It was something that you don’t see every day. A black banker was praying on the pavement in front of a Baptist church. He was praying for the prosperity of a new bank branch that the church was opening on its campus and the well-being of the community served by the church – and, now, by the bank.
The senior pastor of the church – Pastor Michael F. Jones of Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, 5553 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood of North St. Louis – thinks it has never happened before, but could set a new standard.
“We think we are great standard bearers for the nation,” Jones said of the partnership between his church and Midwest BankCentre, which opened a full-service bank branch right next to the church sanctuary at 5501 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. “I know that’s a bold statement, but I am going to say that.”
The pastor’s new business partner – Jim Watson, chairman and CEO of Midwest BankCentre, headquartered in St. Louis with 300 employees and 12,000 members – agreed with Jones that they have started something new. “I am aware of no partnership like it across the country,” Watson said.
Watson and Jones started negotiations about 18 months ago, Watson said. They were connected by Alex Fennoy, the bank’s executive vice president and community and economic development director – and the black banker who prayed in front of the church at the ribbon cutting on Thursday, April 6. Fennoy was so excited about the idea of opening a branch at a black church in North St. Louis that he called his boss while the bank president was on vacation, and Watson was so intrigued that he called the pastor the same day.
“I called him and built that foundation of trust,” Watson said.
The foundation of trust between Fennoy and Jones was established 18 years, not months, ago. The pastor’s aunt, Dorothy Jones, helped train Fennoy as a banker at a different financial institution when, he said, he was a “young, green commercial lender.” She encouraged him to meet her ambitious nephew the pastor. “I fell in love with him at first sight,” Fennoy said of Jones, “like everyone does, but the time was never right – until 18 months ago, when God brought us back full-circle.”
The bank opened for business on February 13, under the leadership of branch manager LaTonya R. Jackson, who has five full-time staff. By Friday, March 30, Fennoy said, more than 150 people had opened accounts at the branch, which had moved more than $6 million in loans and deposits in six weeks.
That aligns with the bank’s goals, as outlined by Watson, which include steering people away from predatory lenders and into a conventional bank and helping people repair broken credit and finance homeownership. Jones wants all of that for his community, but he has his eyes set especially on something else Watson mentioned: financing community development.
Friendly Temple operates the Robert Fulton Community Development, Inc., named for Jones’ grandfather, Rev. Robert Fulton Davis, who was the church’s first pastor (Jones is the second). Since 1996, the church has invested more than $100 million to revitalize areas bordering its campus. With the committed partnership of a bank, Jones is sure the church can expand its development efforts dramatically.
“I have an urban development vision that I want to take to the community,” Jones told The American after the ribbon-cutting.
The church’s urban development efforts began with the very building that now has the bank branch as a tenant. When they bought the church property 15 years ago, its mortgage lender advised Jones to tear down the building and start over, but Jones saw potential both in the structure and in his congregation, which includes a wide range of accomplished and talented people. He recruited a project manager, engineer and architect from his congregation to restore the building. A group of Washington University students who had adopted Friendly Temple as their home church away from home got involved. One of those students, Duane Thompson, became a professional architect, remains a church member and served as lead architect on the bank branch construction.
Remarkably, Friendly Temple served as general contractor on the branch construction, with church member Zac Hamilton the project manager. More than 60 percent of the construction and supply services for the development of the branch were contracted with Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) or Women Business Enterprise (WBE) firms. Fennoy was so proud of this fact that, when he wasn’t praying or thanking the bank’s legal board, he listed each of these businesses by name.
“It was beautiful, everything went smoothly,” one of those MBE contractors, James R. Williams Sr. of Williams Heating and Cooling, told The American about the construction. He said Jones’ leadership makes the church a good contractor to work under. “Pastor is unique,” Williams said. “He is not untouchable. He can talk to anybody. Mostly, he does a lot of listening.”
Friendly Temple member Felicia Pulliam, who served on the Ferguson Commission, has seen Jones lead the church to this point from gritty beginnings. “It was a 20-year journey,” Pulliam told The American. “It’s not like this happened overnight.”
She said Jones always looked beyond the church walls and asked his faithful congregants to do the same. Pulliam said, “Pastor has always been telling us that if the community around a church does not change, then God is not in the house.”
The branch is the first new bank branch open in North St. Louis since 2009. Fennoy was highly conscious of the bank investing in North City and made reference to the region’s notorious divide between a relatively stable south side and more distressed north side.
“We need both sides to be strong,” Fennoy said. “It’s like a runner. You need both of your legs to be strong.”
Friendly Temple and Midwest BankCentre will host a community carnival in the parking lot across from the church and branch noon-3 p.m. Saturday, April 8, concluding with a concert by Denise Thimes.
