The Spiritual Roots of Christ Temple Mission

Before Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, He assured his followers that the Father was sending a Comforter—a Spirit of truth that would dwell within them (John 14:16-17). Sometimes, believers deny the "still small voice" and follow the traditions of man rather than the heart of God. But for those with listening hearts, the Holy Spirit is able to shine a spotlight into areas of great darkness. Obedience on the part of God's children often leads to blessings and deliverance not just for themselves, but for others as well.

Clearly when Frederick Douglass was converted to Christianity as a young 13 year-old slave in 1831, the Lord was about to use him for a mighty service that would impact the world. Obviously through the power of the Holy Spirit, the young Frederick was able to see that a natural extension of his new life in Christ was to advocate for the liberty of those (including himself) shackled by the chains of slavery.

As a young man the future abolitionist helped establish secret Sunday Schools whereby slaves learned to read by reading the Bible. In 1838, he became a preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. From early on, Frederick couldn't separate his Christian faith from the need for social reform.

The Holy Spirit doesn't work in a vacuum, and at the same time that the Lord was mightily using Frederick Douglass in Maryland and beyond to advocate for the freedom of all men, spiritual seeds were being planted for a church to spring forth on the Nebraska plains some 100 years before its visible inception.

The story of Christ Temple Mission doesn't begin in 1940 in Lincoln, Nebraska with Trago O. McWilliams. It begins in the heart of God—moving in the hearts of people who had been subjected to the harshest of circumstances. In order to understand the founding pastor's vision, one must know something of the events and people that helped shape his perspective, his paradigm.

It's obvious that the plight and fortitude of the people from whence Trago McWilliams came had a monumental impact in forming his convictions and life's work. One set of his paternal great-great grandparents, Samuel and Phanie True, had 18 living children born into slavery. Samuel was industrious enough to buy himself, his wife, and all of his sons. However, daughters could not be bought since they were deemed as valuable to their masters. One of those daughters was Eliza True, Trago's great grandmother.

According to Eliza, her daughter, Sarah (Trago's grandmother), entered the world around "May-apple time" in 1854 at Iowa Point, Kansas. Eliza, who was deprived of any educational advantages, didn't know exact dates so she connected happenings with the seasons of the year. Mother and daughter were sold, like a cow and a calf, three times; finally to a man in Savannah, Missouri. Here they lived until freedom came, when the mother was turned from the master's door with three children and no place to live.

With dauntless courage, unfailing will power, and an unlimited faith in God, the little mother cared for her children without separating them. When Eliza married a man named Moses Stepney, ten-year-old Sarah was placed with a Baptist deacon and his family in Christian Ridge, Missouri. Here she received the munificent sum of $1.50 per month, and was responsible for the household's laundry, cleaning, cooking, and baking, plus she had to milk twice a day. At night, she was relegated to sleep on a pallet on the third floor, even during the heat of summer and cold of winter.

Sarah had witnessed firsthand the horrors of forced sex on her mother, and she let out a piercing scream when the master of the house tried to fondle her. Convulsed with fear, she ran nearly four miles to seek her mother's advice. Eliza, however, had been trained to obey those in authority and counseled her daughter to return to the deacon's home. Sarah went back with a knife, which she fully intended to use if necessary to prevent being raped.

When the two old main sisters in the house fell sick with a fever, Sarah's workload in the three-story house intensified and the servitude was unbearable. A conversation she overhead where the sisters refused an offer to sit up with them during the night became the catalyst for her departure. "We'll just have Sarah make her pallet here in the hall—she can wait on us." This was the last straw for the exhausted little girl and she hurriedly gathered her few belongings, and ran away to her step-grandmother's home. She secured a job at $1.50 a week working in the same hotel as her grandmother. Sometime later, the deacon was hanged in the Dakotas for selling government lands.

After reaching the exceedingly mature age of 14, she married John Jefferson McWilliams, also a former slave in Missouri. John, a native of West Africa, was sold away from his mother at the tender age of two. He naturally cried from the trauma, only to be permanently scared when his new mistress slammed a bunch of keys on the toddler's forehead.

John was the son of George McWilliams whose master, a Kentuckian had said, "It is as impossible to free the slaves as it is to go up and pull Jesus Christ off His throne." When he saw the inevitable signs of freedom, however, he asked George how in the world he figured to take care of his family, if freed. With a twinkle in his eye, George replied, "I'm taking care of my family and yours too now, so what's to hinder me from keeping up my own alone?"

Seeking to do his part in the war against slavery, the young John McWilliams sought to enlist in the army. The enlistment officer told him he looked too young. Not knowing his real age, McWilliams craftily asked, "How old do I have to be to enlist?"

