General Assembly guests find stories, inspiration and brats at Calvary Presbyterian Church

MILWAUKEE — If you’ve ever arrived at a home and been immediately embraced by hosts you’d never met, then you know what it is like to walk through the doors of Calvary Presbyterian Church in downtown Milwaukee.

That was the welcome on Sunday for dozens of delegates and guests attending the 227th General Assembly in the city. Calvary, along with various area churches, welcomed the out-of-town guests.  

Before a word was said, guests knew Calvary had a story to tell.

It is apparent from the architecture that Calvary was designed and outfitted during the city’s Gilded Age. Back when Wisconsin Avenue outside was called Grand Avenue. Back when mansions lined the broad street. It is famously known as "the Big Red Church." 

The sanctuary is vast, its ceiling reaching up several stories to a beautiful arch. Its stained-glass windows were imported from France. The Big Red Church calls itself a First Century Church in a modern city.  

But the building has been tested through the years, and the congregation confronted by the challenges of an inner-city church. 

Upon the building’s construction in the 1870s, church leaders were concerned seeing the height of the tall and narrow steeple. It would never stand, they said. They wanted to take it down. So they hooked ropes to a team of horses. The horses pulled.  

The church didn’t budge. 

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In 1947, another test. A fire destroyed the pipe organ and part of the chancel. The pipe organ was replaced. The pastor was convicted of the arson and imprisoned. 

The Big Red Church stood. 

But the greatest turning point came after active membership dropped to a dozen, and a pastor resigned in 2018. 

“If we closed, would any of our neighbors miss us?” That was the question remaining members asked in 2018, said Ruling Elder JP Kastner. The answer resounded: probably not.

Rather than face what seemed inevitable, the session worked with the Presbytery of Milwaukee to allow an experiment. What would it look like if a Presbyterian church operated without a pastor but with trained elders leading worship? 

The presbytery agreed. But what about necessary funding? 

The historic building required expensive repairs. Their mission coffers were nearly empty. They needed more active members. 

What resulted brought both building and congregation to life again.

They hired a business manager who brought in a theatrical troupe, created space for other theater groups to rent and reimagined the church's future with the congregation. 

They actively sought out their neighbors.  

Business manager Josh Pohja lights up when he talks about this congregation. Having grown up in New York and California and devoted to theater work, even he was surprised when he became a part of any church.  

“I am proud of the people I work with,” he said. “They’re just the kindest human beings, and they support everyone.” 

Still offering the worship and missions of church, Calvary now has a labyrinth people enjoy, a theater group, and space to rent for comedy acts and other productions.  

“I’ve never felt any negative energy here,” he said. 

Through collaboration with suburban churches who grow produce in raised beds, they provide city neighborhoods with fresh food.  

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Church members have embraced the unhoused students at Project Stay, a school for students in need just down the street. They support the young people, offering them resources for housing, food and health care. When a student makes the honor roll, “we give them tickets to the Milwaukee Bucks,” Kastner said.  

If they had more money, they would be glad to do more, Kastner said.  

“It would be great if we were this big, million-dollar church that could do all kinds of stuff, but can do this,” he said of caring for the unhoused students. 

“We can make sure they are OK.” 

While the theater and rental spaces bring income, a normal worship only draws 20 to 25 people, Pohja said. On Sunday, he said, the church was popping with excitement.  

“There is a bunch of new energy,” he said. “New people to share the Word with, to share the Presbyterian community with. That is just sparking life into this already dynamic community that is intimate and strong and full of willful power.” 

Worship leader Carolyn McCarthy preached from Genesis 22:1-14.  

“Trust is the answer to Abraham’s story, and it is the key to our story,” she said. An uncle helped shape her faith. He quoted Psalm 1, noting that the one who is blessed is the one “whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” 

“We all work to become that beautiful tree, and we work to make the church like that beautiful tree.” 

She quoted Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, who received acclaim for a sermon for President Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration when she urged him to show grace and mercy to all.  

In her book “How We Learn to Be Brave,” Budde wrote that the capacity to respond in such moments like these “are preceded by seasons of preparation, practice and intention, of making countless daily decisions that determine our capacity to be brave when called upon.” 

McCarthy compared that trust, developed through seasons of preparation, to Calvary Presbyterian Church's journey from near failure to thriving.  

And she also compared this sort of faith to the larger PC(USA). 

“This morning our sanctuary is teeming with years of preparation, years of prayer and formation of sacrifice and collaboration,” she said. 

“Though your destination is not yet clear, you can trust the promises. Unfurl yourself to the grace of community.” 

After worship, guests were invited to a luncheon set up on the back of the sanctuary. In true Milwaukee fashion, guests had a choice when approaching the buffet. 

Brats without or with beer — served with a large brown bottle of root beer.