Evolution of Ministries in the City
Mayer Chapel
From the beginning, Second was actively involved in urban missionary activity. In 1892, Mayer Chapel was established to serve the southwestern portion of Indianapolis. It was seen as an outpost against many of the evils and temptations of urban life, which included saloons and dance halls. The Chapel began with a strong Sunday School program. A fire destroyed the building in March of 1895, but by May the building had been rebuilt and enlarged. In the early 1900’s, ministries included a kindergarten, domestic arts classes, meetings for mothers, and activities for youth. After a building expansion in 1917, athletic programs were created, and a medical clinic for babies and mothers began. A dental clinic opened. Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets were distributed. Glee clubs and scouting programs began.
The Depression brought much misery to a neighborhood that chronically suffered from unemployment. In 1933, the Chapel gave two quarts of milk a day to undernourished children, as well as 2,500 garments and coal to over 200 families.
Second’s association with Mayer Chapel/Neighborhood House ended quietly. Since the early 1940s, Mayer Chapel had been increasingly funded by the Community Fund and the Indianapolis Presbytery.
The facility was closed in 1966, bringing 74 years of urban ministry to an end.
Only to begin, again.
Westminster Neighborhood Services
Although Second was now located in a suburban neighborhood, it sought to be a “Caring Cathedral” that “Wraps Its Arms Around the City.” To that end, providing members with first-hand experiences in urban ministry was vitally important.
In 1981, Second Presbyterian Church formed a partnership to conduct community outreach with Westminster Presbyterian Church, a small inner-city congregation on the near-eastside of Indianapolis. Westminster ministered to a community that faced difficult challenges of unemployment, poverty, education gaps, and poor health. In many ways, Westminster evoked memories of Mayer Chapel.
More importantly, Mayer Chapel presented a model for this new relationship. Second began providing significant financial support and scores of volunteers for Westminster’s ministries, including tutoring, an after-school program, food pantry, basketball, soup kitchen, and youth job training. Volunteers served on Westminster’s Board of Directors. They also helped maintain and repair Westminster’s aging facility.
Eventually, Westminster needed to upgrade its old facilities. As part of the church’s 175th Anniversary in 2013, Second raised $2 million toward a new Adult and Family Services Center, which opened in 2015.
While the mission partnership with Westminster continues today, changing demographics in the neighborhoods surrounding our church building have provided a new opportunity for Second’s engagement with urban ministry in the city.
It was time to begin, again.
Northside Mission Ministry
By the early 21st Century, Washington Township had become more socioeconomically diverse, as revealed in this one statistic: 81% of the students at Greenbriar Elementary and Nora Elementary Schools qualified for free or reduced breakfast and lunch.
In some areas of the city, poverty is painfully obvious with empty, overgrown lots, and boarded-up, abandoned houses. However, Washington Township presents the new face of poverty. It is the invisible poverty of the working poor, of families getting by until faced with a catastrophic medical emergency, major car repair, job loss, or divorce.
The racial ethnic profile of the township had also been changing. There had been such an influx of Hispanic and Burmese immigrants that at Greenbriar Elementary School, 30% of the students are English as New Language participants. Throughout Washington Township Schools, there are 75 different languages of origin.
The Northside Mission Ministry Team was formed in the summer of 2009 with the vision of developing specific programs to address the growing gap between the needs of the community and the basic social services available to meet those needs. The team identified food assistance as an immediate need, and the Northside Food Pantry began operations in December 2009.A rent and utility assistance program (URAP) was added in 2010. In 2011, a partnership with Greenbriar Elementary provided volunteer tutoring and a teacher support program.
In 2013, the 175th Anniversary Fund raised $500,000 to jump-start the new Northside ministry. A storage area was remodeled and equipped with refrigeration to provide space for the Pantry. A Food Pantry Coordinator was hired. In 2019, the Pantry served an average of 400 families/month. 30 volunteers staff the pantry each week.
In 2018, Northside Mission Ministry continued its development by creating a Board of Directors.
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