 outStanding
in the Field
Dreaming the Dream in St. Louis,
Missouri
by Elizabeth Terill
What
stands between seventy-five inner-city St. Louis kids and the hopelessness rough urban
circumstances so often breed?
That would be Ladue Chapel, a Presby-terian Church (USA) congregation in one of the
nation’s most affluent suburbs outside St. Louis, Missouri. The church has promised
each of those seventy-five young people a college education. Its Gateway “I Have a
Dream” (GIHAD) program hopes to make educated dreamers of every one of them.
The catch? Just graduate from high school.
But it’s not that simple. “If you think the college education carrot is
enough, you’re too long an Anglo-Saxon,” says Ladue Chapel’s pastor, the
Reverend Dr. Donald G. Howland, PTS Class of 1960. “These are kids at risk, living in
unstable environments.”
It’s tough to maintain motivation with a promise of reward that lies ten years in
the future. Given poverty, crime, accessible drugs, broken families, frustration, and
cramped housing that exist in the children’s neighborhoods, Ladue’s offer
practically begs to be ignored.
While many benefactors consider urban plight a good set of reasons for not trying to
help, Howland and Ladue Chapel find it compelling. “Seminary gave me the theological
underpinnings for a social conscience,” Howland explains. “You don’t just
do things for social reasons, you do things for biblical reasons.”
Don Howland surrounded by his Dreamers
In this case, helping people meant adopting two third-grade classes from St.
Louis’ near north side, an especially troubled area dubbed “the Blumeyer,”
after the Blumeyer Housing Projects that surround it. GIHAD made the offer to fund each
youngster’s post-high school education, and vowed to support the offer in concrete
ways that will help the dream become a reality for each child — regardless of
academic record. “We didn’t just take the best students,” Howland says.
“We took them all.”
Those seventy-five kids, once members of the Blumeyer’s Carver and Cole elementary
schools, today attend thirty-six different junior high schools throughout the city and
county; keeping in touch with them is increasingly difficult. In order to heighten contact
and motivation, some of Ladue Chapel’s members serve as volunteer tutors; others act
as mentors. GIHAD employs two full-time teachers to assist with studies. Sanchez Lowry and
Lisa Tate often bring their own children to the weekday classes, which are held at Central
Baptist Church, close to Carver and Cole schools. To give the Dreamers an additional
boost, GIHAD built a computer lab at Central Baptist. Biweekly Saturday classes help build
and reinforce skills, with an emphasis on computer time and socialization.
The youngsters are also invited to attend the Lee Institute, held twice a year at Ladue
Chapel. Up to a thousand people gather for these lectures; speakers have included Cornell
West, Jack Danforth, Nancy Kassebaum Baker, and Bill Moyers. Eighteen Dreamers recently
had the opportunity to meet privately with General Colin Powell after his Lee Institute
lecture.
“We want to give people a hand up, not a handout,” Howland says. It’s a
statement that marks his ministry. In addition to the Gateway “I Have a Dream”
program, Howland shepherds Ladue Chapel in its involvement with “Homes for the
Homeless,” an effort begun in partnership with the Ecumenical Housing Production
Corporation (EHPC). EHPC finds refurbishable homes in stable neighborhoods, then organizes
the renovations and matches the finished homes with people who desperately need safe
housing.
About ten years ago, Howland and Ladue Chapel’s leadership challenged the
congregation to raise thirty-six thousand dollars on a single Sunday. When the
congregation met that challenge, Ladue Chapel sponsored the renovation of six EHPC homes,
naming the houses after the “saints” in the church’s stained-glass window:
Francis, Luther, Wesley, Augustine, Calvin, and Schweitzer. More than one hundred
congregants volunteered their time to work on the homes. Twelve houses have been sponsored
by the congregation so far — ten are Section 8 rental units, the two most recent
earmarked for eventual ownership. Most of the early homes were renovation projects, but a
few have been built from the ground up. Church volunteers have turned out to help with
every one of them.
Building houses and adopting kids have become a passion for Ladue Chapel’s members
and their pastor. “Ministry is exciting and unpredictable!” Howland says.
“It happens not because you plan it out, but because God is at work.” He
believes the same holds true for outreach. “Make mission fun… and make it
personal. You can’t just build for yourself. You have to build for others.”
Elizabeth Terrill is a 1998 M.Div. and 1999 Th.M. graduate of the Seminary who
is searching for a call in pastoral ministry in the United Church of Christ. Her home is
in Porter, Indiana.
© Copyright 1998 Princeton Theological Seminary
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