In an effort to bring people back to church, whether it’s been a long time or they’ve never been, several local churches are taking part in National Back to Church Sunday on September 18th. The idea to get involved came from Curt Wyse, who saw an article about Back to Church Sunday in a magazine and felt it would be something worthwhile to join. He approached the Mid-Prairie Council of Churches and they endorsed the idea and brought it to additional churches. Wyse is a member of the Kalona Mennonite Church, but has taken a more all-encompassing role in getting things organized.

Wyse’s primary goal for the event is to create unity among the churches. He hasn’t previously seen a lot of cooperation between them, as each church tends to want to do their own thing. He believes the similarities between the churches is much greater than the differences. Thus far, he’s been encouraged to see the level of cooperation since the event was announced. According to Wyse, there are 16 churches in the Mid-Prairie area that are participating, in addition to three in Washington and one in Ainsworth. Nationally, there are around 29,000 churches taking part. For more information, visit MPBack2Church.org.