God is Faithful

If walls could talk! In a way, they do, but the current extensive walls on our Schweitzer campus tell only a portion of our story. There’s much truth to the children’s rhyme “Here’s the church and here’s the steeple; open the doors and here are the people.” The church of Jesus Christ is built on people, and people have been called and are being called to construct this place we call Schweitzer Church for the glory of God.

We are blessed to have people, both past and present, who love to tell the story. We have written accounts from those who have gone before us who have left testimonies of God’s faithfulness. There are numerous places in Scripture where God commanded his people to “write this down” (Habakkuk 2:2, Jeremiah 30:2, Revelation 1:19, Isaiah 30:8, Exodus 17:4), and we have many testimonies of our beginnings. Only a few remain who were witnesses, but the stories of the early days have been passed from person to person, written and spoken. Over the coming months, you will read and hear many stories of people who understood that “where there is no vision the people will perish” (Proverbs 29:18) and acted on what they heard from God.

The introductory article in a booklet crafted to celebrate the first fifty years of Schweitzer opens with “In the beginning…The People who built the church called Schweitzer.” The article tells the story of Rev. B.E. Dillon, a retired Methodist minister who lived with his wife, Hettie, on Oak Grove Street, just outside the city limits of Springfield. Directly across the street from their home was a pear orchard. In 1950, Rev. Dillon had a vision of a church on a portion of the orchard. He approached the owner of the property, Mrs. Schweitzer, and asked her to donate an acre of the property. Mrs. Schweitzer agreed. Rev. Dillon then asked the Southwest Missouri Methodist Conference for assistance. With an acre of land and $1000 from the Conference, Schweitzer Methodist Church was built at 1500 South Oak Grove Street under the direction of Rev. G. Fred Gilbert, another retired minister.

On opening Sunday, approximately thirty people attended the service. Within a month, Rev. Paul White, a former assistant chaplain in WWII, was appointed by the conference as pastor. Rev. White reminisced about the beginning: “We started with chairs borrowed from St. Paul Church and a handful of Cokesbury Hymnals…. When the call was made for charter membership, 38 people responded.

In 1954, Rev. Bill O’Quinn was appointed pastor. Rev. Quinn had a vision of selling the concrete block church on Oak Grove and purchasing the Schweitzer Home, which was on the market for $50,000. In conversation with his wife, he told her about a dream he had that would provide money to purchase the home. “I know where I’m going to sell that church. There ought to be a park there where children can play. I’m going to sell it to the park department.” And he did. The city paid $16,000 for the property, enough to put a down payment on the Schweitzer home fronting Sunshine Street. In a letter to Mrs. O’Quinn, he quipped, “There were supposed to be 60 or 70 members, but I can’t find but 30 of them.” At the end of his term at Schweitzer, membership had grown to 642.

These stories of people who saw a vision and followed through with what God asked of them are just a few examples of how God has built our church through human hands consecrated to His work.

As the physical shape of our building changes, what vision is God giving you? What part is God asking you to play in building Schweitzer Church for the glory of God?

God was faithful. God is faithful. God will be faithful.

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Schweitzer Church Historical Timeline