In 1952, a group of Machesney Park and Loves Park residents swept away popcorn kernels and candies cluttering the ground of the local movie theater. Each spill was part of a greater swap; these residents were members of a new congregation which made an agreement with the theater to clean up the remnants of Saturday night movie going in exchange for a Sunday morning worship space. Since their movie theater days, the members of Concordia, Machesney have had a hands-on commitment to help their church grow.
Since their dedication, Concordia’s congregation and leadership continually looked outward for partnerships with their community in order to strengthen the local body of Christ. Don Gillingham, the executive director of Rockford Lutheran School, which now serves approximately 770 students, noted Concordia and St. Paul, Rockford were responsible for helping start their church and school. Decades later, Rockford Lutheran now serves Concordia in a similar manner. Gillingham says, “a great [church and] school with a wonderful location on a main road right on the river is… revitalized because of collaboration.”
The schools strengthened their connection through the Greater Rockford Area Lutheran Schools (GRALS) network, which was created in 2011 to further link Rockford’s LCMS schools. GRALS connects schools regularly on a small scale through their joint Facebook page where schools post regularly to invite each other to events, ask for volunteers, and share news. Additionally, the network connects teachers and administrators in person each year as they gather for the GRALS annual back to school conference where they worship together and hear from speakers on preschool through 12th grade topics. Through this network, administrators have been able to forge relationships and a culture of service with and for one another.
The revitalizing collaboration effort between these two GRALS schools began four years ago when the leadership of Concordia reached out to Rockford Lutheran School asking them to help with some administrative needs at their preschool through fifth grade school. Gillingham and Finance Director, Becky Chewning answered the call and Concordia began to progress.
With the revitalization of Concordia’s school, in 2016, Joel Koehler became principal and assumed administration responsibilities while collaboration took another step forward; Concordia now partners with St. Paul, Rockford, a church which was founded in 1888. Through these schools hundreds of students in the Rockford area are able to be a part of a Lutheran school. This number will only increase through the Invest in Kids Act.
Partnerships served Concordia’s church as well as their school. After the retirement of Concordia’s senior pastor in April 2016, Pastor Ken Krause of Mount Olive, Rockford began serving Concordia for worship, council, and visitation ministry needs in addition to Mount Olive.
Today, the two churches’ youth join together for fun, fellowship, service, and confirmation classes while the full congregations gather as one for potlucks and family nights. During the season of Advent, the congregations worshipped together in midweek services. This spring, they are moving their collaboration one step further, extending a joint call for a Spring 2018 seminary graduate who will serve both congregations.
From the beginning days of Concordia, Machesney Park partnering with the local movie theater in order to have a location for their services, these Rockford area churches and schools have continually shown their hearts moved to action to teach the community of the life-saving works of Jesus. Through collaboration, these ministries have grown, thus welcoming more and more of their neighbors into Gospel-centered community. Just as these churches and schools became connected through GRALS and the connections made there led into collaboration with St. Paul, Rockford, in these communities focused on outward growth, conversations lead to collaboration in a cycle. As the cycle continues, the number of individuals learning to interact with scripture and apply it to their lives grows. Praise be to God.
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