Church's history key to future - NewsOK.com9 April 2010, 7:06 pm
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http://feeds.newsok.tv/services/player/bcpid4659235001?bctid=77044349001A northeast Oklahoma City church is celebrating its 121st anniversary with a week of activities designed to commemorate its historic past and launch bold plans for the future.
Among the activities planned by Avery Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a congregational walk from the church’s former site at NW 1 and Stiles to its present location at 1425 N Kelham Ave.
The Rev. James McLaughlin, senior pastor, said the April 17 walk of about three miles is symbolic of the faith church leaders showed when they made the move from the Deep Deuce in 1959.
He said the church was started in a tent in Oklahoma City on the day of the Land Run of 1889. Seventy years later, the late Rev. Robert Alexander led the congregation that was determined to knock down walls of discrimination to claim the highly prized property where the church sits today.
McLaughlin said the church hopes to recapture the original vision of Alexander and other church forefathers. He and Alexander’s son, attorney Robert Alexander Jr., said the early church leaders believed the church could help solve many of life’s dilemmas through the application of Scripture.
McLaughlin said he would like the church to become a haven for children and teens in the community who need direction and guidance. He’d like to see tangible help — mentoring programs, substance abuse recovery, a gated community for older adults, an expansive child care center — along with spiritual aid.
Once the church spreads its influence outward, the surrounding neighborhoods will reap the rewards along with the congregation, he predicted.
"I’m just carrying on the legacy that has already been established, and the vision is not just for us — it’s for everybody.”
Heritage of faith
Alexander said the Avery congregation chose his father as pastor in 1952 and charged him with leading the congregation to another location. He said the church building sat in historic Deep Deuce, and the adjacent parsonage was once home to literary great Ralph Ellison, author of the classic "Invisible Man.”
Alexander said the congregation wanted to purchase a building complex on Kelham Avenue being sold by a white Baptist congregation. However, he said Oklahoma City banks would not lend them the money because black churches were not considered viable institutions for loans.
Alexander said his father found a foundation that agreed to lend the church the money to buy the complex, and leaders of a local bank told the church they would carry the note if the church could first show a good payment history with the foundation.
When the time came to ask the bank for the loan, some church leaders were hesitant to include some of the other leaders on the note, Alexander said. He said the congregation was made up of doctors and lawyers and business leaders but also included maids, washer women and shoeshine men. Some thought the bank would not take the church seriously if they included entrepreneurs such as the shoeshine man on the loan note.
Alexander said he remembers his father was adamant that the adults in question be included.
"He said, ‘It’s not just that we have lawyers, doctors and businessmen that we will make the note; that’s not the reason why this is a good loan, a safe loan for them to make. We have shoeshine men and washer women, too. Our faith is best demonstrated by the least among us who still believe and are still giving. We’re not going to be ashamed of who we are, and we are not going to be ashamed of what we are.’”
Alexander, one of the church’s stewards, said the congregation received the bank loan and bought the property on Kelham for $250,000. He said move-in day in 1959 was a grand occasion. A week later, the congregation hosted a large African Methodist Episcopal Church leaders’ event at the new site, which included three buildings.
"This was a showpiece for the AME Church,” he said.
A visionary’s plans
McLaughlin said he has been pastor of the church for about six months, but he feels as if he has been there his whole life.
He said he was working on his doctorate degree during a sabbatical from his Houston church when his wife, Cleo, was hired as senior vice president of Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma. He said they moved to Oklahoma, and the AME Church’s district bishop who leads the Oklahoma region asked if he would become pastor at Avery. McLaughlin said he knew some of the church’s history and felt the position would be a good fit for his vision for urban communities.
"The total sum of all my experience has shown up in this place,” he said.
He said he hopes to use his previous work in family counseling, substance abuse treatment and ministry to lead his new congregation in community outreach. In 2005, he was appointed as the first director of mental health and substance abuse for the AME Church. He also is president of McLaughlin & McLaughlin Counseling, a nonprofit he operates with his wife that provides consultation and training services in substance abuse, mental illness, co-dependency and family crisis.McLaughlin said he would like to see the church develop community programs designed for days other than Sunday and Wednesday and help entire families and communities make positive changes.
Alexander agreed.
"I’m so on fire for Avery to get back to where it is supposed to be,” he said. "We’re going to do some things now that will be worthy of our great heritage.”
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http://www.newsok.com/churchs-history-key-to-future/article/3452639?custom_click=masthead_topten#ixzz0khU2JriX
