The Rainier Avenue Church celebrated its 100-year anniversary this month, commemorating their time as a Free Methodist church in the Rainier Valley area by showing their strength and perseverance in the face of changes, declines, and revitalization.
With insufficient resources and inadequate funds, the century old church celebrated their survival in the community, and pledges to continue reaching out to help the underprivileged community that it ministers to.
"We are a family of churches with a heart for the poor and people that are oppressed," Marvin Earl Gray, Outreach Pastor at Rainier Avenue Church said. "It's a holistic approach, not only to serve the spirit but also to serve the whole person."
The Free Methodist denomination evolved into the Rainier Avenue Church after years of financial, economic, and racial hardships. During the Civil War, the Methodist church began to split off into a Free Methodist church, taking a stand against slavery, as well as setting a new image for themselves. They added the 'free' to the name 'Methodist' to exemplify their new image. 'Free' meaning belief in abolishment of slavery, the removal of having to pay for a seat in the church, and free to worship in whatever way they wanted.
When the Rainier Avenue Church was born in 1904 in a small house on Holly Street to a handful of people, their goal was to show the community that their church was open to anybody, from any background.
"Our real goal is to reach out to people in the Rainier Valley and meet their needs both spiritually and physically," Leonard Root, long time church attendant said. "We wouldn't be here otherwise."
Like the neighborhood it belongs to, the Rainier Avenue Church is an eclectic mix of people from various ethnic backgrounds. The congregation is comprised of 40 percent Pacific Islanders/Asians, 40 percent Caucasians, and 20 percent African Americans/Latin Americans, and their backgrounds range from recent immigrants and the formerly homeless to the financially successful professionals. Altogether, 30 different ethnicities attend the church and 45 percent of them speak a language other than English at home.
No matter what one is, long time churchgoers insist all are welcome.
"It's a family church and a lot of people who are disabled or people who have racially integrated families feel comfortable here," said long time member Edith Root.
She began attending a Free Methodist church with her husband Leonard when they were enrolled in Seattle Pacific University. After graduation, Root and began working in the South end of Seattle, and the couple tried out the Rainier Avenue Church to see how it would work. They were delighted.
"The message and the people keep us coming to this church," said Edith. "There's a lot of love here and good teaching."
Staying power
Out of 4,000 incorporations in the year 1904, the Rainier Avenue Church is one out of 43 that survived to reach their centennial birthday.
"It's amazing that they've stayed here," Ruby England, an attendant at a nearby Queen Anne sister church said. "A lot of churches move and this one stayed for the community. It's great to see what a multi-national community it is. It shows they have a commitment to the ministry to all people and to reach out to people in the community."
Those who have dedicated their life to the building of the church couldn't agree more.
"I think that we have to credit the legacy of this church to being pragmatic and working through challenging situations," Marvin Earl Gray, Outreach Pastor at Rainier Avenue Church said. "It's stayed and become diverse and healthy and more than doubled since our current pastor came. Because of our pioneering, we will persevere in spite of challenges."
That perseverance has led to increased attendance and a subsequent lack of space. Due to the requirement to meet various city codes, Rainier Valley Church is now in the middle of overhauling the church building and struggling to raise the $4.5 million needed for the project.
"People were shoulder to shoulder," Gray said. "It's a good problem to have if we are going to reach our vision of reaching one percent of people in Rainier Valley, but we just have to expand."
With a legacy of a hundred years to live up to, Gray feels confident his staff and congregation can achieve their outreach goal of one percent of the South End.
"We want to be a more multicongregational church; add a Spanish language service, or a Pacific Island or Laotian service; expand to four services, but that depends on what leaders emerge and our impact in the community," Gray said.
Gray sites the biggest changes in the church over the past 100 years have been growth and a change in leadership styles. The traditional role of a pastor having all the people following his or her lead has lost its hold and now the church has a multitude of leaders.
"The fantastic leadership we have here has helped increase the energy in worship style and increase the diversity here," Gray said. "It is an anchor. The church has been around for 100 years and seen changes, declines, and been revitalized. It represents an anchor in the community and it represents an anchor in the ministry. "
[[In-content Ad]]
