Black Church, White Church, One Church: The Story of Grace Bible Fellowship
By William Marshall
On September 8, 2019, Smith Chapel United Methodist Church, a traditionally Black congregation, and Trinity Baptist Church, a traditionally white church, voted to merge together as one church: Grace Bible Fellowship. The name of the new church reflected its values: lead with grace, built on the Bible, diversity in fellowship, and centered on the gospel. The vision for this new work was to share Jesus with all people through the gospel of grace. Its hope is to display the beauty of belief in Christ and how it brings us together and keeps us together, no matter our various backgrounds.
How it All Started
The merge began over bar-b-que. Two pastors of different ethnicities breaking bread together and building a friendship. Yet, in another sense, the seeds were planted years before. Kenny, the now former pastor of Smith Chapel, grew up in our city with the lived experience of being a Black man in a divided community. I, William, the now former pastor of Trinity Baptist, came to the city sixteen years ago, fresh out of seminary and ready to pastor my first church. I was warned even then about the racial conflict in our city. The last public lynching in the state of Missouri took place here in 1942. In fact, it took place on a Sunday, and those who were at service at Smith Chapel could have walked outside their building and seen the location of the hatred and the violence. When I arrived in 2005, things were better, but the tension was still prevalent. Unfortunately, this was true even in the church. At the time, there were two Ministerial Alliances (pastors from various denominations seeking to partner together to serve the city): one white and one Black. Though the two groups have now joined together, I think it was obvious to many that there was much work to be done.
Of course, I had no idea what I was doing as a pastor, and I had even less of an idea how to fight for ethnic unity in our city. What I could do was pray, so I began to do that. I asked the Lord to show me ways that our church could bridge the gap between the races. I specifically asked the Lord to raise up brothers that I could partner with in this work. Honestly, that was the extent of what I did during my early years of ministry. I prayed and I waited.
A few things happened as I waited that increased my longing for ethnic unity in our town. First, my wife and I adopted two children of color. This wasn’t really our plan, but in God’s great mercy and good timing, we grew our family through the addition of two boys, now 13 and 6. As I began to raise these boys, I became painfully aware of my need for help in understanding what it’s like to grow up Black. And as a Christian, I wanted them to see the power of the gospel in bringing together ethnicities. I did not want them to think that Christianity was a “white man’s religion.” So I prayed even more for the Lord to show me men who could help.
The second thing that happened while I waited was something we called “Church in the Park.” On Sunday nights in the Spring and the Fall we would pick four consecutive Sunday nights and have our services in a local park. It wasn’t much: free hot dogs and fixings, a few songs, and a ten minute gospel presentation. We were trying to be intentional with the gospel, and it took us into various neighborhoods in our city. Our favorite spot quickly became the predominantly Black neighborhood on the west end of town, known locally as Sunset. The park we often went to was just a few blocks from Smith Chapel, although we didn’t know it at the time. We made some good friends in the neighborhood and even gained our first Black members through that ministry. But little did we know how that work would play into God’s bigger plan. After we did this for a few years, we recognized our need to partner with a local church in the area for two reasons: to avoid the “White Savior” perception and because some folks from the neighborhood, if they wanted to find a church, would not be able to attend our’s due to it being all the way on the other side of town. So we prayed and we waited. Prayed and waited. And all the while the Lord was working in ways we couldn’t see.
The Crazy Old White Guy
My first encounter with Kenny is another example of God’s kind providence. We had decided to take our youth to an FCA event at our local high school called “Fields of Faith.” The theme for the night was “Unity” and they had asked a local minority pastor to speak. Of course, I didn’t know any of this until we got there, and I was honestly a bit skeptical about the whole thing (for context, I was a bit down on youth events from my days of being a youth pastor). I was hoping for the music to not be too loud (I sound like an old man) and the gospel to be clear. I really can’t remember much about the music, but I will never forget the sermon. This Black brother walks up there and jokes about being called “The Black Francis Chan” (a fairly accurate description of Kenny), which got my attention, and then proceeds to preach a great gospel message from Ephesians 2. I was so encouraged by his sermon and I was determined to get to know this local pastor. On the way back to my car I found him on Facebook and sent him a message asking if he would meet me for lunch. When he tells the story he always laughs about receiving the message and wondering: “Who is this crazy old white guy messaging me?” But he graciously accepted my invite to lunch, and we agreed to meet at a local bar-b-que restaurant (since good bar-b-que is one of the other bridges to ethical unity).
Our first meeting was a bit awkward, but when we started talking about our local churches and how we were trying to lead them toward biblical faithfulness, I knew I had found a brother in the Lord. I left the meeting so encouraged. A few months later we met again and continued to get to know one another. The ribs were good and the fellowship was sweet. I told him about my sons and my longing for them to know men who looked like them and loved Jesus. He told me about his desire to plant a diverse church in our city (a plan that God put on pause when He called Kenny to Smith Chapel). He had heard about “Church in the Park” and was encouraged by our attempt to love the folks in the neighborhood. We shared our difficulties in ministry and prayed for one another. We continued to meet over bar-b-que, and our friendship in the Lord continued to grow.
The Merge
At our first lunch meeting, Kenny talked with me about his belief that his church needed to leave their denomination due to disagreements primarily centered around inerrancy of Scripture. Over the next year we talked about this more and more. Finally, he came to one meeting and said he thought it was time to make the move. I asked him what they would do next, thinking I might be able to talk him into joining our local Baptist association. He wasn’t sure what they would do, but he knew that they had to make the move. I told him I would pray about it and we agreed to meet again. While praying, the Lord gave me a crazy idea: what if we merged our churches together? I knew that Kenny and I were very like-minded in our beliefs (in fact, I hadn’t found anything that we disagreed on), so I thought that could work. But being like-minded and joining our congregations together were two different things. Even so, I felt like I should at least bring it up and see what he thought.
At our next meeting, somewhere in the middle of eating my hot wings, I asked him what he thought about merging. He agreed that it was crazy and that it would probably never work. But he also thought it was worth trying. We decided to do a couple of things: have some shared services between the churches and talk with some other brothers that we trusted about the idea of a merge. We did both, and both went well. The brothers that we talked to were very excited about the idea and immediately began working with us on how we could make it happen. We agreed on a plan, set it into motion, and led our churches to the vote on September 8th of that year. And by God’s grace, they both voted overwhelmingly to merge.
Some Lessons
For the record, I’m not sure I would ever encourage a Baptist pastor and a Methodist pastor to join their congregations. Not because it didn’t work for us, but because I know it’s not going to work in most situations. For Smith Chapel and Trinity Baptist it has worked great. We are now two years in and still thankful that we went forward with the crazy idea. During those two years (and the years prior) the Lord has taught me so much about fighting for ethnic unity in our ministries. Let me close by mentioning a few.
First, the key to ethnic unity is gospel unity. It is the gospel that brings us together and keeps us together. Second, gospel unity normally begins with friendship. Go eat bar-b-que with a brother who doesn't look like you. Be intentional. Some friendships happen organically, but others must be pursued. Friendships across racial (and other) divides normally require the latter. Third, pray and wait, wait and pray. Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). In glory, there will be no divisions over ethnicity or race. Even though that will never be perfectly realized on earth, Jesus did teach us to pray for it and pursue it. I believe that He will give us the grace to obey.
William Marshall is the Pastor of Grace Bible Fellowship in Sikeston, Missouri. He is married to Glenna and has two sons. You can find William on twitter @bro_wmmarshall