(Part 1)

"We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world," the author Barbara Johnson once wrote, capturing the reality of experience for millions of Christians who live in the constant tension of the already, but not yet. For decades, two congregations in Middletown, Conn. -- St. Paul's Lutheran Church and Christ Lutheran Church (formerly known as Tabor Lutheran) -- co-existed peacefully alongside the scenic Connecticut River.

Less than a mile away from each other, they were separated more by heritage and habit than mere geography. But both the primarily German (St. Paul's) and the mostly Swedish (Christ) congregations benefited from the "baby boom" of the 1950's. During that heyday for mainstream churches, these two worshipping communities enjoyed record attendance as hundreds of children grew up singing familiar Lutheran hymns -- both in church, and at home.

Already, but not yet. Things began to change in the 1980's and 1990's. Many of the charter members of both congregations had died. Fewer people were going to church. Attendance dwindled in the once bustling Sunday school classrooms. And, inevitably, financial support suffered, as well. Members of both Christ and St. Paul's eyed each other's parking lots warily, wondering if Middletown was big enough for both churches to survive. Little did they know that there was a resurrection in the making ... already, but not yet. 

(To be continued next week).