‘It’s about being real and doing life together’: Congregation ‘Emerge’s in downtown Fortville

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Youth from Emerge Church play laser tag during one of the quarterly youth outings.

Photo provided

FORTVILLE — He hadn’t known these people long. But here they were, toting boxes when his family could really use the help moving.

In the weeks since Scott Pittman and his family had started going to Emerge Church in April, he already had a favorable impression of the congregation. They felt welcome there and kept going back.

But this moment in June, as people came for the heavy lifting of the Pittmans’ move, really made an impression on him.

“We had guys I’d hardly even met and their sons show up and help us move,” he said. “It wasn’t like they waited until we were able to show our commitment to the church … They make you feel like you belong before there’s anything that you have to offer.”

The Pittmans have attended for about six months. Nobody at Emerge has been attending longer than two years. The church began in 2020.

Yes, 2020.

For several years, Curt Edmondson had been one of the pastors of another, larger church in Hamilton County. He was happy there and figured he’d be there for years.

But then he began to feel “this stirring in my heart” that God was calling him to start a new church. After a season of prayer, he and his wife felt they were indeed supposed to move forward with that.

They had informational meetings in their home with people interested in helping launch the church. They were about to sign a lease in early March 2020 and were planning for kickoff Sunday: April 19, 2020.

Then came the COVID-19 quarantine. Most already-existing churches were not meeting in person. How could a new one start then? Edmondson thought about pausing the church, pushing back the start.

Yet again, he felt the urging of God. So he wrote a sermon and gathered the congregation over Zoom, where he forgot to mute himself during the singing and everyone heard him sing instead of the worship leader.

But that beginning lines up with the description people involved in the church give of this congregation: It may be imperfect at times, but people are real and dedicated to what they feel called to.

“There’s just a real authenticity … that’s one of the things that drew us in to Emerge,” Pittman said. “It’s not about the show. It’s about being real and doing life together.”

That togetherness takes different forms.

It looks like all ages worshipping together, in person now at Fortville Music Garage Lounge. Elementary children leaving only before the sermon, to adjourn to their own age-appropriate lesson.

It also looks like people gathering outside of Sunday morning: lunch at one of downtown Fortville’s nearby restaurants, bonfires at the Edmondson home, a daddy-daughter dance that took place Friday night, a mother-son Indy Fuel hockey outing coming up, or an annual weekend campout of families near Holiday World near the end of the summer.

“In a lot of ways they’re facilitating what’s often difficult in family life: To take time to have important moments,” Pittman said. “They’re really enabling families to grow together, in the context of other families who are doing the same thing.”

Jimmy Hammond and his family were there for the Holiday World trip. They’re new to the church. Hammond grew up with some church background but said he “strayed” from church as an adult. He got to know Edmondson as they coached their sons’ soccer team together, and from that rapport he was willing to visit Emerge. He said he’s found it a hospitable place for someone coming back to church, a place offering encouragement to grow and move forward.

“I think for a lot of people, there is a little bit of uncomfortableness or embarrassment because you haven’t gone to church,” Hammond said. Edmondson “helps you kind of see God’s word and what he’s trying to preach … He does it in a way that you don’t feel dumb or bad or negative for not doing it previously.”

Rob Dimmitt has noticed a similar feel, whether he’s attending services on Sunday mornings or rising early on a Saturday to shoot clay pigeons or some other outing with a church men’s group.

“(They’re) some of the strongest and most amazing men that I’ve ever been around,” he said. “… They’re not perfect, just like I’m not perfect … but they challenge me bigtime, and that’s how you grow.”

Edmondson himself has grown, too, Dimmitt said. He knew Edmondson back before Emerge Church started, and he said watching the pastor’s own journey has been meaningful.

“One of the greatest memories was watching … his heart come through, his dedication, his perseverance…” Dimmitt said. “It’s just amazing watching his faith … he’s truly somebody who knows he’s not in control — that God’s in control.”

EMERGE CHURCH

The church meets at 10 a.m. Sundays in Fortville Music Garage Lounge, where it moved earlier this year. It had previously met at Daniel’s Vineyard and Geist Montessori Academy.

Its Nov. 20 service will instead be at Fortville Community Center, 400 W. Church St., where the church will have worship and a Thanksgiving meal together. It will not meet Nov. 27 but will resume Dec. 4.

Also in December, the church will have Christmas Eve services at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.