KANSAS CITY (BP) – Mount Washington Baptist Church’s heyday was yesteryear. The decline of what was once one of the largest churches in the Kansas City area began in the late ’60s. The 500-seat auditorium fell silent on Sundays as less than 20 senior adults met for worship in the fellowship hall of the church’s basement.
Just two blocks down the street was Greater New Home Baptist Church. With more than 10 times the members of Mount Washington, the growing Greater New Home was at capacity and needed more space.
Jason Terpak is a student from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, who was serving as an intern at Mount Washington. He suggested to Tom Renfro, bi-vocational pastor at Mount Washington, that he should meet with Clarence Newton, pastor of Greater New Home, to discuss a possible merger.
Newton said that he’d met Terpak on the street, and that was the beginning of the venture.
“I was skeptical,” said Renfro. “But from the very first meeting last August, Pastor Clarence and I hit it off. Everything we talked about we were on the same page. It seemed like a perfect fit and match.”
“The first meeting we had – I didn’t know what to expect,” said Newton. “Almost immediately we started talking about a merger as we toured the building. It just clicked.”
Newton said that Renfro was willing to step aside as lead pastor. “Unbelievable,” said Newton. “What a humble brother. He’s pastor over such a great facility and he could be calling the shots.” Renfro also offered to vacate his office for Newton.
Agreed to pray
The pastors agreed to pray about a merger as each church formed study committees. And on Oct. 3, the Greater New Home Baptist Church disbanded and the members joined Mount Washington.
“Our people embraced it as the opportunity we’d been praying for –to see Mount Washington survive,” said Renfro, noting that both churches “moved amazingly quickly, meeting six times in three weeks.”
Renfro explained that Mount Washington members wanted to retain the name of the 99-year-old church to celebrate its centennial in 2011.
“That was one of the toughest issues we faced,” Newton said. “We planted Greater New Home with a majority of unchurched people. They were saved there, baptized there, married there. Our name meant something to them, and changing it met some resistance.”
Through the process, however, Newton said that Greater New Home members realized how God was blessing them with facilities that had growing room. “God changed hearts. We got to the point of accepting God’s call to help carry on the Mount Washington name after 100 years. Not only that, when we meet people on the street, who are hungry and lost, they don’t really care what your church name is.”
Of particular concern to both pastors was how the ethnic make-up of each church would affect the merger. Mount Washington was all white, whereas Greater New Home was 75 percent black and 25 percent other minority ethnicities.
“Tom and I do have differing styles and church members,” Newton said. “And at the outset, we agreed that we’d be foolish to think there’d be no head-butts, territorialism and control issues. But those issues have been very minimal.”
“There is a tension in trying to get past the ‘us-and-them’ mentality,” said Renfro, who noted the use of certain pronouns might easily be misinterpreted.
Like a second marriage
Likening the merger to a parent’s second marriage, Renfro said the children have a new parent who is an immediate family member but is not very well known. “So, it takes time to develop deep and meaningful relationships,” he said.
As for the possible racial tension, “I haven’t seen anything that could be called racism,” said Newton, who added that the original Mount Washington members “have been more than loving toward us, very kind, very sweet. I think what we’ve experienced is just the normal adjustment of two churches becoming one, and not anything racially based.”
Newton cited his own interracial marriage, saying that Greater New Home members have no problem with racial integration.
“Pastor Clarence and I agree that churches shouldn’t be white or black, but should be places where anyone, regardless of socio-economic status or race, should be welcomed and cared for,” Renfro said.
Saying that both pastors were “intentional about a fully integrated church staff and leadership,” Renfro noted that many Southern Baptist pastors and churches talk about integration and of welcoming all races into their membership.
“To those churches I would ask a few questions: ‘If you really believe that, then why don’t you have a black man on your staff? Why don’t you have a worship service that appeals to other races? You have three different worship services, but why are they all geared toward the comfort of the white person from the suburbs?’”
“Tom is so right,” said Newton, formerly of the National Baptist Convention. “There was so much talk about ministering to all races, but they were doing nothing to go into the neighborhoods to minister to those of other colors. So, we left that convention because it didn’t appeal to our white brothers and sisters. There was ignorance coming from pulpits, and people were getting hurt and not wanting to come back to church.”
Regarding convention alignment, Mount Washington members wanted the incoming members not only to be aware of the church’s Southern Baptist Convention affiliations, but to be willing to sign a document in agreement with ongoing participation and support, Renfro noted.
“It’s exciting,” Newton said of his meetings with local Southern Baptist pastors and associational leaders. “It’s like a breath of fresh air.”
Separate worship services
Another issue for Mount Washington’s original members was a desire to maintain their traditional worship service in the fellowship hall because the former Greater New Home members worship in a more contemporary format.
“Though we didn’t want to be two churches meeting in one location, we did agree on two separate, simultaneous worship services,” said Renfro, adding that both services are open to anyone. Renfro preaches in the traditional service as Newton preaches in the other.
While each worship service is exceptionally distinct, “We were very deliberate that everything else, including Sunday school would be combined,” said Renfro, who added, “Our theology and our doctrine are one.”
Both Newton and Renfro agree that God is blessing as the church baptized nine people in the first few weeks since the merger. “That’s more than the church baptized in the last 10 years,” Renfro said. The church also has added 10 other members.
Recently, two young men walking down the street approached Mount Washington members who were working outside the church. After a few minutes of conversation and sharing the Gospel, each young man prayed a prayer of repentance and committed his life to Christ.
Unchurched people
Newton said his research shows there are 2,000 other unchurched people in the church’s immediate neighborhood, and that he’s ready to start ministries to reach them.
“It was a healthy thing for these churches to merge into one family,” Renfro said. “Pastor Clarence has a passion for reaching people for Christ, and I have a passion to see Mount Washington reborn and start doing something for the kingdom of God rather than simply seeing how long we can survive.”
“God is transforming Mount Washington from a bunker to a beacon,” Newtown said. “We’ve put our feet in the stirrups, and he is taking us for a blessed ride.”
NORM MILLER/Baptist Press