Greg Bondurant (left) and Reggie Moore worshipping together at Westerville (Ohio) Christian Church.
By Darrel Rowland
The new church Reggie Moore had planted on the north side of Columbus, Ohio, had run out of space in the hotel conference room where it gathered.
He was calling around to see where he could find a bigger place for his fledgling congregation when somebody suggested he contact a church in the nearby suburb of Westerville.
It sounded good. But Moore”s biggest worry was about doctrine.
Just what did these Christian church people believe anyway?
Greg Bondurant was mugged by black toughs when he was a youngster in Akron. But years later as an established preacher, he started praying to find a close black friend. At the same time, he was trying to make Westerville Christian Church more multicultural.
Then some guy from Flint Ridge Missionary Baptist Church called.
Moore, already running two services at Flint Ridge on Columbus”s east side in addition to the church plant, wondered if the Westerville church had space for the new church. He explained that he was trying to make the all-black group more diverse.
Four years later, Moore still remembers Bondurant”s reply.
“He said, “˜Why rent space when we”re trying to do the same thing?”” Moore recounted.
Fast forward a few months, and all 27 who had been attending the Flint Ridge plant joined Westerville Christian.
“Once we aligned on what we believed, that was really easy,” said Moore, who considers himself nondenominational.
Bondurant said, “That put us on the multicultural map.” The church still has a ways to go, but is attracting African-Americans and several mixed-race couples.
But the partnership became more than just a couple of dozen people added to Westerville”s rolls. The two began trading pulpits on occasional Sundays, getting involved in teaching both congregations, and have held joint church events.
“People love the fact that we aren”t so radically different,” Bondurant said.
Today they are listed as volunteer staff members of each other”s church and have established a close friendship.
“No one gets in between our relationship,” Moore said. “We have to be of one accord. That is key.”
Each congregation looks forward to when the “other” preacher fills the pulpit.
“They love it when Pastor Greg comes,” said Moore. And he added that when he preaches at Westerville, “They really make you feel like you”re special.”
Bondurant said, “We made a deliberate decision to look at what we had in common.”
Moore said he didn”t set out to break whites” stereotypes of blacks, but simply tried to adhere to 2 Corinthians 4:5, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus” sake.”
“The right thing is to say we do see color and we recognize it. And it is what it is. What difference does it make?” Moore said.
“The biggest challenge we had was not race, it was patiently waiting, giving human beings time to change. Change takes time and you really have to establish relationships. It has nothing to do with what color we are.”
Darrel Rowland is an adult Bible fellowship teacher at Worthington (Ohio) Christian Church and public affairs editor of The Columbus Dispatch.
I thank God for people like you. Because if we cooperate down here, I’m believing that our final destination will be Heaven. May God bless each of you, and may you continue to worship together as one loving family. As your light shines, hopefully others will see the light before it’s too late.