By their fruits ...

Church set to celebrate keeping the faith for 125 years, having steadily grown from 4 to 9,000 with vibrant spirit, community involvement

A service is conducted at Saint Mark Baptist Church, where the congregation numbers about 9,000 members.
A service is conducted at Saint Mark Baptist Church, where the congregation numbers about 9,000 members.

Once a congregation of four members, Saint Mark Baptist Church in Little Rock -- with a record attendance of more than 9,000 members a month -- kicks off a weeklong celebration of its 125th anniversary today as the largest predominantly black church in Arkansas.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Saint Mark Baptist Church once stood at the corner of 31st and Ringo streets in Little Rock.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Saint Mark Baptist Church’s coed ushers board sits for a portrait in November 1941.

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Members of Saint Mark Baptist Church break ground on the church’s location on Gaines Street in 1972.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Saint Mark Baptist Church would remain at its third location until 1994

"It's unique not only in that it's survived, but that it's thrived," Senior Pastor Phillip Pointer said.

Founded by four members, including a preacher, the congregation established itself in 1892 in a nameless storehouse at the corner of 31st and Izard streets, calling itself Izard Street Baptist Church. In 1905, the slightly larger congregation broke ground on its first constructed church at the corner of 31st and Ringo streets.

In 1928, the Rev. Lee Calcote was installed as pastor and was serving in that position when lifelong member Archie Ellis, now 85, was first brought to the church by his mother and grandmother as a child.

At that time, the church had three components: a congregation of about 50, a preacher and a choir. "There weren't many activities like there [are] now," Ellis said.

Little Rock was a different town at that time too, he said, and the neighborhood's unpaved streets meant the family, which lived at the top of a hill about four blocks from the church, would often walk in boots through muddy streets and change into different shoes once they reached the church. If it rained there would be trouble getting to the church, Ellis said. If it rained hard enough and long enough, parishioners didn't make it to church at all.

It was during the mid-1940s that the church was beginning to grow and progress, Ellis recalls. During Calcote's time as pastor, the church building was remodeled with a brick exterior, several deacons were ordained and the first youth programs, including a choir and an usher board, helped to expand the ministry.

Glenda Woods, 67, is Ellis' niece and another lifelong member of Saint Mark. She remembers being brought to the church by her grandmother -- Ellis' mother -- any time the church doors were open. By the time she became an official member in 1960, the church was holding annual revivals, said Woods, who would grow up to become the church's bookkeeper.

An urban renewal project led to the declaration of the 31st and Ringo streets area as a flood zone in 1972, according to Woods, and the church was compelled to move, choosing a new location at 3221 Gaines St. It was after the church's construction that its pastor at the time, the Rev. Duggar Johnson, began the practice of tithing, which helped pay off the church's mortgage in eight years.

LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES

According to the church, Johnson believed that young people were the future of Saint Mark and implemented leadership initiatives for youths by allowing them to preach and to represent the church at the National Baptist Convention. The church also established its first Boy Scout troop during Johnson's time as pastor.

Lamarr Bailey, 55, executive pastor and vice chairman of elders at the church, said he and his wife had been married for about a year in 1987 when they joined Saint Mark. The church's pastor at the time, the Rev. Maurice Watson, was 21 and the church -- known as one of the more progressive churches in the area -- became a gathering place for many young adults.

"Saint Mark wasn't always a perfect church, but we always felt that Saint Mark was a genuine church," Bailey said. "And that was really attractive to us."

Church membership had reached 300 by the time the Rev. Steven Arnold, assistant pastor to Watson, was installed in January 1989 after Watson was called to another assignment.

Additional ministries, outreach, the establishment of the church's first Girl Scout troop and development of the church's evangelism and discipleship activities led to growth that expanded membership such that in June 1992 the church added another Sunday morning worship service.

That year the church also began its television ministry, The Light of the World, which aired in 130 countries worldwide and continues to be broadcast today as The Growth Factor.

By January 1994, when the church moved to its current location at 5722 W. 12th St., membership topped 1,000, according to Woods.

