Being purpose driven ‘gripped the imagination’
of Boston’s oldest black church

By Sara Horn

Peoples Baptist Church is the oldest African-American Baptist church in the city of Boston and its pastor, Dr. Wesley Roberts, has led the congregation for more than 26 years. The church appeals to a diverse community, including urban professionals, parents with young children, and both young and mature adults. Though some churches with such a long history and a leader with so much tenure might grow complacent and sedentary, this was not the case for Peoples Baptist. After Roberts attended a 40 Days of Purpose workshop with nine of his church leaders, they were all convinced that embracing and transitioning to become a purpose driven church was the new direction the church needed to continue its work in the community.

“The 40 Days of Purpose introduced us to the five purposes and people were excited about that,” Roberts said. “Of course, I’d read Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church. I knew of the five purposes but never really gave any thought to how they could be concentrated in a campaign to make a transition. What the 40 Days of Purpose campaign did was to bring everyone on the same page.”

After holding the church’s first 40 Days of Purpose campaign in the fall of 2003, it was obvious that small groups would be a significant part of the church’s new growth.

Before Roberts had even begun the first campaign, the idea of being purpose driven had “gripped the imagination” of the church and an important realization swept through the members.

“We needed to do something big, something which meant that God was going to have to step in if it would be successful,” said Roberts, who showed the introductory video to hundreds of church members and achieved a great amount of support before the 40 Days of Purpose campaign began. “We were able to establish 43 small groups when we had none before. People just got excited and nothing I’ve done in the 23 years of ministry up to that point had really excited the people and brought about as much spiritual growth. Everyone was on the same page at the same time.”

After the 40 Days of Purpose campaign, the church began the transition to a purpose driven church and took the small groups and moved them into LifeTogether small groups “in order to take the small groups to another level.” LifeTogether is a small group study program endorsed by Purpose Driven Ministries.

“People are connected to one another (in the small groups),” Roberts said. “I find they support each other. There is a sense of love and caring for each other so it’s a good way toward closing the back door of the church because people are connected.”

The six-week sessions for small groups seem to fit the pace and flow of the East Coast church and as the small groups have progressed, so has the new structure of the church.  In addition to a full-time youth minister, Roberts now has nine part-time staff members who are focused solely on one of the specific purposes. Worship services on weekends are planned to be seeker-friendly, with sermon outlines consistently used for the last two years and of course, wise choices in the way music is used. 

“Music traditionally is part of the African-American worship experience,” Roberts said. “There are three essentials: good preaching, good music, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. You can’t have one without the other.”

One of the most exciting aspects of the church’s move toward being purpose driven has been the outreach by the church to the community. The church partnered with a white suburban congregation to adopt two inner-city schools and the results were amazing. Numerous repairs and clean-up projects, like fixing clocks or raking hundreds of bags of leaves, were conducted; thousands of books were donated to the school libraries; custom jackets and backpacks were donated so each student had one; and the teachers were honored and encouraged with a special dinner. 

The urban congregation had done outreach before. But what made this different was “that it wasn’t just black churches doing this but black and white churches partnering in order to do something together,” Roberts said. “We accomplished a lot more than we thought we could do. The Lord provided and we were able to accomplish an incredible amount on faith and the commitment of our people.”

All 2006 Church Health Award winner information is correct as of Jan. 1, 2006.