AUBURN — A hearing on a lawsuit filed by members of a Turner church was delayed Wednesday after both sides met behind closed doors and agreed to try to settle the matter later this month.

At issue is which of the Historic Seventh Day Bible Fellowship’s founding members will control the church’s religious services. One of the groups had changed the locks on the church’s doors.

At a hearing last year, an Androscoggin County Superior Court justice brokered a temporary sharing arrangement that allowed the opposing factions to share use of the church at different times of day on different days of the week.

The defendants named in the suit had filed a motion for dismissal. But before a scheduled hearing was held Wednesday on that motion, the two sides met in the judge’s chambers and agreed to postpone the hearing until December, after the agreed-upon settlement conference.