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Ghetto Worship: a Study of the Names of Chicago Storefront Churches

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Ghetto Worship: a Study of the Names of Chicago Storefront Churches Ghetto Worship A Study of the Names of Chicago Storefront Churches ROBERT G. NOREEN ONE DOESNOTHAVE TO GOFAR on one of the major business streets of Chicago's South Side before he encounters a storefront church. Tucked in between a grocery store and a pool hall, between a filthy five-and-dime and a dingy EI station, or in an abandoned building scheduled for demolition, one finds these houses of worship. Uusually established as emergency meeting quarters for a small, struggling group, these make-shift churches soon acquire the aspect of permanency in areas of the city which are marred by decay and blight. They seem permanent because they are so numerous - there are thirty on South State Street alone today, but tomorrow there might be twenty-six or thirty-three. Even though these store- front churches frequently shift locations, names, and congregations, they persist in the bleak landscape of the Negro sections of our city, for they play an important part in the lives of the people. Compared with the vitality and imagination expressed in the names of these churches, traditional church names of established, sophisticated denominations are somber and colorless. In this paper I would like to examine and classify the names of Chicago store- front churches. As the basis for this study, I have compiled a list of 381 church names which is appended to this article: 97 of these churches I have seen, 100 of them I have taken from a listing of Negro Baptist Churches in Chicago, and the remainder are from telephone listings where the address indicates a strong probability that the church is a storefront.! Not all of the churches listed still exist. 1 "Negro Baptist Churches in the United States," State of Illinois Historical Records Survey, I, 1942. 19 20 Robert G. Noreen Most storefront churches are situated on well-traveled roads in the Negro districts. A fe,v can be found in houses, but most of them occupy quarters originally designed for small businesses. Seldom do·these churches have buildings and grounds in addition to the main storefront. Several storefront churches in the same block are not uncommon, however, and on Roosevelt Road I have seen four adjacent churches. The storefront church usually has its name printed (often not very neatly) on the window or on a sign which hangs in front of the building. Misspellings are surprisingly rare: of the churches in this study only Shinning Light Baptist Church, Freindship Baptist Church, and Mt. Herman Baptist Church had their names mis- spelled. (Perhaps King Davis Baptist Church is misspelled; King David would seem more likely, but the church might have formed a cult around a leader named Davis). One frequently also sees an "Order of Service" sign on the building, which information refers not to the sequence of a particular meeting, but to the number and time of the services held ~here during the week. Window paintings - while sometimes present - are not universal. Along 43rd Street, however, large window paintings in bright colors seem to be in vogue. A large proportion of the churches reflect denominational orienta- tion in their names, even though ties with a particular denomina- tional organization may be very weak. Baptist is by far the most common designation - 263 (69%) out of 381: seventy-one (19%) of these are Missionary Baptist, a few are Primitive Baptist churches, and the majority are just plain Baptist churches. There are thirty (8%) churches on the list which are designated as the "Church of God in Christ," sixteen (4 %) are pentecostal or Spiritualist Church- es, and eight (2%) are African Methodist Episcopal. Some have un- defined letters in their names such as F.B.H., A.O., A.O.H., and C. of F., and the remainder of the churches are apparently independ- ents (17%). Storefront churches are easily established - often a leader, a meet- ing place, and a handful of people are sufficient to do so - and they are as easily disbanded. Of one hundred Chicago churches chosen at random from a 1942Negro Baptist Church Directory, only fifteen exist today at the same location; ten more, however, may have the same congregation at another address. Furthermore, forty-nine Ghetto Worship 21 probable storefront churches able to afford telephones in 1963 are not listed in the 1964 directory; and·sixty~one churches with phones in 1964 .are not listed in the 1963 directory. The rapid turnover, reflected in so many church names beginning with "new" or "greater," might be caused partly by the unstable society, the tran- sient nature of the constituents, and by the fact that individual personalities often establish these churches and when they are gone the leaderless church dies. Also, during the last ten years in Chicago a number of churches along State Street, Wentworth Avenue, and Federal Street have been torn down through Urban Redevelop- ment programs and the construction of expressways. 