The story of South End Presbyterian Church goes much like a marriage, a divorce and a remarriage.
The church began in 1955 as South Tryon Presbyterian Church, founded to serve Brook Hill and Southside. By 1991, the church had a new, young pastor who believed God was calling him to build a multicultural church in The Plaza.
That pastor left the church on South Tryon, taking some of the congregation with him, and started Bread of Life Christian Ministries.
The Charlotte Presbytery gave the new church 9 acres in The Plaza, and the congregation grew to several hundred, opened a day-care center and held three Sunday services a week in its $2 million building.
“You were looking at a church that was growing and thriving,” said Billy Tyson, a longtime member.
Meanwhile, the members of South Tryon Presbyterian who stayed behind were not ready to disperse, even though they had lost their building.
In many cases, families were divided, as parents and their adult children or sisters and brothers chose different congregations.
Marjorie Parker and her former in-laws did not go with Bread of Life, but her now ex-husband did.
“It was a very sad time, especially for people who had grown up in the church,” she said.
The remaining members felt there still was work to be done in the area. They continued to meet, renting space for several months from Floyd Young, owner of FDY Catering.
John Crawford, one of the leaders of the group, started thinking about a boarded-up church he drove by on the way to work every day.
“I just felt the good Lord calling us to where we were supposed to be,” Crawford said. “We didn’t have anywhere we could call a church home.”
With the help of the Charlotte Presbytery, the group bought and fixed up the church on Freeland Lane, which they renamed Clanton Presbyterian Church after the building’s former congregation name, Clanton Memorial Presbyterian Church.
The Charlotte Presbytery chartered the new church in 1993. The Rev. Robert Earwig, who is white, was appointed as the largely African-American church’s first interim minister. Parker recalls him telling “the best stories,” which were refreshing to people in a congregation that at times felt hurt and disjointed.
The church went through several other interim ministers before the Rev. Dr. James A. Thomas Sr. became senior minister in early 2008.
Bread of Life had become nomadic in recent years, struggling after leadership issues sent the church into decline, Tyson said. The church lost members and had to move out of its building, now the location of a school.
The congregation met in schools and even a funeral home before sharing space with Grace Baptist Church, which was adjacent to its old property. When Grace Baptist sold the land, Bread of Life rented a building from Caldwell Presbyterian Church on East 5th Street.
Then Crawford paid Tyson a visit one Sunday.
“He was talking to the fact that after all these years, we’ve been split,” Tyson said. “He said, ‘Don’t you think it’s time to come back together and start all over again?’ ”
