Wilcrest Baptist Church

Wilcrest Baptist Church, a church in Houston Texas run by pastor Rodney Woo, is known for a degree of racial diversity that is unusually high as compared with other churches in the United States. It operates under the mission statement:

"Wilcrest Baptist Church is God's multi-ethnic bridge that draws all people to Jesus Christ, who transforms them from unbelievers to missionaries."

Wilcrest was founded in 1970 in what was then the primarily Caucasian suburb of Alief, Texas, later annexed as part of Houston.cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=pxQpDlAO8H4C&pg=PA1&dq=wilcrest+baptist+church&sig=ACfU3U0mRp23qu5rPAPFagw0yHBu2n7_Kg|title=People Of The Dream: Multiracial Congregations In The United States|author=Michael O. Emerson, Rodney M. Woo|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=2006|isbn=0691124515] The congregation matched the racial make-up of the community. However, during the 1980s the neighborhood had changed due to a phenomenon sometimes called white flight and had become primarily African-American.

In 1989 the New York Times profiled a wedding conducted in Mandarin, between two graduate students from China whose parents could not attend because of travel restrictions in the wake of the Tiananmen Square Massacre [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2D6103CF936A15751C1A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1|title=Wedding Binds Students But Separates Families|author=Lisa Belkin|date=1989-12-25|publisher=New York Times] By the early 21st Century the neighborhood had not only multi-generational blacks, whites, and Latinos, but also new immigrants from Mexico, Nigeria, Cuba, Haiti, and Vietnam.

Rodney Woo, an interracial pastor took over the church in 1992, by which time church membership was only 180 memberscite news|url=http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3463&Itemid=134|publisher=the Baptist Standard|date=2005-04-29|title=Prayer, vision smooth church transition to multiculturalism|author=George Henson] and attendance was down to 200 per service.cite news|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-15996985_ITM|title=Making diverse worship a reality is hard work.|author=Sam Hodges|publisher=Dallas Morning News|date=06-07-19] Himself interracial (his mother is white; his father part [Chinese-American), Woo attended an all-black high school in Port Arthur, Texas.cite news|publisher=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/04/segregated.sundays/|title=Why many Americans prefer their Sundays segregated|date=2008-08-04] Although there were some calls from members to keep the church segregated, Woo quickly convinced the church to reach out to Christians from many backgrounds, and eventually built attendance up to about 500, including members from 47 nations.

References

External links

* [http://www.wilcrestbaptist.org/ wilcrestbaptist.org] - official website