"You ought to be 17 or 18 anyhow," was the answer.

"Well that's just what I am," came the quick reply.

He then served for two-and-a-half years in Company A, 83rd Regiment, U. S. Colored infantry. Rising to the rank of corporal he was honorably discharged and returned to Missouri.

John and Sarah were married on Christmas Day and began housekeeping in a two-room shack. He sharecropped land and she worked for a boarding house – ironing and cooking large quantities of food to be carried in tubs to the field hands. After 15 years of the most arduous labors by the entire household, and moves to Falls City and then Lincoln, Nebraska, the McWilliams family, which had grown to include four children, lived in an eight-room house with brand new furnishings.

John and Sarah McWilliams were hard workers, but first and foremost they were diligent in pursing their personal relationships with God. Rather than being embittered by the scars of slavery, they were devout Christians, active in sharing the Gospel. Sarah founded the first Women's Christian Federation. On August 16, 1895, they both became ordained as pastors by Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The next year, along with Reverend William H. Vanderzee, John and Sarah co-founded the Christian Mission Church. It's providential that in 1896, while Trago's grandparents were instrumental in starting a church destined to provide the spiritual roots of his ministry, his future physical church building, which employs temple-like architecture, was built at 500 North 25th Street by the Vine Congregation Church.

Trago's grandparents and Reverend Vanderzee were not in a position to build a church, and for the few years meetings were held at two known locations: 912 Wood Street, and the Northwest Corner of 10th and K. In 1902, the Christian Mission Church moved to a one-story framed building at 1209 South 9th Street.

In 1904 the church moved to 124 North 23rd Street and became known as the Third Christian Church. This was the church of Trago's youth. One can only imagine the profound impact that sitting under the Gospel teaching of his former-slave grandfather had on the lad.

Trago's father, Trago T., was a kind and wise man. He earned a living outside of the church his entire life. As foreman at the Martin Bomber plant at Fort Crook during World War II, he was honored for his meritorious service. Trago, Sr. was civically minded and well respected in the community. He organized the Lincoln Civic and Improvement league, and helped organize the Lincoln Urban League.

Trago, Sr. became an ordained minister in 1922, when Trago was 13. Four years later, in 1926, the congregation literally moved the white frame church structure to 2149 U Street.

A Preacher of the Word

Born on April 2, 1909 in a house on North 13th Street, Trago McWilliams grew up interacting with people across racial lines. His father advocated for civil rights and was well respected and active in the community. Trago's first encounter with racial prejudice came during his junior year at Lincoln High when his classmates nominated him to be cast as the father in a school play, but his teacher suggested that an "American" would be more appropriate for the role. His mother protested to the school and the matter was settled on the spot.

Trago's parents taught him that out of one's relationship with God, came an understanding of how to be in relationship with others. They also encouraged him to be a lifetime learner. After graduating from Lincoln High School in 1928, he attended the University of Nebraska before transferring to Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas. Trago married and had a son, Richard, but tragically, his wife succumbed to tuberculosis.

In 1931, he married Margaret and the two made their home in Lincoln. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Trago O. McWilliams became an ordained minister in 1939. He began his ministry in Fremont at the all black African Methodist Episcopal Church. A year later, however, he would begin building a ministry on the foundation of faith he had inherited from his parents and grandparents.

Trago's vision for an integrated, nondenominational congregation in Lincoln, Nebraska was contrary to all conventional wisdom. At that time Lincoln was still an unequal society racially and less than two percent of the city's population was African-American (only about 2,000). There were no black professionals in the community, blacks could not swim in tax-supported public pools, and they could eat at only a few of the restaurants.

Just as her grandson was beginning his ministry, Sarah McWilliams died in 1940 at the age of 86 years in Lincoln. Trago and Margaret began a congregation and work began on restoring the weathered building on U Street that had been both his grandfather's and father's church. The building had been vacant for a number of years when it because the first official site for the congregation that would later be known as Christ Temple Mission. The church met at this site for the next 28 years.

Although the congregation wasn't large, the members viewed themselves as a mission to the Lincoln community at large. After long deliberation, they chose to name their congregation Christ Temple Mission. The charter, which was drawn up in 1951, lists Trago and Margaret McWilliams, Merrill and Nina Layman, Zora Adams, and Ermia Davis in the incorporation papers.

In 1970, the property at 2149 U Street was purchased by the City of Lincoln in anticipation of building a north-east radial highway. The projected plan never came to fruition, but the city built a park and named it after Trago's father, Trago T. McWilliams. Desiring to maintain a presence in the same neighborhood, Christ Temple purchased the building at 500 North 25th Street for $12,500 from the First Mennonite Church.

