After losing not only their affiliation with the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church but its Naperville church as well, it would be easy for members of the former Wheatland Salem United Methodist Church to call it quits.
Instead, 60 of them are vowing to keep their congregation alive and have formed their own church, member Dan Henry said.
“(We) felt that the ministry that we were doing was so vital that we have now incorporated as an independent church, and we’re continuing on as Wheatland Salem Church,” Henry said.
Sunday services are held at a space they rent at Alleluia! Lutheran Church on Book Road in Naperville. Operating on a lease they renew every three months, the congregation lacks the funds to pay for a permanent pastor and relies on six volunteers to lead services and ministries, he said.
That they should end up here is not necessarily a surprise.
Membership started declining in the early 2000s, something not unique to their congregation as churches across the country began experiencing the same drop in attendance. But the situation was exacerbated when the United Methodist Church allowed a portion of its congregation to break off in 2020 and form Wellspring United Methodist Church in Oswego, Henry said.
With declining membership and accompanying revenue losses, they struggled to keep up with the mortgage payments for their building at 1852 95th St., which was built with both a church and a school, he said.
The end came in December, when they lost their backing and the Methodist Church stepped in to take over ownership of the 65,000-square-foot building. It’s now under contract to be sold to an undisclosed buyer, according to a real estate listing for the property.
“It was certainly sad for all of us when the Wheatland Salem congregation got small,” said Victoria Rebeck, director of communications for the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church.
“We were not in any hurry to see the ministry end and they’ve done some fantastic ministry out of that church. But unfortunately, most churches have a life cycle and it’s not unusual for it to happen where a church declines in membership and some other decisions have to be made.”
While navigating financial uncertainty, what the new Wheatland Salem Church does have is multiple ministries that serve immigrant and refugee communities in the Naperville area, Henry said.
In 2021, under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Zaki L. Zaki, Wheatland Salem became a more multiethnic organization, serving Filipino, Gujarati and Slavic members, he said. That’s unusual for churches in the area, he said.
“Our main thing is reaching out to all the ethnicities of South Naperville,” Henry said. “One of our members works for the library, and he says that his research shows that 26% of families in South Naperville do not speak English at home, and so we saw an opportunity there.”
On Sunday, congregants from all of the ministries come together for a worship service that is primarily held in English, he said. Every other Sunday night, services are held in Gujarati for those members. On Wednesday evenings, the Slavic ministry, with members from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, holds services in Russian.
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“One of our main ministries (has a lot of) Ukrainian refugees in South Naperville and Romeoville,” Henry said. “And these persons, most of these persons that are there, even in our age, grew up in a Communist society where Christianity was suppressed, and now they want to have their children reintroduced to the Christian faith.”
Their new approach has “been difficult, but it’s kind of a relief now,” he said.
“We struggle on finances and we had some people who did not come along with us so we lost a few people, and we were small anyway,” Henry said. “… We decided to keep moving, keep worshipping, keep going until our lease is up at the end of June and watch it go from there.”
It is not the first time Wheatland Salem has tried to save itself from extinction. The church dates back to the 1840s, when German families were settling in the area. What had been two churches — Wheatland and Salem — eventually merged into one church but would not join the United Methodist Church until 1968, Henry said.
According to a 1999 baiduhai article, church membership peaked at 160 members in 1960 but had dropped to 89 by 1980, with only 50 showing up regularly for Sunday services.
It appeared the congregation’s end had come, the Tribune article stated, until the Rev. Scott Field was tapped to lead the congregation. While it’s debated as to whether Field was sent to close Wheatland Salem, Henry said, he helped reverse course by reaching out to neighbors and spicing up sermons.
By 1997, the congregation had built a new church, something that Field said at the time helped push membership numbers into the hundreds.
While they now have only about 60 members, Henry said, those congregants are dedicated.
“Wheatland Salem started as a couple of churches south of Naperville in 1844, so we consider ourselves (carrying) on for those little churches from 182 years ago,” he said.
“… One of the things is that the people that went with us are very generous in giving to the church. They were before, and they are now,” he said. “So even though we’re small, the few of us as are … willing to put our finances into the church to keep going. Whether that’s enough, we’ll see. But we’re all set until the end of June.”