Church to host special events for 75th year

By Mark McKenzie

Wilshire Baptist Church in northeast Dallas is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, culminating with special events June 13 and 14.

Founded in 1951 as a Southern Baptist congregation serving a rapidly growing area of new neighborhoods, Wilshire today is known as a progressive church committed to LGBTQ inclusion, women in ministry, interfaith relationships and advocacy for justice and the common good.

Wilshire cut ties with the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000 and has been affiliated with the more theologically progressive Cooperative Baptist Fellowship since 1991.

On Sunday, June 14, Wilshire will hold a special anniversary worship service at 11 a.m. featuring guest preacher Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian at Washington National Cathedral. Douglas, an award-winning author and prominent Episcopal theologian, also served this year as a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School.

Wilshire is notable for having only five senior pastors in its 75-year history. Bruce McIver served from 1958 to 1988, followed by George Mason, who led the church from 1989 until 2022. Upon Mason’s retirement, The Dallas Morning News editorial board cited his “spiritual courage.” He remains at Wilshire as senior pastor emeritus.

Timothy Peoples became Wilshire’s fifth senior pastor in 2023. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Peoples is also an alumnus of Wilshire’s pastoral residency program, a nationally recognized initiative launched in 2002 under Mason’s leadership. Modeled after medical residencies, the program gives recent seminary graduates two years of practical ministry experience. More than 40 alumni now serve churches and organizations across the United States and abroad.

Wilshire drew national attention in 2016 when the congregation voted to fully include LGBTQ members, a decision that put the church at odds with some Baptist groups in Texas. That vote followed other milestones expanding participation and inclusion, including a 1991 decision to ordain women and divorced persons as deacons and a 2012 vote recognizing Christian baptisms beyond traditional Baptist full immersion.

During the 2014 Ebola crisis in Dallas, Wilshire and Mason made headlines for ministering to and advocating for church member Louise Troh, the fiancée of Ebola victim Eric Thomas Duncan.

Wilshire began on June 14, 1951, when 55 members of the now-defunct Lakewood Baptist Church met in a home on Lakeshore Drive to form a new congregation. Early gatherings were held at the Wilshire Theatre — formerly located at Skillman Street and Mockingbird Lane — as well as retail spaces in Lakewood Shopping Center and Hillside Village.

The church purchased its current property at 4316 Abrams Road, just north of Mockingbird Lane, in 1952. Its first building was completed the following year, and in 1954 Wilshire added a chapel that served as the congregation’s primary worship space until the current sanctuary was dedicated in 1966. In 1986, the original chapel was renamed McIver Chapel in honor of pastor Bruce McIver’s longtime service to the church.

In addition to the June 14 worship service, Wilshire will host a homecoming celebration on Saturday, June 13. Current and former members and staff are invited to gather beginning at 4:45 p.m. to visit and explore historical displays throughout the building. A 6 p.m. program in the sanctuary will feature reflections and remembrances from across the church’s history.