Two Missouri churches unite as one

The Rolla Daily News in Missouri reports:

“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”-Romans 15:5-7 NIV.
Two Church of Christ congregations in Rolla are taking those words of Paul to heart.
In a rare occurrence a pair of established congregations are merging into one to better serve God and their community.
This weekend marks the official merger of the Highway E Church of Christ and the Highway 63 South Church of Christ congregations. Over the past several weeks the congregations have been worshiping together, working toward this official merger.
A potluck lunch is scheduled after the Sunday morning service.
“We want to be a united body of Christ here in Rolla,” said one of the congregation elders Andy Cassidy. “To show the love of Christ in the community through that unity; to show that Christ’s love overcomes any adversity.”

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• Feedback
  Yeah!!! We lived in Dixon for 12 years and traveled many times to the Rolla church (not sure which one) side road near I40. Anyway, we love the people there and we are happy to hear this. GO ROLLA!!! By the way, we go to SHAWNEE TRAIL CHURCH OF CHRIST Frisco,TX and amazingly….Seth McDowell preaches for us and he grew up and went to the church in Rolla. He also went to OKCU where my son knew him before he came here. God Bless your efforts!!
  Linn & Royce Carter

  Royce Carter

  July, 31 2012

  I love both of the congregations. i served with members of both with Little Prairie Bible Camp and the Salem church of Christ. These two wonderful congregations will become one fantastic family in the Lord!

  Chris Vidacovich

  July, 31 2012

  While we congratulate the two congregations on their wonderful attitude and cooperation, I would expect at some point they will say they need to plant a new congregation on the other side of town to expand the kingdom. (Rolla is about 18,000 in population and their two buildings were miles apart.) And if this happens, they won’t be cancelling the unity, just planting a sister (or mission) congregation. Then someone might ask at that point, “Why didn’t we just unify back in 2012 without consolidation?”

  Rod

  July, 31 2012