After almost 190 years as an independent congregation, the South Gorham Baptist Church on County Road announced its merger with South Coast Community Church of Scarborough, which is located on Gorham Road, about halfway between County and Payne Roads. The official date of the merger was January 28. The new name of the merged congregation is Summit Community Church.

For now, the combined church is continuing to maintain and operate both church facilities, which they refer to as their Scarborough campus and their South Gorham campus.

In order to make the merger possible, South Gorham Baptist had to end its long-time affiliation with the American Baptist Convention, and South Coast had to leave the Southern Baptist Convention. The newly-formed Summit Community Church is independent.

At the present time, the members of the combined congregation are continuing to discuss the issue of how to handle having two “campuses,” as well as other merger issues, but the church members have not yet started the decision making process regarding a long term solution to the issue of having two locations.

Pastor Travis Bush, formerly the pastor of South Coast Community Church and now the pastor of the combined church, and church member Steve Hamblen shared that mem- bers of both congregations first got to know each other during the “We Love Gorham” campaign to support Gorham schools and facilities. They both emphasized that the merger, which they agreed was “unusual,” was motivated mostly by a desire to enhance the mission of both churches, rather than any feeling of “desperation.”