2 The churches' names can be classified in a variety of ,vays. A large number of them refer to Biblical place-names or persons, to books of the Bible, or to certain incidents described in the Bible. Other church names refer to saints; and still others, to their age - old or new -, to their appearance, their size, their quality, or to their relationship to other churches of the same name. Several names identify locations or their founders, while others attempt to define or describe the kind of activity which takes place at that church. Many refer to the guidance or help one might find there, or to the heavenly or earthly rewards one might hope to gain from attend- ance. I would like to discuss and give examples of each of these categories. Biblical place-names for storefront churches are quite common. One might suppose that the congregation desires to have the at- tributes or associations of the Biblical location for their own church. This is probably the case for such names as Bethel (in Bethel Mis- sionary Baptist Church and New Bethel Baptist Church) which means "the House of God," or for Zion Temple Baptist Church which refers either to Solomon's temple in Jerusalem or the Temple in the New Jerusalem of heaven; but one wonders if all the asso- ciations were intentional in Thyatira Missionary Baptist Church. Thyatira was one of the seven churches to whom the Apocalypse was addressed in Revelations 2: 18-29; it was praised for its good works, charity, faith, and patience, but chastised because some of its members, following the advice of the "prophetess" Jezebel, had 2 A substantial number of the churches reported by James B. Stronks in 19(}2 no longer -exist ("Names of Store-Front Churches in Chicago," Names, 10.~03-4, September, 1962). 22 Robert G. Noreen practiced fornication. Philadelphia was also one of the seven churches to whom the messages in Revelation were addressed; this church was noted for its faith, patience, and orthodoxy, and it is not surprising that four churches in this study adopted the name of this ancient church - Philadelphia Baptist Church, Philadelphia Missionary Baptist Church (2), and New Philadelphia Baptist Church. Several towns where Paul stopped on his missionary journeys are now associated with the names of storefronts: Antioch Baptist Church, Berea Baptist Church, and Macedonia Baptist Church No.1. El Bethel Baptist Church, which is Hebrew for "God of the House of God," takes its name from Genesis 35: 7. Beth Eden Baptist Church associates itself with a paradise: Beth Eden means "the dwelling place in Eden." Beulah Baptist Church occurs twice on the list; Beulah was the name given to Palestine after the Exile when the land was restored to God's favor (Isaiah 62: 4). These two churches may have taken their name from the popular gospel song: "I'll be dwelling in Beulah Land." Samuel Temple and Solomon Temple, these glories of the Old Testament, find their names on several less glorious Chicago storefronts. Rehoboth, the site of one of Isaac's wells, is found in a slightly different spelling in Rehaboth Church of God in Christ. Identification with Israel in Israel A.M.E. Church is not surprising since this was the new land which God gave to his people; but identification with the former name of this area in Canaan Baptist Church is more strange. Names associated with the life of Christ occur frequently. Bethlehem, Christ's birthplace, is found in the names of six churches (Bethlehern Baptist Church, Bethlehem M.B. Church, Bethlehem Church, Greater Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, New Bethle- hem Baptist Church); the sixth of these, Bethlehem Star M.B. Church, honors the star which guided the wisemen to the manger. Galilee, a district "\vhereChrist spent much time, occurs in the name of three churches: New Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, Greater Galilee, M. B. Church, and Galilee Baptist Church. Jerusalem is found in three church titles : New Jerusalem Pentecostal Church, Jerusalem All Nations Pentecostal Church, and Jerusalem Baptist- Church. Calvary, the place of Christ's Crucifixion, and Gethsemane, the garden "\vherehe prayed, are found in four church names each: Oalvary M.B. Church of Chicago, Inc., Oalvary Temple Baptist Ghetto Worship 23 Church, Mt. Oalvary Church of God in Christ, Greater Oalvary Church, Gethsemane Baptist Church (2), Gethsemane Church of God in Christ, and Gethsemane Star Baptist Church. Emmaus, in Emmaus Missionary Baptist Church, was the village near Jerusalem to which Jesus walked on the first Easter. Captain Folger was not the only one who brought a mountain to Chicago. Thirty-eight Chicago storefront churches (10%) have a mountain in their title, even though not all of these are really mountains.
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