Global Ministries Boston

About Us

Welcome to the Global Ministries Christian Church site.

We are a church fellowship located in the Dorchester section of the City of Boston.

Lead by Pastors Bruce and Karin Wall

History

Beginnings of Dorchester Temple
About the year 1880, Codman Square was changing from a rural to a residential community. Streets were laid out, houses were built and people moved here from the South End of Boston and from South Boston. Young businessmen came here with their brides. In a few years this district was a prosperous community of comfortable homes. By the fall of 1884, the only church building within a radius of two miles was the Second Congregational Church in the Square. In November 1884, a dozen members of the Tremont Temple Baptist Church of Downtown Boston visited Dorchester to inspect the new hall in a building recently erected by Deacon George Chipman on Norfolk Street. On March 8, 1885, the hall was dedicated as a place of worship and a Sunday School was started. From that date regular services were held. Dorchester Temple Baptist Church grew out of the Sunday School, organized on November 8, 1886 with a membership of 36.

From this small beginning, the Hall became inadequate for the increasing gatherings. It was decided to purchase the present lot at the corner of Washington Street and Wells Avenue, and there erect a church building of substantial size. The cornerstone was laid October 3, 1889. The first section of the church, the present office and Christian Education wing of the church, was first used for worship on April 2, 1890. At that time, the membership had grown to 99. The present Sanctuary was formerly dedicated November 17, 1892.

From that time until the present our church has been abundantly blessed of God with men and women who have freely given of their time, talent and money to make the church an influence for good in the neighborhood and a place where many have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. These ministers and lay people have provided leadership and energy for the various ministries and programs of the church.

Moving into Ministry
In the years following the formal dedication of the church building, Dorchester Temple became a mission sending church. In 1893, Mrs. Carrie C. Murray left for Alaska to be the first white woman missionary in that territory. In 1894, Mr. John S. Burns left for the Congo District in Africa. Miss Mable Dimock went in 1903 as a missionary to China. They opened the way for other young people to give their lives to full time service to God. In 1897, Rev. C. W. Chamberlain, the third Pastor of Dorchester Temple, realized that the young people of his church needed something to do – in a collective way. This resulted in a branch Bible School on present day Woodrow Avenue known as the Berean Temple Bible School. In 1890 the members of Dorchester Temple raised $6000 to provide proper accommodations for the work.

A chapel was built near the Bible School Building and a church was planted. This ministry flourished for about 20 years until the surrounding neighborhood changed due to an influx of people from Chelsea.

With the disastrous fire of 1908 in Chelsea, many Canadians from Nova Scotia moved from Chelsea to Dorchester; the church doubled as some of them joined. They remained the majority of the church for 50 years. Under Dr. Otis Foye, the church reached its peak membership of 1,131 in 1938.

In the 1930s, membership was steady with skilled craftsman, small business owners, and sales people. In the post-World War II years, one third of the members joined the rush to low-cost, single-family homes in the suburbs. With the re-integration of the Boston public schools in the 1970s, whites again moved en masse to the suburbs, resulting in a further membership drop of over fifty percent. The neighborhood was changing.

A Church Restarted
Beginning with the leadership of interim pastor Dr. Joe O’Donnell and then Rev. Dan Buttry in 1978, supported by key lay leaders such as Roy Mason and Hal Dutton, the church began to welcome blacks and was virtually restarted through extensive contacts with neighborhood people and groups. Some of the members left the church for this reason, and in January, 1979 the church reached its low point both financially and numerically. But another influx began of Jamaicans and others from the West Indies, American blacks, and members of a two-year-old neighborhood action group – Christians for Urban Justice.

In January, 1980, God moved among the people and the church shed the survivalist mentality developed over years of decline. In a spirit of dependence on the Lord, it began the long process of dealing with its own racism and becoming a true community. The church grew stronger and the worship service began to come alive as it expressed the racial/ethnic variety in the congregation. In particular, the music ministry became a powerful aspect of the worship service under the leadership of Bill Mooney McCoy.

With the resignation of Rev. Dan Buttry in 1987, the church entered a time of difficult transition and testing as it searched for permanent pastoral leadership. It was also a time of hope and faith as God sustained the church, allowing the process of rebirth to continue. The inclusive vision developed over the previous 9 years was affirmed as the church continued to diversify. Throughout this time, a core group of people persevered, joined by others who recognized and desired to be a part of the special work God was doing.

God used many pastoral servants to shepherd the church through this time. Over the next seven years, the church would call a Hispanic interim pastor and 3 African American interim pastors, one of them a woman. In 1988, the church called its first African American pastor, Rev. Robert Fisher, and associate pastor, Rev. Geoff Hicks. Each made important contributions to the church – through a diversity of pastoral styles, God chastened and molded his people for the future.

Since June, 1993, Dorchester Temple has been under the leadership of Rev. Bruce H. Wall and Rev. Craig W. McMullen. The church has embarked on a ministry of reconciliation toward each other through race/ethnic reconciliation and toward God through spiritual reconciliation. In the first three years, our history has coming full circle as men and women of the church continue to embrace the people of the neighborhood. God has given miraculous growth as Sunday morning attendance has tripled with many being brought to faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior.

We have sent young people to short term missions’ projects throughout the world. We are concerned about the youth of the city and are supporting projects and people to minister to them. We are coming together in homes to study the word of God. Together we are endeavoring to be worthy of the rich inheritance into which we have entered, and to hand down to our children and ourselves the knowledge that:…GOD IS ABLE