The Diversity Project

Earlier Mennonite efforts (mid-twentieth century)

Following World War II, James and Rowena Lark and a number of ethnic Mennonite urban pioneers developed inner-city churches. Many of these had a vision to be interracial and multicultural. Most of them resulted from the efforts of urban missionaries supported by mission agencies or conferences. Some grew out of Mennonite Voluntary Service units in urban areas.

Ninth St. Mennonite Church and Grace Chapel in Saginaw, Michigan (909-985-9870; Ibechler@Juno.com), began in 1948 when a Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) unit rented a house and started a Sunday school program. Shortly thereafter Leroy Bechler, a Hesston College student, felt God calling him to Saginaw. He had led a youth retreat in Ohio on behalf of Bishop Lark, and after returning to Hesston, he knew God was calling him to the city and to African-Americans. After graduation and marriage, he and his wife moved to Saginaw to lead the small congregation. They built the Ninth Street Mennonite church building in 1951. Around this time several Mennonite Bible studies were taking place in Saginaw, and a new church, Grace Chapel in East Saginaw, was born from one of these Bible study groups. Both churches began as and remain predominantly African-American. Their memberships are currently in the range of 50-60.

During the 1940s and 1950s a wave of urban mission commitment found expression in the ministries of the Vern Millers in Cleveland, Nelson Burkholders in Newport News, Leroy Bechlers in Los Angeles, Hubert Schwartzendrubers in St. Louis, John Smuckers in New York, and James and Rowena Lark in Chicago, Wichita, and elsewhere. Most of those works began with an evangelistic vision in which a multicultural component was secondary. Most have resulted in congregations that currently are monocultural. Here we recount two of the stories:

Bethesda Mennonite Church, St. Louis, Missouri (Rick Maclin, pastor, 314-534-9929), began after Hubert and Mary Schwartzendruber arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1957 as church planters. They moved into the public housing projects where they were the only Anglo couple amidst 15,000 African-Americans. According to Schwartzendruber, "The mood and the politics of the day were ripe for our ministry. Integration was the political mood of the day. And here we were, an Anglo couple planting a church in an African-American community." He maintains that church planting is very difficult and multicultural church planting is extremely difficult. His approach was to lead by empowerment. "I joined hands with the community leaders; I didn’t try to lead as much as empower and encourage while being a white clergy presence, in turbulent times." "We had to accept the community on their terms, and more importantly, they had to accept us on their terms, not ours—in all areas—friendship, ministry, everything. This took time—two or three years. The community grew to trust us." He warns of having too many ethnic Mennonites: "If there had been a dozen Mennos descend on the community, I doubt the church would have happened." Schwartzendruber advocates relational evangelism. "I evangelized by listening. I didn’t have a product to sell; I simply walked alongside people in their pain. Mary and I also allowed them to minister to us. This carried us through the turbulent sixties. We were there to be friends and partners. We wanted nothing from them."

Schwartzendruber feels it is much harder to plant a multicultural church today than in the fifties. "If we had tried to plant Bethesda in 1967 instead of 1957, I don’t think it would have worked," he says. "It’s good that we went when we thought we knew all the questions as well as all the answers. Today we have to look very hard for the questions before we can ever find the answers, and it’s very hard to ask the right questions."

Calvary Life Assembly (formerly Calvary Mennonite Church), Los Angeles, California (213-732-1900). In 1960 Bishop Lark and the Commission for Home Ministries contacted Leroy Bechler in Saginaw, Michigan, and requested he come to California as interim pastor of Calvary, a small white congregation in the south part of Los Angeles. In 1961 he and his wife began to reach out to African-Americans and "most of the whites left for Downey," says Bechler. A few whites who had a heart for the city and cross-cultural ministry stayed. Bechler identifies local community involvement with the schools, neighborhood, etc., as key to his success: "I maintained a low-key position. I worked behind the scenes supporting black community leaders." Today the congregation is very small and remains primarily African-American.

Calvary Christian Fellowship, Inglewood/Los Angeles, California (Alvin Isaacs, pastor, 213-752-8552; ccfc@juno.com). In 1968 Leroy Bechler felt God calling him to a large church plant in Inglewood, Calvary Chapel Fellowship. Calvary bought their building in 1968 and decided to start a private elementary school as a means of outreach and evangelism. The Brethren church had previously operated a private school that was whites only. The local community felt much distrust and resentment of this new work. The church council was African-American as was the school board, but this did not help with public perception. Local community leaders picketed the school and the church. Eventually Bishop Lark was invited to speak at the school’s open house, and he brought his son who was a professor at Fresno State University at the time. The picketers showed up as scheduled, but this time they were invited in. The community was won over. The first year the school had 39 students, the second year 79, and the third year 120. Leroy left in 1980.

When asked about multicultural church planting and multicultural ministry, Leroy says, "In my day, they never seemed to start out that way. It was largely whites going into black areas to teach Sunday school, etc. Anglos have just not done a good job of reaching out and building bridges, unless those they were ministering to were willing to assimilate to Mennonite culture. I remember in Lancaster Conference blacks wearing plain coats and prayer coverings. Those of us in the 1950s and 1960s in urban ministry broke away from a lot of ethnic things. Music and worship is important. We struggled with being culturally appropriate in that respect. You can’t come into an urban ethnic neighborhood and think you’re going to get away with doing church in an ethnically Mennonite way."

The browning urbanizat