Oakmont, Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian churches merge

Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church has been in Hoover’s Bluff Park community since about 1950, and Oakmont Presbyterian Church started meeting on Patton Chapel Road in 1964.

But now the two congregations have come together. They held their first joint worship service on Oct. 7 under a new name — Oakmont Chapel Presbyterian Church — at the Oakmont facility on Patton Chapel Road.

The merger came about because both congregations were getting smaller.

 “We had gotten down to maybe 30 people in worship,” said Pat Carr, one of the elders from Chapel in the Pines. “Our sanctuary seated about 300. To me, it was depressing to have that big of a sanctuary and only 30 people.”

Plus, keeping up with maintenance on the church building was becoming a burden, she said. “It seemed like that’s all we talked about.”

Chapel in the Pines had been without a permanent pastor for about seven years, she said. The congregation had a series of short-term pastors filling the pulpit on Sundays. Now, the two groups are coming together under the leadership of Paul Sherwood, who has been Oakmont’s pastor since April 2016.

Sherwood said Chapel in the Pines leaders first approached Oakmont about a merger in December. Some of Oakmont’s members were resistant to the idea at first because they didn’t want a name change and were hesitant to take on Chapel in the Pines’ debt, Sherwood said.

But “God made a way for things to work out,” he said. After much prayer and discussion, 83 percent of the Oakmont congregation voted in favor of the merger, he said.

It’s a good example of the love and unity that churches are called to have, Sherwood said.

The combined congregations will sell the Chapel in the Pines building at 2269 Chapel Road and use 70 percent of the proceeds for missions, he said.

For the past 30 years, Chapel in the Pines has sent a team to Mexico to build houses, and that dedication to missions is sure to continue, said Ralls Coston, an elder from Oakmont. It has been a while since Oakmont sent a team on a foreign mission trip, he said.

Oakmont has been averaging about 85 people on Sundays, and the people from Chapel in the Pines will help strengthen the body and bolster its missions and community service activities, Sherwood said. Chapel in the Pines also had more children than Oakmont, so the merger helps bring in some youth, Coston said.

Most of the people coming from Chapelin the Pines are the “worker bees” who are dedicated, Coston said. “That’s the peopleyou want.”

Sherwood said the two congregations were organized in a similar manner, had similar worship service styles and were both interested in serving the community and caring for one another.

In their first service together on Oct. 7, they elected new elders for the coming years, with members from both congregations included.

Coston said the merger is a lot like a marriage. “I know they’re used to doing things their way, and we’re used to doing things our way, and there’s going to be a little bit of adjustment.”

Carr said it’s hard to leave a building where she and others have made so many memories, but the church is not a building; it’s the people. The important thing for those who remained was to stay together as a church family, she said.

Bringing the two groups together has been a long road, but Carr said it was uplifting to come into a sanctuary full of people on that first Sunday together. “The people here at Oakmont have worked so hard to make the people from Chapel feel like this is their church.”

The new name was on a sign along the road, on the front of the church and even on the pencils in the pews.

“They thought of everything,” Carr said. “I’ve felt welcomed and wanted. I think it’s a great day.”