Who We Are

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is this Cooperative thing?
  • We--Trinity Lutheran Church and the McMinnville United Methodist Church--share virtually everything together: staff, buildings, property, ministries, worship, community, and so on.
  • We're not actually a merger, because we value and retain our historic ties to our denominations, but we can see why people might think this is the case.
    
    
• Who is part of the Cooperative?
  • If you're asking who is in or out, we don't really care very much about that question.
  • We have Methodists, Lutherans, and a lot of other people who identify themselves another way (or don't care what they're called) together in worship each week.
    
    
• How can this possibly work? I thought churches just fought with one another.
  • It's not always easy, but the explanation is simple--people here share a common mission and vision for ministry.
    
    
• How many other churches are using this kind of cooperative model?
  • We know we're not the only ones, but it can be hard to find other examples.
  • Most churches that appear to be cooperating are either just sharing space (one congregation renting space to another) or are being forced to "cooperate" because neither one can survive on its own.
  • We have chosen to cooperate because of our common mission and vision, not because we have to.
    
    
• How did the Cooperative get started?
  • That is a long (and often humorous) story. Fortunately, we've shortened it for you on our history page.
    
    
• What do you teach and believe? Are you charismatic or dogmatic? Liberal or conservative? Evangelical or fundamentalist? Traditional or contemporary?
  • If you are searching for a church, you might be asking questions like these. Some of them have easy answers, but others are less clear.
  • We don't fit some of the categories that people sometimes put churches in. Many of these categories represent old arguments and issues that don’t seem very important to us anymore.
  • We recommend you check out our mission and vision to get to know us better.

FAQ - Mission - Vision - History

A ministry of McMinnville United Methodist Church and
Trinity Lutheran Church.