ZELIENOPLE — As children, people are taught the “Here is the church, and here is the steeple” nursery rhyme. However, the theory is backward.

People are the church, wherever and however it meets, believes the Rev. Timothy Dawes.

“In general, in life, we need to focus on the church and what we can do, not just for ourselves, but the larger community.

“How we can have an impact, so that if St. Paul and Zion disappeared from the face of the Earth, what would people miss about it who aren't part of it?” Dawes said. “Our neighbors, what would they miss if this structure were scooped up out of the Earth and gone?”

Dawes was installed Sept. 29 as the first pastor of the new shared ministry — Zelienople-Harmony Lutheran Ministries — between St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 215 N. Main St., Zelienople, and Zion Lutheran Church, 557 Perry Highway, Harmony, with a goal to expand their reach into the community.

The two churches formed the shared ministry during congregational meetings Jan. 28. Next, they voted in April for Dawes to be their spiritual leader.

Dawes began his service in June after he was officially installed by the Rev. Christina Hough, spiritual director at Glade Run, and the Rev. Peter Asplin, assistant to the Bishop of the Southwest Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Since his first liturgy, Dawes had taken the time to know each congregation. He has also gone through the churches' regular programming.

Until January, the churches that have four miles between them have been separate. St. Paul in Zelienople was founded and built in 1821. Zion in Harmony was founded in 1842 and recently celebrated its 177th anniversary.

The two congregations voted to form a shared ministry, Dawes said, adding the move is not a merger. Dawes needed more than two thirds of the congregational vote at each church to be called.

Each church has a council that makes decisions on a monthly basis, he said. Every quarter or so, an executive committee made of both congregations meets to look at larger issues that affect both congregations.

“There's a bit of an anxiety that I'm here to make them merge and make it one and we're all going to be one big happy family and one of them is going to close. That's not the case,” he said. “These are two congregations coming together to call a pastor and to do more ministry in the community.”

Dawes served since 2015 as part of the pastoral team with two other pastors at the Mid Mon Valley Lutheran Parish, a cooperative ministry made of five Lutheran congregations in the five different communities of Smithton, West Newton, Belle Vernon, Monessen and Monongahela.

Originally, Dawes was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1986 at St. Alphonsus Church in Wexford. He served at St. Ferdinand in Cranberry Township and at St. Joseph in Coraopolis until 2000 when he took a leave of absence from the ministry.

After that time, Dawes worked for a variety of social services agencies in the area — Pressley Ridge, Glade Run and Every Child as a family-based therapist.

During that time he met and married his wife, Jo Ann. The Dawes were married at House of Prayer Lutheran Church in Aliquippa where they were active members.

Dawes felt a call back into ministry and explored the path to be rostered in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He and his wife and family live in Cranberry Township.

His call to the shared ministry is different from a Catholic priest's because they are appointed and assigned where they will serve, he said.

By allowing both congregations, Zion and St. Peter, a say in his appointment, the transition process is smoother, he said.

One of Dawes' goals is to support both congregations in working together to expand the reach of their ministries to the larger community.

“Joined together with more people and collected finances ... they can do more outreach,” he said.

Although Zion has a food cupboard, Dawes said more can be done.

“We always say we are a welcoming church, but if they don't come through the front door you can't welcome them,” he said. “I'm encouraging them to be an inviting church ... not to snatch people from another denomination or congregation but to talk to people who may not have a church and say 'Try this one.'”

Crossovers between the churches are happening, he said. Congregants interchange parishes when they cannot make one of the other's service times.

Before Dawes arrived, each church took turn hosting the midweek prayer service.

“I'm looking to see more of that interaction, where they walk in and say 'I know these people,'” he said.

Changing service times for Zion are being considered for Dec. 1 by its leaders, who will take it to discussion Thursday. A changed time will give Dawes more time to commute between the two churches because of times when there are baptisms or longer services, including Palm Sunday and Easter.

One of the challenges as the new pastor of the shared ministry is that people can be territorial of their church, he said, adding one example is their sit- in service.

“Having them come to another building is not always the easiest thing in the world,” he said.

But the benefits are the new relationship between the churches and the relief of financial burdens to pay a separate pastor in a long-term situation, he said.

Shared ministries are trending, he said. The first in the area was the Pittsburgh Lutheran United Ministries, next was the Mid Mon Valley Lutheran Parish and now the Zelienople — Harmony Lutheran Ministries.

“We have an aging clergy and not as many people are seeing this as a possible vocation or calling,” he said. “The church in our society is no longer as central to many people, to some people it still is, but to not as a large of group in the community.”

A changing world is not good or bad, but something that needs to be adapted to, he said.

“In the '40s and '50s, churches were all full ... People's faith was in institutional churches,” he said. “Now, there's a lot of talk of spirituality and church.”

In this day, technology also offers people a sense of community, he said.

That is why churches need to be more inviting, he said, because congregates and community members support each other.

“There's a strength that can come from the community,” he said. “Forming community is key to what churches are meant to be.”

Dawes said he is humbled to be selected as the first pastor of the shared ministry.

“This is the start. They've had their histories and their histories have come together at this point,” he said. “I'm trying to do what I can do to keep that tradition going, of let's work together and do what we can together.”