Bishop Kenneth Ulmer preaches economic self-empowerment
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
Bishop Kenneth Ulmer dislikes the term “mega church.” An interesting thought from a man who pastors a congregation of 13,000. But he said the mega-church moniker, “implies less significance and importance to churches in Belleville or Fenton, or any other place for that matter, that are doing it at the grass-roots level, but don’t have 1,000 people at church on Sunday.”
The East St. Louis native spent his formative years in just such a church, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist, before answering the call to ministry in 1977. Since then he has traveled far beyond his childhood home, first establishing a church in San Pedro, California in 1979. Four years later, in 1982, he became pastor of the then 350 member Faithful Central Missionary Baptist Church.
By any measure, Faithful Central Bible Church would fall well within the “mega-church” designation, the accepted definition being a congregation of 2,000 or more members. While he shirks the title, Bishop Ulmer embraces the vision, which is as large and far-reaching as its membership. He said the mission of his ministry is to be “progressively involved in economics and the entertainment industry.”
Long before it became a trend for churches to build or purchase gargantuan facilities for worship, Ulmer made a bold – and some thought far-fetched – bid to purchase the Great Western Forum. The Inglewood, California sports and entertainment complex was the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers; many scoffed and said the deal would never be done.
The deal sealed in 2000, and the congregation maintains the facility’s use as a entertainment venue attracting major musical acts like Christian artist Fred Hammond and secular performers like the Rolling Stones and Madonna.
“The business community laughed at us, and over 20 banks turned us down,” Ulmer said. “The only thing I had to hold onto was what God said.”
What Ulmer held onto was the knowledge that his church’s mission was larger than the 17,500 seat space or the $22.5 million deal that made the Forum the only black-owned venue of its kind. Faithful Central is also the first faith-based organization to own and operate such a facility. He said they purchased the building not to be a sanctuary, but rather “to be a tool to serve the community.”
Economic redevelopment is paramount in the mission, but many hard-line traditionalists wonder how secular artists like the Stones or Madonna help the community.
“They freak out because they don’t understand our call,” he said of naysayers. “But when the Stones are in our building, it’ll make over half a million dollars and there will be over three hundred people with a job.”
The congregation is in the final stages of completing a deal to build a shopping mall in the airport district so residents will no longer have to leave their communities to purchase goods and services.
That type of economic revitalization – particularly in blighted, largely African-American areas – is sorely needed.
“I think the church has been a part of the slow journey of blacks from being consumers to being owners and producers,” he said. “We can no longer do church the way we have done church. We have to rethink the way we steward our resources.”
Bishop Ulmer is unfazed by charges of mixing the world with the church for monetary gain.
“We’re to be salt and light,” he said. “Both those substances penetrate. The mandate of Jesus is to go into the world, not to bring the world to you.”
Just days before speaking at the recent pastor’s anniversary celebration for Mt. Zion pastor John H. Rouse, Ulmer was standing before Embassy of God, the 35,000-member congregation in the Ukraine. He said no matter how far he travels, he would always return to his East St. Louis roots.
“East St. Louis is kind of like Nazareth, where people ask, ‘Can any good thing come from there?’ But there are some Reggie Hudlins and Jackie Joyner Kersees, who are not ashamed,” he said.
“God will never allow me to forget that East St. Louis is my home.”
