Northwest Side church is a melting pot of believers

a taste of heaven into the here and now?” Pratt said.

That’s what he believes is happening at Bethel International United Methodist Church at 1220 Bethel Road on the Northwest side, which has three congregations worshiping within its walls: the original mix of parishioners, Korean-Americans and Nepali refugees.

Each has different worship services, but all are a united congregation that worships together a few times a year.

One of those times was this past Sunday, when the church celebrated 175 years of existence. Though Pratt says the church has international roots — its founder was from England — the diversity within its walls truly

bloomed in 2011, when a friend of Pratt’s had a vision.

The Rev. Ken Lee, then-pastor at an Ohio State campus ministry called Grace Korean United Methodist Church and now pastor emeritus at Bethel, approached Pratt when Pratt came to Bethel in 2009 and told the fellow pastor that he’d had a dream for 20 years.

“‘God said, ‘I want you to bring my peoples together, not just to share support, really to be one in Christ,’” Lee told Pratt. “‘To really model being the body of Christ.”

Pratt was a little hesitant, and told Ken Lee he didn’t even know the people of his own congregation yet and asked to pray about it

for three months.

In the ensuing months, Pratt said, he would often awake with visions of what a united church family might look like.

“I know how difficult it is to bring people together and find unity,” Pratt said. Still, he wanted to try.

In June 2011, Lee’s church and Bethel came together under one roof.

Since then, the two have been working through language and cultural differences to come together in a marriage of sorts, Pratt said. A few years later, the Nepalese congregation joined as well.

The church will continue to welcome new congregations and nationalities, Pratt said.

“It’s important to me that we create a strong enough foundation ... so the next set of pastors that come in here

will be as strong in their momentum as we are,” he said.

Pratt sometimes encourages members to attend the Korean or Nepalese services.

“(Even if) you can not understand what’s being said, you just feel the Holy Spirit envelope you,” Pratt said.

About 450 people worship at the church on Sundays, Pratt said, and the church has recently purchased updated translation devices so members from each congregation can understand another nationality’s services.

“In this political day and age where we’re segmenting ourselves ... that’s not the created order of things,” Pratt said.

The Rev. Miran Lee, campus administrator at Bethel and married to Ken Lee, said the unity created by the two churches helps her

members, often students, learn more about American language and culture. It also helps them to become leaders.

“The church is influencing all the young folks,” Miran Lee said. “Our church is kind of a melting pot for international populations.”