After Difficult Journey, Church Has New Home; Allen Ebenezer C.M.E. Rises at Its Old Site

By TOM HEINEN

A little more than nine years ago, the Rev. Isaiah “Ike” Sims watched helplessly as flames engulfed the steeple and roof of his newly renovated 1890s church.

His dreams and those of his congregation were drifting away like windswept smoke.

The building had to be razed. Services continued in the parsonage, then in a sister church. Membership declined. The neighborhood, already challenged with poverty, struggled.

But Sims did not give up hope, even when the journey dragged on.

And at noon today, elders from across the Midwest will join him and Presiding Bishop Paul A. G. Stewart Sr. of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church’s 3rd Episcopal District in dedicating the new, 300-seat Allen Ebenezer C.M.E. Church on its old site at 2669 N. 19th St. The first service will be at 11 a.m. Sunday.

“I was devastated,” Sims said as he recalled the day that the fire was accidentally ignited as workers were installing a new roof on the church. “I was really hurt and disappointed. It just took it all out of me. I didn’t give up. I had a mind to do that, but I wanted to keep going.”

How does he feel now as he stands in front of the approximately $550,000 replacement church at N. 19th and W. Center streets, next to the sod, wood chips, evergreens and mums that he got on his hands and knees to help install?

“I feel the Lord has blessed us, not just me, but the members and the community,” Sims said. “I feel good about it. I really do. We have a lot of hope for the future, and I’ve always said that this church would be a model for the community, not just a Methodist church with the members, but for the community.”

There are many good people in the area, said Sims, but it is challenged, even though some new housing has been constructed just east of the church along Center St.

“There’s a tremendous need, tremendous,” said the Rev. Willie F. Dockery Jr., presiding elder for the denomination’s Milwaukee district and pastor/elder of Bethel C.M.E. Church, 3281 N. 26th St. “There’s crime, all of the social ills that you can think of. And it provides an opportunity to do ministry and provide a beacon of hope. It’s an area that very much needs the presence and involvement of a church. I think it’s on the upswing.”

Nellie Harris, an Ebenezer member in her 70s who lives on N. 19th St. across from the church, remembers thinking that the neighborhood would be lost without the church as she watched the fire on June 24, 1998. Now, she has watched from her front porch as construction progressed.

“That will make a whole lot of difference,” she said this week. “Everybody’s talking about they’ll be glad when the church gets back there. They pass by and tell me practically every day, ‘Miss Nellie, I’ll be in church Sunday.’ And I say, ‘OK, then, we’d love to have you. Come on.’ “

Sims is planning to hold community organizing meetings at the church on Saturdays to combat crime and to build community spirit. The church soon will restart the food pantry it used to operate, and other programs. There is a new fellowship hall adjacent to the worship area, but its kitchen won’t be fully equipped until more money is raised.

Lofty goals. And not without some financial risk.

The church has a $400,000 loan from Legacy Bank. After some ups and downs, it used $70,000 in insurance money, donations from members, some seed money from the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church district and donations from other C.M.E. churches to get the project rolling. Presiding elders from other parts of the Midwest will bring love-offering donations today, too, Dockery said.

Allen Ebenezer C.M.E. Church was established in 1996, through the merger of Allen Temple C.M.E. Church and Ebenezer C.M.E. Church. The building that burned was bought by Allen Temple in 1977.

The congregation’s long journey toward rebuilding included making a decision in December 2005 to demolish the parsonage to make way for the new church and to temporarily worship with Trinity C.M.E. Church, 3820 N. Teutonia Ave.

At the time of the fire, Ebenezer had average Sunday attendance of 110 to 115, Sims said. Slightly more than 70 individuals are enrolled now, and people are starting to come back as word of the new church spreads, he added.

“People have told me I was kind of off the rocker when I said I was building a new church down here on 19th and Center,” Sims said. ” . . . We walk by faith, and it seems to be going. It looks pretty positive right now.”

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