The Rev. Richie Butler, 52, came to St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in 2020 after three years of leading its mother church, historic St. Paul United Methodist Church. Freed slaves from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas birthed St. Paul in 1873 under a brush arbor. The area, known as Freedman’s Town, would become the center of African American life in racially segregated Dallas.
St. Paul provided space for a school that would become United Methodist-affiliated Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. And it supported the first Black students to attend United Methodist-related Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
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Described as “the only church in downtown Dallas rooted in African American traditions of worship,” St. Paul birthed St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in South Dallas in 1933. And St. Luke, in turn, gave birth to St. Luke South United Methodist Church in suburban DeSoto in 2007, as increasing numbers of Black residents were moving into that area. The young, nontraditional, growing congregation became chartered as The Village Church in 2013.
While at St. Paul as a newly recruited, young United Methodist pastor, Butler led a dramatic revitalization of its life and ministry. He also earned recognition as a bridge-builder in race relations at a time of growing racial division and violence, when Dallas police officers were ambushed in 2016, leaving five dead and nine injured. The assailant, who was killed by police using a robotic bomb, was reportedly angered by a spate of shootings of Black men by white police officers.
Feeling “a calling from God,” Butler built an interracial team of local leaders — including former President George W. Bush, a United Methodist, as honorary chairperson — to organize interracial dialogues, group book studies, and plan other encounters and initiatives.
Project Unity, the outcome of that effort, has grown into a source of community building and diversity, equity and inclusion solutions through its various “Together We Can” cross-racial and cultural learning and activity programs. They include Together We Ball, Together We Dine, Together We Learn and Together We Sing.
Major companies, universities, foundations, police, students, faith leaders and grassroots organizations are involved. And St. Luke has hosted some of the independent organization’s events, while church members have volunteered.
Return to main story, Spirit of service helps Black churches thrive
Coleman is a UM News correspondent and part-time pastor. News media contact: Julie Dwyer, news editor, [email protected].
