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WHATEVER IT TAKES
Winter 2009
Historic Church with Presidential Past Embraces Change for Future
By Kay Panovec
In President William McKinley’s day, people came to worship at downtown Canton’s Church of the Savior wearing their Sunday best – men in suits and ties, and women in fine dresses and exquisite hats.
The church, which had experienced a fire, was rebuilt with elaborate stained glass windows, carpeting and a pipe organ. The pews had tapestry seats, and women were permitted to sit on the same side of the church as men. According to a historical account, some members of the church viewed these changes as a “wicked innovation.”
During McKinley’s time, even the style of worship was debated. A decision was made to move from a more emotional style of worship to a more logical one. The church moved forward experiencing growth, and it birthed other churches including Christ, Church of the Lakes, Dueber, Simpson, Faith and Massillon Trinity UMC.
These days, Church of the Savior has confronted its share of modern challenges, including repairing the aging structure. But more importantly, it faced the big question of the church’s relevance to the community that surrounds it. Times had changed since this historic church’s prime, and so had the community. Unfortunately, the church hadn’t.
As with many mainline churches, the church had experienced decline since 1970. Some of the factors leading to the downslide were well understood, but reversing their effects remained a challenge.
A New Attitude
In President William McKinley’s day, people came to worship at downtown Canton’s Church of the Savior wearing their Sunday best – men in suits and ties, and women in fine dresses and exquisite hats.
The church, which had experienced a fire, was rebuilt with elaborate stained glass windows, carpeting and a pipe organ. The pews had tapestry seats, and women were permitted to sit on the same side of the church as men. According to a historical account, some members of the church viewed these changes as a “wicked innovation.”
During McKinley’s time, even the style of worship was debated. A decision was made to move from a more emotional style of worship to a more logical one. The church moved forward experiencing growth, and it birthed other churches including Christ, Church of the Lakes, Dueber, Simpson, Faith and Massillon Trinity UMC.
These days, Church of the Savior has confronted its share of modern challenges, including repairing the aging structure. But more importantly, it faced the big question of the church’s relevance to the community that surrounds it. Times had changed since this historic church’s prime, and so had the community. Unfortunately, the church hadn’t.
As with many mainline churches, the church had experienced decline since 1970. Some of the factors leading to the downslide were well understood, but reversing their effects remained a challenge.
The Rev. Ed Fashbaugh challenged the congregation to look at its ministry from a perspective of The Great Commission based on Matthew 28: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” Focusing on this, the congregation found a new motivation to move forward to reach new people for Jesus Christ.
Church leaders spent a great deal of time ensuring that everyone in the church understood the church’s primary mission. This was done through new Bible studies and “Church Chats,” which gave people opportunities to raise concerns and have honest conversation regarding how changes would affect the existing membership and the new people they hoped to reach.
One of those changes was the addition of a new worship format that was far different than those traditionally held at Church of the Savior. The new service, called Emergence 120, incorporates multi-media, a band, stage lighting and a casual style – ironically, a nod to the heart-felt worship experience from back in McKinley’s day.
Once the church was ready for the new service, the congregation realized it had to reach into the community to invite people in and ultimately to a relationship with Christ. This was done through an extensive media campaign using the slogan “No perfect people allowed,” developed with Strategy One, a local advertising agency.
The campaign included a new web site (www.MySaviorRocks.org), TV commercials, direct mail and billboards directed toward people younger than 40. The commercials were broadcast on three radio stations, 19 cable TV stations including MTV, Sci-Fi, VH-1, Spike TV and BET, and they were posted on YouTube.
Fashbaugh said the church has experienced a nearly 20 percent increase in worship attendance. The church is celebrating a new generation of young people discovering Christ at the church, plus new connections between younger and older generations, he said.
“We believe God is calling Church of the Savior to an emergence of hope, compassion and love that will change Canton, Ohio,” Fashbaugh said. “We believe that there will be an emergence of new life, new hope, new power each and every week.”
The church plans to continue with a strong marketing plan to build name recognition in the community.
Fashbaugh said the process of helping the congregation to change its mindset was sometimes difficult and time-consuming but well worth the effort.
“There comes a time when you have to decide if you are going to lead the people into a new reality of God’s mission in their lives as a faith community or are you going to try and do this while also upholding all the old systems that contributed to the current condition,” he said. “If you want to make disciples for the transformation of the world, it can’t be done using methods that are no longer effective. In order to effectively reach new people with the gospel, EVERYTHING must be questioned, evaluated and questioned again, and again, and again until we are faithfully doing what God has called us to do … Make disciples for the transformation of the world.”
Church of the Savior is well on its way, again.
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