vote on incorporation and bylaws for a combined church.
Officials from First Presbyterian Church and Peace United Church of Christ have been meeting for months to lay the groundwork for the merger.
“We were looking at low attendance, low membership, a lack of funds and a building we couldn’t maintain any more,” said Elaine Krohn, office manager and a church leader at First Presbyterian. “We issued invitations to several churches in the community and ended up meeting with nine of them to discuss merging. In the end, we decided on Peace UCC.”
Bob Smits, council president at Peace UCC, said church attendance is declining all over.
“We’re no different than the rest of them,” he said.
There is no minister currently at First Presbyterian, and Peace UCC has an interim pastor. Members now lead Sunday worship at First Presbyterian.
Peace UCC’s interim pastor is leaving in October, and another interim pastor will be brought on board until the merger is complete.
Then, a full-time pastor will be hired by the new church.
Both congregations have already approved selling their respective churches with the intent to find a neutral site.
First Presbyterian is located at 100 Presbyterian St., and Peace UCC is at 208 E. Maurer St.
“We are moving faster than we thought we would,” Krohn said. “We thought we’d have the buildings for sale by November, but it looks like they will be both be on the market in the next 30 days.”
Krohn said they hope to have the merger complete with a new home by January 2026.
She said officials are looking at renting space from another church or renting a storefront.
Membership at First Presbyterian is 52 with about 2o of those being active members, Krohn said. Smits said membership at Peace UCC is fewer than 200 people with roughly 60-70 active members.
“We each have a niche to serve in Shawano,” Smits said. “With this federation, we won’t abandon that. We will continue to serve God and our community.”
Krohn said a few committees are meeting to determine a location and building plans, the name of the new church, and what will be taken from each building for the new church.
Worship and beliefs of the two churches are compatible, and the biggest difference to date is the church polity — the structure and governance of a church.
There are different forms of church polity, including episcopalianism (rule by bishops), presbyterianism (rule by elders) and congregationalism (rule by the congregation).
“We’ve agreed to have a board of directors,” Krohn said.
Krohn said leaders of both churches realized if each congregation continued in the current manner, both would run out of money and be closed for good with three to six years.
“If we join forces, we can start something new and keep the entity in town and maybe even grow,” Krohn said.
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