New Creation Fellowship Church in Newton, Kan., has always been small, but one of its members has had a wide-reaching effect on the community. New Creation Preschool, begun in 1996, has seen more than 1,400 preschoolers come through.

Kristin Neufeld Epp, who came to New Creation with her parents as a teenager, began the preschool after graduating from Bethel College in 1996. Her vision was “to provide a safe place for children to explore, discover and create.” While that remains her primary value, her perspective has evolved.

“As I came to terms with my own childhood trauma and continued to work toward healing, I became aware of my own sense of powerlessness as a child,” she said.

This led her to create a place where children could “escape the hardships of the world.” She has come to value “the power that children can have in their own self-advocacy.”

The congregation began in 1973, when seven people, the oldest in their early 30s, traveled from Newton to Evanston, Ill., to attend a conference on intentional communities — groups who live together with a common purpose and often a common purse, or shared finances.

They decided to form their own and to have a common purse. They chose a name based on 2 Corinthians 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.”

Today, New Creation is no longer an intentional community but a small Mennonite congregation that retains a spirit of caring for one another’s needs, praying for each other and meeting in small groups to share struggles to follow Jesus.

When I joined New Creation in 1976, there was a growing number of Christian intentional communities across the United States. Many eventually shut down.

In its first decade, New Creation grew quickly beyond the original seven to 40. Adults committed to support one another in a common purse while reaching out to others — including, for example, taking in a mother with five young children who had fled her abusive husband. The congregation’s worship included many more.

In the early 1980s, punitive audits by the IRS led New Creation Fellowship to sell houses to pay off fines. The common purse was dissolved in 1985, but the church remained.

After years of having multiple leaders in a pastoral role, one of the original members, Steve Schmidt, became the sole pastor. Yet the congregation continued having various people offer the sermon or serve as worship leaders. That practice remains.

Besides the preschool, New Creation has reached out in other ways. Several members helped start the Newton Area Peace Center, now Peace Connections, still going strong after more than 40 years.

In the 1990s, one member, a doctor, was the main impetus for forming Health Ministries, which helped bring health care to people without health insurance. No longer connected to the church, Health Ministries has expanded and still serves those in need.

Shana Green, the current pastor, began serving in August 2023. As a bivocational pastor, they work three-quarter-time for the church. They use technology such as Zoom to meet with various groups at convenient times.

“I block out time dedicated to church, such as meetings, administrative follow-up and pastoral care,” Green said. Being a remote worker for their other job means they can work from anywhere with an internet connection, which enables them to be more flexible.

“Being upfront about the importance of scheduling as a means of self-care for my neurodivergence, and as a measure of planning because I work an additional job, has been key to shaping a culture that allows for me to successfully do both,” Green said.

New Creation once had a regular worship attendance of 80 or more. That dwindled some in the early 2000s, and few families with young children came. Those who visited saw no other children and didn’t return. Then a couple whose children had attended New Creation Preschool came to worship and stayed. Soon others came as well.

As a small church, providing faith formation has been a challenge. In the 1980s, Sunday school and youth group programming were hosted by Faith Mennonite Church in Newton.

In the 1990s and 2000s, New Creation offered Sunday school using different models — classes for various age groups, one-room schoolhouse, intergenerational and interactive. In recent years, Shalom Mennonite Church in Newton collaborated in youth group activities.

Since COVID, there has been no Sunday school, but Green leads a monthly book discussion on Zoom, and Audrey Ratzlaff, one of several members with a seminary degree and pastoral experience, facilitates a spiritual direction group. The church plans to introduce intergenerational faith formation into worship once per quarter.

Each Sunday, worshipers read a welcome statement: “At New Creation we seek to celebrate our differences as gifts and blessings — our differences in color, gender, sexual orientation and the many other ways we are categorized by the world. You are welcome in this place as we journey together, discerning how to follow Jesus more faithfully.”

There is a time for sharing prayer requests, responses to the service or anything else happening in a person’s life. New people have come. Since Green, who is Black and lesbian, has come, other Blacks and LGBTQ+ people have felt more welcome.

The congregation continues to support the preschool in its budget, and 20 or more members have served as volunteer “teacher friends.” Neufeld Epp credits the church for its “collaboration and support in allowing the evolution of this program.”

Gordon Houser is a member of New Creation Fellowship Church, a former editor of The Mennonite and author of Present Tense: A Mennonite Spirituality.