Pastor Trago walked with God, and did not view people by the color of their skin. He tried always to consider the heart-felt needs of others, having an intense desire to build bridges between hard-set opinions, and then encourage others to cross over. "No love, no church," was his often stated contention.

Without being mandated to do so, this part of the Body of Christ was virtually decades ahead of its time. The many later governmental pushes toward integration would come years later. Freedom of expression was the hallmark of the church - emphasized from both the pulpit and the pew, proving that the grace of God shown through Christ Jesus is both full of grace and the equalizing factor of life.

Taking his lead from the Apostle Paul, who worked as a tent maker, Trago worked for the State Department of Labor for over 30 years while he was also pastoring the church. From the outset, the teaching in this fellowship was not based on hollow words and empty philosophy, but by a steady living of the truth. Pastor Trago McWilliams walked the Word of God in his daily life and boldly invited others to follow his lead. The demeanor of his life seemed to give credence to a plaque, which hung on the wall of his home – a quote from Isaiah 49:16. "I will never forget you – I have carved you upon the palm of my hand."

With that as a motto he stood tall, though humble, in an attitude of assurance. Though he was not a man of letters and degrees, he taught the Word of God with eloquence.

Trago was willing to learn from anyone, and he was constantly studying in order to expand his knowledge. In fifty years of leadership, he consistently put grace ahead of every consideration, being quick to forgive and careful to judge fairly. He took to heart James 1:19. "My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry."

The standard by which this humble man of God made assessments of every situation was based on behavior, not on personalities. Consequently, in order to come to a true judgment, pastor McWilliams resorted to prayer - fervent prayer - or as he would express it, "praying through".

Alan Jacobsen remembers that Trago believed that prayer changes things because he knew that in earnest prayer, people are brought together on equal terms. "To him, prayer was not a way to hammer at an opponent, but a means by which God can manifest His will." Trago often quoted Deuteronomy 4:7. "What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?"

In citing such a passage he would observe that the word is "pray" not "prey". He insisted that friends of God do not prey on one another. Instead, his emphasis was on the assurance of Jesus in John 12:32. "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

The sincerity of his heart was an overwhelming influence to all who sat under his ministry of teaching the Word. For nearly fifty years his clear understanding of the truth of the Scriptures was transferred to the hearts and minds of the congregation in a simple, yet forceful style.

During those years of leadership he preached at least one time with a text from nearly every book in the Bible, which means that those who listened to him received a broad understanding of God's message to His people. Pastor Trago chose to speak more from the book of Psalms than from any other Bible reference, which points toward the fact that he was a loving pastor, wanting to use the power of the consolation of that rich poetry.

His second book of choice was the Gospel of John, which indicates he was evangelical in his approach - wanting people to come to a transforming knowledge of Christ. And his third favorite book for a text was Romans, signifying that he wanted his hearers to have a reasoned approach to what they believed and why. Only on a rare occasion did he develop a topic and proof-text it from Scripture. Rather he was an expositor – taking a text and developing truth from it. His method of preparation was uncomplicated; using whatever notebook paper was available at the moment he sat down to contemplate a message.

Trago McWilliams judged the merits of every sermon he preached on this special standard. He wanted no attention for himself, only desiring to point men and women and boys and girls to the Savior of all mankind. He had a unique way in which to highlight a particular thought. He would pause and say, "By way of parenthesis"; then strike his listeners with a salient point. After one of his many inspiring sermons on a Sunday morning, one of the members observed, "Trago was as bold as love!" This is what was truly characteristic of the man, because he consistently emphasized that love is the greatest gift of all. Referring to 1 Corinthians 12:3 a, he would often say, "If you are going to seek a gift, seek the gift of love."

Fortunately, hundreds of his sermon notes survived him, folded and tucked away in a cardboard box and a paper grocery sack. The inspiration within them causes even the most casual reader to pause and contemplate the depth of this man's understanding of what the Holy Spirit intended as He led men to put the Scriptures down in black and white. Written in a flowing script, Pastor Trago's notes reveal the heart of a man who loved his Lord and his people and sought to bring the two of them together through the exposition of God's holy Word. There never was a nursery, so children grew up listening to the teaching of God's Word on Sunday morning. Trago didn't just read Scriptures. He gave a thorough explanation, so that even the youngest ones could gain an understanding of the truth about Jesus. Along with his notes, he packed in illustrations and humor as he preached.

The following four sermon outlines are representative of what the congregation feasted on under the ministry of Trago O. McWilliams. This man truly was a man who walked intimately with God, and imparted the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures to his flock.