October 2020 — pg. 23
urfm You are the church
This may sound like a recent news report, but the year
is 1978, not 2020. Editor G. Roger Schoenhals goes on
to write about the challenges faced by the nearby Free
Methodist congregation in a predominantly white urban
neighborhood known for trying to keep out minorities:
“So what should the people of the Westlawn Free
Methodist Church do? If they allow Blacks into their
fellowship — or even perform a wedding involving
Blacks — the community will express vengeance upon
property and person. (This happened one year ago.)
Some in the church feel strongly that they should not
minister to Blacks lest they jeopardize opportunities for
ministry to the community.”
Schoenhals’ account of some church members’
acquiescence to racism may seem shocking in a
denominational magazine — especially a denomination
with an abolitionist heritage. The story doesn’t end
there, however.
“The minority — including Pastor John Owen — take
the position that a conciliatory to racist neighbors
posture is contrary to the spirit of Christ. They want to
take a stand no matter what the cost.”
That pastor, John “Ike” Owen, only stayed for two
years at the Westlawn FMC whose members had
been threatened with firebombing (not an idle threat
because the home of a local Salvation Army leader was
firebombed) if the church continued its cross-cultural
ministry efforts. After Owen’s removal, the church
eventually closed.
“It closed because the church couldn’t come to grips
with ministering to people of color,” said Owen, now the
founder and executive director of the Crisis Chaplain
Corps, during a September 2020 interview with LIGHT
+ LIFE. “I eventually was regarded as a troublemaker
because I performed the wedding of a Black woman and
a White police officer.”
That wedding fits with two recurring aspects of
Owen’s more than a half-century of pastoral ministry —
serving urban residents of color and also police officers
(some of whom, of course, are police officers of color). E.
Dean Cook’s book, “Chaplaincy: Being God’s Presence
in Closed Communities” describes Owen as “one of the
church’s pioneer police chaplains. His large frame and
big heart have left a legacy of police and crisis ministry
work across many states and cities.”
At an age where many people settle into retirement,
Owen continues to follow God’s leading to serve
urban residents and police officers. The night before
his interview with this magazine, Owen unexpectedly
served as a liaison between his immigrant neighbors
and police.
Owen’s Chicago ministry was preceded by his time as a
Free Methodist pastor in Minneapolis where he worked
with people of multiple ethnicities while also serving
as a chaplain for both the local Police Department
and Minnesota’s largest mental health care facility. His
chaplain work with the Twin Cities’ diverse residents
attracted some of those same people to the First Free
Methodist Church — not only African Americans but
also many Latinos and Native Americans. Owen noted
that Minneapolis is among the North American cities
with the highest number of Native American residents.
During protests three days after the death of George
Floyd, the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct
station was burned down May 28.
“The 3rd Precinct is where I got my start in the police
chaplain ministries in the late ’60s,” said Owen, who
worked with the area’s diverse residents and helped
the department recruit African American and Native
American chaplains. “You can’t be involved as a police
chaplain without encountering all of the cultural aspects
of our country.”
Rural to Urban
Owen said he has been given “an apostolic gift” to
be able “to jump cultures.” He said he was “raised in
a hollow in Appalachia on a crick creek bank with
an outhouse and went to a one-room school, so you
couldn’t be more rural than I was.”
He attended the Elmira (New York) Free Methodist
Church, now known as Hand in Hand FMC, and he
and his brother, Jim Owen, became friends with future
Bishop Richard Snyder and his brother, Vernon Snyder.
They formed a teen singing group and then went to
Roberts Wesleyan College. He continued his studies at
Asbury Theological Seminary in rural Kentucky. He was
mentored by Gilbert James, a Free Methodist professor,
who took some of his Asbury students in 1967 on a
trip to Chicago where James gave the students different
assignments.
“He assigned me to ride with police. I didn’t have a lot
of interest in police necessarily,” Owen recalled. “I saw
unbelievable corruption exercised on the South Side of
Chicago.”
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