On Palm Sunday, Pastor Paul Olson led the first service at the newly renovated and newly named Mill City Church, in the sanctuary where six years earlier on Palm Sunday he had given his first sermon as lead pastor of Elim Church. In attendance included many new Mill City Church members – “legacy” Elim members.
According to former Elim leadership team chair Leslie Smith, who is the one board member from Elim now on the Mill City leadership team, about 80% of Elim members chose to become Mill City members soon after the two churches voted last December to have Elim subsumed into Mill City. (See Jan. 11 Northeaster.)
The past three months have been a whirlwind of changes. Physical ones have included a $700,000 renovation of the building, finished ahead of time and under budget with the help of more than 150 volunteers and building trade professionals from both congregations led by Kale Johnson, a legacy Elim member, said Mill City Lead Pastor Stephanie O’Brien. She gave a tour of the building on Good Friday, in advance of four Easter services that, combined, ended up with an attendance of 800.
The building work included deferred maintenance, such as a fresh coat of paint throughout the building and new carpet, renovated bathrooms, and, still in progress, the addition of an accessible bathroom. A new children’s area with multiple classrooms opening to a common space with bright rugs and walls was created in rooms that in the 1980s housed the youth program and, more recently, housed Elim’s homeless ministry (which has moved to North Minneapolis).
The sanctuary still has its former configuration and woodwork, but was spruced up — painted, pews cleaned and touched up, new carpet installed, and a new folding extension to the stage.
There’s no mention of Mill City in the sanctuary, except on the screen during the service. Under the stained glass at the front of the church depicting an oasis, the wording used to read “And they came to Elim” with the Bible verse Ex. 15:27. It still includes the verse, but now says, “Historic Elim Church | Est. 1888.” Another stained glass arch, which includes “Elim Church: An Oasis in the City” was moved from an entranceway to a wall by the great hall, with new wording: “Historic Elim Church Est. 1888 | Joined Mill City Church in 2023.”
Across from that stained glass piece is a new installation — the Heritage Prayer Room, a surprise gift from O’Brien to the legacy Elim members. In what had been a storage room, she secretly created a timeline display wrapping around the room that includes framed news stories, photos, old signs, and other memorabilia tracing the long history of Elim. At the end, it joins with the relatively short history of the 14-year-old Mill City Church, to the point of the merger.
Smith said Elim folks were very moved by the gesture. “It really honors the past, and I think it gives you excitement for the future. It’s like, ‘Look at what God has done.’ And it’s continuing,” Smith said. She said O’Brien has been skillfully leading the combined congregations during the transition, and that the care has come “authentically and naturally” from her.
The most challenging part of a church merger is melding the two cultures, said Cathy Bergland, chair of Mill City’s leadership team. Bergland said using volunteer labor to work on the building was an excellent strategic move: “Having so many of us volunteer is also one of those things that helps bridge relationships … it’s Elim people right alongside Mill City people. We’re doing the work together and having conversations while we’re painting or putting up blue painter’s tape,” she said. A transition team, which meets twice monthly, has been put in place to keep an ear out for and figure out ways to address people’s concerns.
Pastor Olson took stock of how things are shifting among his former congregation: “Some people are doing the same things they used to do. Some people are doing some new things, getting involved in serving in new ways. Some have kind of retreated, taking a little bit of a break,” he said.
One of those new ways of serving, he said, is being part of the greeting team at the doors on Sundays, a team that Elim, with its small congregation that knew each other, didn’t have.
Greeters were on hand Easter Sunday, when many people unfamiliar with the building attended services.
Olson and former Elim Pastor Becky Hanson were invited to join Mill City’s staff. She’s now a pastor of care, and he’s now an associate pastor, specifically in charge of adult ministries and the newly formed global ministries team, tapping into his background in global development.
Olson’s also on the teaching and preaching team. Being part of a larger leadership team where he has felt welcomed and supported, and being able to step back from giving four out of five sermons each month is a good thing for him, he said. This allows him more time during a critical “season of life” for his family.
During a tour of the renovations, Stephen Murck was working on the accessible bathroom. He said there have been “a lot of emotions” among legacy Elim members during these times of change, but that they are “smart people,” and understood why the merger had to happen. “There’s grief because it changed, but also the joy, the joy of seeing it reemerged. It’s something new. Sort of like being baptized.”
Churchgoers filled the house four times during the Easter weekend, as Mill City Church worshiped in its new home, the old Elim Church, 685 13th Ave. NE. The legend below the stained glass window from the entryway now reads “Historic Elim Church Est. 1888/Joined Mill City Church in 2023.” (Photos by Karen Kraco)
