Dayton church celebrates 125th anniversary.
By Virginia Burroughs
Contributing Writer
On April 2 members of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church gathered at Fitch and Dunbar streets, the church’s original location, and marched up the hill to 401 S. Paul Laurence Dunbar St., its present location.
The “march” represented the congregation’s move in April 1929 and marked the kickoff of the church’s 125th anniversary.
Bethel, an offshoot of Zion Baptist Church, was organized in 1892, outgrew its original site and purchased the larger building from Fourth Reformed Church in 1928.
Following the April 2 march, a service was led by guest pastor the Rev. Terry D. Streeter, from Mount Pleasant Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., who’s also the chairman of the Board of Education and Publication for the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
“A Who’s Who of African-American Life have been in this pulpit for special events,” said the Rev. Xavier L. Johnson, the church’s 12th pastor. He took the pulpit in 2013, after the retirement of Dr. Charles S. Brown, who served the congregation from 1982-2011, and is now pastor emeritus. A bust of the Rev. Brown, made by local sculptor Lois Fortman, was recently unveiled at the Schuster Center.
“A call process went out through the Convention, and Bethel’s profile reminded me of the church I grew up in, Beulah Baptist Institutional Church in Tampa Florida,” recalls the Rev. Johnson. “Like Bethel, it’s an historic church with an historic pulpit, and has a commitment to social justice and civic engagement.” Beulah, at 150, is the oldest African-American Baptist congregation in Tampa.
“Bethel feels like home to me, with its active, loving and kind members and radical hospitality. It’s doing what Christ called us to do.”
Cheryl Johnson, a lifelong member of the church, whose parents were also members, said, “Social justice has been a key function of this church.” A retired Dayton school administrator, she said, “All of our pastors have been civic leaders, and we’ve had a number of prominent speakers in our pulpit.”