A Story of Unity and Reconciliation in Fort Wayne

A friendship that began three years ago as two pastors watched their sons play basketball has grown to the point where this past Sunday the pastors began sharing the same facility.

And sharing the same church is a sign, however small at a time of racial strife in the U.S., of how two churches can embrace one another and walk on a road toward unity and a deeper faith in God, says Rev. Jim Halstead, pastor of Community Christian Reformed Church where the other church, Latter Rain Ministries, is now meeting.

Community CRC meets in the morning and Latter Rain in the early afternoon, but they will also share times of prayer and worship.

“This is all about God and God’s leading,” says Halstead whose congregation is multicultural while the other church is primarily African American. The pastor of Latter Rain is Bishop Reginald Blackmon.

A story about the churches recently appeared in the Fort Wayne News Sentinel and has struck a chord. It has been picked up and featured in news outlets across the U.S., says Halstead.

“I think people are interested in how we have been blessed and how we have been able to work together,” says Halstead. “This   is a story about reconciliation.”

Halstead says Latter Rain had been renting a facility where the heat had failed and then, the day before they were moving to Community CRC, and after the newspaper article appeared,  the water pipes broke.

“They had more than a foot of water in the building as they were moving. I think moving here couldn’t have come at a better time,” says Halstead.

Another story on the relationship between the churches appeared in CRC News in  2013. This story describes how the two pastors served one another during a Maundy Thursday service.

In addition, The Banner ran a story on how the Indiana pastors had forged their partnership.