Now a 66-acre campus, the church has managed to keep up with its ever-growing congregation at its current location -- first by increasing the number of services each week and then, in 2006, the number of services each Sunday.

In 1997, the church bought what would become its education center, and in 1999 an expansion project added another 300 seats in the congregation hall's main floor.

Arnold resigned in October 2010 after admitting to an "inappropriate relationship" with a female parishioner, the Democrat-Gazette reported. The church, whose membership by that time had reached 7,000, was without a pastor for two years following Arnold's resignation, yet its congregation continued to flourish, Woods said.

"It was a move of God, because we didn't have a substitute to fill in while we were looking [for another pastor]," Woods said. "We just prayed and had a few people to lead [us], but we continued to grow."

REACHING BEYOND CHURCH DOORS

According to Pointer, his appointment as senior pastor was "a God thing."

Saint Mark had settled on three finalists for the position, but when one dropped out, Pointer was asked by a mutual friend in the church to fill in as preacher one Sunday in 2012 and then asked by the elders to consider applying for the position.

Pointer, 38, was installed as senior pastor in November 2012 and has continued Saint Mark's tradition of growth within and outside the church.

"Traditionally in the African-American community, the church has been the center of community life and essentially the passing along of our heritage as a people. ... [Now] there's just so many things vying for our attention that my generation and the generation that follow me can kind of get lost in terms of their heritage -- both socially and spiritually. So it's important for the church to continue to communicate our spiritual heritage and our social heritage to a generation that has a lot of options.

"We're not resting on what Saint Mark has done. We're building on what Saint Mark has done."

Its outreach efforts have included cleanup efforts in Tulsa after a 2013 tornado and donating more than 6,000 bottles of water to residents of Flint, Mich., during the city's water crisis in 2014.

One of the church's initiatives since Pointer's installation is its Care Center, which among other services offers medical screenings, assistance with employment preparation and legal counseling.

An effort focused on the Little Rock area is the church's Reclaiming Scholars Program, which provides middle and high school students with an alternative to out-of-school suspension to decrease recidivism within the grade school disciplinary system.

The church's latest addition to its campus is its Children and Youth Center. Pointer said it was created because of the growth of the church's children and youth ministries, and because Saint Mark wanted to demonstrate to the community the extent of its regard for children.

Despite the size of its congregation, Bailey said Saint Mark still has a small-church feel.

"Everyone knows everyone's children," Bailey said. "The children feel comfortable going, and the parents feel safe [bringing their children to the church]."

WEEK OF SONG, REVIVAL, REUNION

The church's celebratory events begin today with a concert by the Saint Mark Sanctuary Choir called "The Saint Mark Experience." The performance will be recorded and will become the choir's second such project since its album Next Level Praise was released in 2007.

The church will mark the birth of the Christian church on Sunday with its celebration of Pentecost. Monday will be the first night of a two-night revival, and the church will host a black-tie anniversary gala Friday at Robinson Center.

Events will culminate June 11, the church's anniversary, with services given by the church's three living pastors past and present -- Pointer, Maurice Watson of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Largo, Md., and Arnold, who pastors The City of Grace in Little Rock.

In addition, the freshly repainted church atrium will become a hall of history with a curated collection of photographs documenting how the church has been a part of Little Rock and U.S. history, Bailey said.

COMMUNITY, GRACE, SPIRIT

Woods and Ellis attribute Pointer's approach to preaching as a motivating factor for parishioners new and established.

"He breaks it down [so] the most common person coming in off the street would understand it," Woods said. "He'll make you think, and then you go home and research a little bit more."

"He's got the right words at the right place," Ellis said.

Pointer attributes the church's continued growth to the commitment of its parishioners to God and to one another.

"Saint Mark has a unique and a very special grace on it that God has given this church," Pointer said. "There's just a unique spirit here of people who are committed to God. ... There's been seasons where [the growth is] dynamic, and seasons where it's explosive.

"It's the people. It's not necessarily the pastor. It's the people that have made Saint Mark what it is."

Religion on 06/03/2017

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