Wesley United Methodist Church

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      1928–1949

 

Wesley Church and its predecessor churches have been blessed with many talented and inspiring pastors. One of the best know of the pastors was not only known in Minnesota, but was known nationally and internationally. He also had the longest tenure as pastor of Wesley Church. Dr. George Mecklenburg served Wesley for 21 years. He was a world traveler, having crossed the Atlantic thirty-three times. His energy seemed boundless, having written and published "Never a Dull Moment" after his retirement in the early 1960s. Much has been written about Dr. Mecklenburg, but it is clear that he left his mark on the church, the city, and the nation.

At Wesley he had a record of sustained achievements, during what may possibly be termed the worst economic and spiritual depression in the history of the church. Through his leadership, the people responded in numerous program of help for other, proving that the church could and would meet the requirements of a modern age.

Dr. Mecklenburg's story begins before he arrived at Wesley. George Mecklenburg was born in Minneapolis in 1881, of Norwegian parents. He received most of his education in Minnesota. In 1908, George was student teaching in a small town near Minneapolis. The preacher in the Methodist Church at Armstrong was taken ill, and young George was asked to take charge. That was his first sermon. The following week the preacher in the Mound Methodist Church was absent and Mecklenburg was asked to fill in for him. Everything went along well until about half way through the sermon. Suddenly, with no warning, more than half the congregation rose from their pews and left the church. At that moment, Mecklenburg resolved never to preach again. He finished his sermon and was obviously disconcerted at the close of the service.

A kink elder offered the explanation that in those days the last train for Minneapolis left Mound at 9 p.m., a fact someone had forgotten to tell Mecklenburg. His sermon was longer than others, so when the train time came, the commuters simply had to leave. He dropped his resolution. George received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1909. He immediately followed graduation with his marriage and the couple moved to Boston where he begin his seminary work.

Dr. Mecklenburg came to Wesley Church in 1928. During his first seven years at Wesley, the congregation grew from 600 to 2,500 members. His Sunday evening congregation was the largest of any kind in the country. Not infrequently, he would have to preach his sermon again on Monday night to those who could not get in to hear him on Sunday. He had the philosophy that a preacher must know the world in order to give new evaluations of live, and that religion must mix into life. For that reason he traveled extensively, and made no apologizes for the church getting involved in politics or economics. Many people still remember his movies and lecturers of the places he had been and the things he learned and how it tied into Bible statements. By 1939, in a study done for the Methodist church with memberships of one thousand and over, Wesley was the 13th largest Methodist Church in the country.

Minneapolis Organized Unemployed

One of his most well-known accomplishments was "The Organized Unemployed." The organization was started by Dr. Mecklenburg and one or two principle aids to provide work for unemployed workers. It operated on a system of barter and exchange with scrip as the sole exchange. It operated the barter and exchange department, retail store, shoe repair shop, restaurant, bachelor's barracks, woodcutting project, a clothing factory, and canned and stored thousands of quarts of fruit and vegetables. This all to feed and clothe its members. Through this system, 7,000 families received part-time work and the scrip allowed them to carry on without regular jobs or money and with no appeal to charity. Besides the bartering for food and necessities, there were planned events to give recreation and social activity. This was truly the mission of Wesley working to help others even though much of the activity was outside Wesley Church.

Cleaning up Politics

Dr. Mecklenburg gave time and energy to cleaning up the city politics. He made investigations into alleged vice conditions, and checked on the activities of public officials, appearing numerous times before Grand Juries. In 1935, Dr. Mecklenburg wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The letter was printed in the Minneapolis Journal and in it Dr. Mecklenburg gave a number of pointers on what was wrong with government, speaking of graft, selfishness, and red tape. In short, he did not hold back any punches.

By August, 1939, Dr. Mecklenburg had been banned from going to Germany by the Nazis that were in control of the country, and big headlines spread the news. His sermons became loaded with world politics and God's word to various countries.

Other activities

Of course, other church work continued. Dr. Mecklenburg added two features that affect the whole Northwest — namely, radio broadcasts of his sermons, and the Wesley News. The radio broadcasts were made by WTCN Radio, which occupied the top floor of the Wesley Temple Building. From there Dr. Mecklenburg broadcast his Saturday evening program "Behind the Headlines" and wires connected to the pulpit allowed for the regular Sunday morning broadcast of the church service. The Wesley News was printed weekly and presented news of the city, nation, and the church.

It seemed that everything was working at Wesley. It was a combination of excellent leadership, expert staff, work to be done in the community, space to do it at Wesley and the Temple Building, and the neighborhood was still a mixture of single-family homes and apartment building. It was the sort of combination that led to the phenomenal growth that Wesley experienced.

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