‘Just the beginning’: New Hope Missionary Baptist church leaders reflect on legacy amid community center plans

DeKALB – Leroy Mitchell’s legacy is bigger than the walls that contain the facility at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb.

For the church’s founding pastor emeritus, he would like to be remembered for his activism in the greater community.

“Most of our activities were planned for people outside the church or not a part of the church,” Rev. Leroy Mitchell said. “It’s always been community-minded always with all of our activities. All of the activities of the church were open to the community free. There’s no charge.”

Under Mitchell’s leadership, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church – DeKalb’s first Black church – was founded in 1987.

From gathering in Mitchell’s home to the congregation’s current location on Twombly Road, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church’s membership has changed over time.

Leroy Mitchell said the church has strived to evolve with the times.

“A lot of what happens with churches is cyclical,” Leroy Mitchell said. “The stronger churches survive the cycles. The weaker ones do not. So, I think what we’re going through now is only part of what we’re supposed to go through. We used to have more young people from the college participating in worship, sang in choir, ushered, taught Sunday school. We’re coming to a generation that’s un-churched now. Previously, everybody was in the church.”

Mitchell said he’s noticed there’s a growing audience for the live-stream broadcast of the church’s services.

Church leadership changed hands about five years ago, with Mitchell passing the torch to his son, Joe Mitchell.

“When you look at specifically the Black churches historically, the church’s always been or has been the epicenter of our communities,” Joe Mitchell said. “For that reason, a lot of what we did was more than just Sunday worship. Oftentimes it was only space that we had that was ours that we owned.

—  The Rev. Senior Pastor Joe Mitchell

The Rev. Senior Pastor Joe Mitchell remembers leaning on his father for guidance earlier on in the transition to becoming senior pastor at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

“We co-pastored together here for eight years,” Joe Mitchell said. “I got to spend a lot of time side-by-side understanding what was involved in pastoring a small church. There’s a lot involved in pastoring a small church. I would say he officially retired, and the church voted me in as senior pastor. I would say probably that first year, maybe two [years] there were times I would often [say], ‘Hey, give me your thoughts. Hey, I’m thinking about this. What do you think?’ Probably five-and-a-half-years in, it’s probably not as much as it was in the beginning.”

As the church has grown over time, leaders have had to weigh whether or not to charge people for certain programming or activities that is sponsored.

Leroy Mitchell said the church generally doesn’t want money to serve as a barrier to access.

“From our tithes and offerings that we get on Sunday, we can help,” Leroy Mitchell said. “We can make it work.”

Joe Mitchell agreed.

“When you look at specifically the Black churches historically, the church’s always been or has been the epicenter of our communities,” Joe Mitchell said. “For that reason, a lot of what we did was more than just Sunday worship. Oftentimes it was only space that we had that was ours that we owned. It became, for lack of a better word, the community center where everything happened at that space. It typically was the largest space. It could hold the most people. It could have most activities.”

Fast forward to last year, the church took time to celebrate this milestone and sign a pre-construction contract to initiate the process for building a community center.

Dubbed Project H.O.P.E. which stands for health, opportunity, purpose, empowerment and education, the community center development plans have already been aided by city efforts. Joe Mitchell in December appeared before the DeKalb City Council to ask the city to commit to earmarking $100,000 in America Rescue Plan Act federal monies to aid the plans. His appeal was rewarded.

The 11,000-square-foot community center would include space for, among other things, a full-sized gym, full-sized industrial kitchen, two classrooms and 800-square-feet of space second level that could be used as a small business incubator.

Joe Mitchell said he doesn’t feel added pressure having to grapple with leading the church while also ensuring that the development of a community center honors his father’s legacy.

“I think for me because I grew up here and I saw this church from the very beginning when it had absolutely nothing to where we are right now carrying that mantel has not been extremely difficult,” Joe Mitchell said. “I know it’s probably going to shock some people because it was really my job. The baton was passed to me to carry on the vision that had already been set.”

Joe Mitchell said church leaders knew decades ago when they bought the Twombly Road land they bought more than was needed, so the plan was to expand to offer more resources for the larger DeKalb community.

Leroy Mitchell said he’s excited for what’s to come for New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and the greater DeKalb community.

“This is just the beginning,” Leroy Mitchell said. “The community center will just be a part. We know that for [underserved communities] many of these kids from around here can’t get to a Y, can’t afford to be a member of the Y. We just want to provide some services for them. Let them know that they count.”