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Concord Presbyterian church to close

James Nix

Alice Odell, 89, left, Julie Canter, 44, and her father, Wayne Thompson, 66, are three of the final members of McKinnon Presbyterian Church in Concord.

By Karen Cimino Wilson | Independent Tribune

Published: January 8, 2009

McKinnon Presbyterian Church in Concord will close its doors Sunday after 108 years of weekly services, possum suppers and baseball games.
Church membership dwindled to 19 after two members died last month. The church has not had a permanent pastor for more than a year and usually only has 12 to 14 members at services because all but four are more than 60 years old.
"There's just not any use to keep on spending more money than we're taking in," said lifetime member Wayne Thompson, 66.
McKinnon Presbyterian has enough money to continue operating for about 10 more years, but members made the heart-wrenching decision to close so they could help others with what's left in their coffers.
The church has donated $250,000 of its remaining funds to the Hospice & Palliative Care of Cabarrus County and another $15,000 to the Barium Springs Home for Children, said Rev. Jay Smith, the pastor at Poplar Tent Presbyterian. Smith has been helping the church handle its business in the absence of a permanent pastor, but does not lead services. Bryan Hovey, a student intern from a local theology school, has been preaching on Sundays.
Typically, the church does not discuss the dollar amount of donations it makes, but Smith said it's important that the members know their decision means something positive for the community.
"Even in our death as a church, God's work in the community is able to continue."
Shirley McDowell, executive director of the Hospice & Palliative Care of Cabarrus County, said the agency will dedicate the McKinnon Hospice Center in a ceremony Jan. 18.
"We see it as a way to provide a legacy for the church," McDowell said. "(The last year) has been a hard time for a lot of charities so this came at a good time."
The donation will be used to help pay for Hospice operating expenses.
McDowell said two former McKinnon Presbyterian members — the Rev. George Campbell and the late Lois Price — were founding members of the local Hospice board.
McKinnon Presbyterian started as the outgrowth of a Sunday school set up in 1878 by the Rev. Luther McKinnon, pastor of the Concord Church. The church was later named for him. At its strongest, the church had about 200 members, but membership has declined for the last 30 years.
The church sanctuary and fellowship hall, located at 282 Church St. in Concord, were built in 1934 and survived a fire in the 1970s. The building, worth more than $1 million, will be sold by Presbytery USA, Smith said.
"They will sell it below the tax value and strive to get another church in here," Smith said.
Alice Odell, 89, is a lifetime member of the McKinnon Presbyterian and her parents were founding members. She taught Sunday school and helped lead the children's choir for several years.
In the early 1900s, the church started possum suppers where actual possum was served.
"A preacher we had started that in order to get more people into the church," Odell said. "He and several others in the church who liked to hunt would go out and get the possums."
Other church members would cook and serve them. It was a popular event, she said.
Another pastor started a baseball team to get local teenager boys to go to church.
"If they wanted to play ball, they had to come to church," Odell said. "There would be three or four rows of teenage boys sitting in church because they wanted to play ball."
Odell said she doesn't know where she'll go to church after Sunday.
"I just don't even want to talk about that," Odell said, holding back tears.
One of Thompson's favorite memories is of a teenage Sunday school teacher who aspired to become a ventriloquist.
"If we had 100 percent one Sunday, he would bring his dummy Dexter and do the whole class with the dummy," Thompson said.
Thompson's daughter Julie Canter, 44, and her husband and two children are the youngest members of McKinnon. She said one of her fondest memories of the church is her wedding day. She said she hates to see it close.
The church is expecting about 160 former members to return for the last service including former pastor, the Rev. George Campbell.
"It's going to be sad on Sunday," she said. "I've been here all of my life."