At First Covenant Church (FCC) in St. Paul, Minnesota, a church with longstanding roots in the city’s East Side neighborhood, you can still find families with ties to the original Swedish immigrants who planted the church 140 years ago. But by 2002, the congregation had arrived at a critical juncture. “It was an aging congregation filled with fear, fear of dying, fear of change,” says pastor Anne Vining. The largely Caucasian church decided that it needed to face those fears and pray for direction on its next steps.
What emerged from the crucible of self-examination for FCC and its leaders was the realization that although its neighborhood had remained blue-collar socioeconomically, the racial and ethnic composition of the East Side had diversified far from its Swedish origins. To keep pace with these changes, the church had to begin doing the same. Steve Benson, a lay leader whose daughter represents the sixth generation of his family to attend FCC, recalls, “The landscape of our community had changed, and we needed to re-envision ourselves given what was already right at our doorstep.”
Given its location in close proximity to three local public schools, FCC decided that it would focus its ministry efforts on children and youth in the community. Today, if you were to visit the church, you would find that a racial transformation has taken place. On Wednesdays, FCC opens its doors to children and youth in the community for tutoring, rehearsals in one of the many musicals the church produces in conjunction with the local public schools, and a free hot meal. Eighty percent of the people present in these mid-week ministries are non-Anglo. Keep reading
Photo: First Covenant Church
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