In 1946, a young William Lee Bonner arrived at Michigan Central Station. He made his way to the church on Orleans St. that he had visited once before. He was now the pastor of that church, which was housed in an old bakery building. There was no money for immediate repairs for the church, so even though it had upstairs apartments, Bonner first lodged with the saints (And the High Place, 31-32).
The church was slow to warm up to Bonner for a number of reasons (High Place, 33-34). For one thing, even though he could be called a Lawsonite due to his close association with Bishop Lawson, Bonner was a true Lawsonite in the sense of making his ministry his full-time profession. Because the church was small, they assumed he would take at least part-time employment; that did not happen. Moreover, as Bonner began to express ideas about improving the church building, he met opposition to his "fancy ideas." One big difference between Bonner and the outgoing pastor he was replacing was that (at the time), Bonner was "no preacher"--that is, his rhetorical practice was "a bit boring."
Above all the aforementioned reasons was this one: the church as a whole did not agree with the removal and replacement of their old minister, one Elder Vinson. It would not be far-fetched to assume that much of what they resented about Bonner corresponded to what they liked about Elder Vinson, who we can picture as a sometime bivocational pastor with a mature preaching style that moved congregants. The church was slow to get over Lawson's decision to remove Elder Vinson, and well after Bonner had assumed the pastorate, some members "kept up strife and sent false reports... concerning the Bonners" (High Places, 33).
Though this church was firmly established as a group, the Bonners did not have it easy. Financial support was not reliable. Only if supportive members attended service could Elder Bonner expect any income for him, Mrs. Bonner, and their new baby. Their dinners were very humble: beans, gravy, very little meat (High Places, 33). During sermons, Bonner has often recounted how neck bone was the only meat they could afford in those early times. In addition, Elder Bonner's wardrobe was in terrible repair. While preaching, he wore a cape, but underneath the cape he wore suits that were "shiny" and "creaseless." He wore out some of the knees of his pants in prayer, and wore his shoe soles "so thin until the outline of his feet could be seen" (High Places, 34).
Bishop Lawson did come by once to "straighten things out" when rumors reached him in New York about the Bonners. However, as with Elder Lymus Johnson, there was no financial underwriting. There is record that Bishop Lawson did, here and there, send financial support to churches in need, but perhaps by Lawson's estimation, this did not really need more than a firm reprimand for the insubordination of a few "troublemakers." Consider the facts: The church was small and relatively young, but already had a strong, experienced core group. Bonner was, after all, not their first pastor, and they had been taught to support the ministry with tithes and offerings. Rather than get involved, Lawson reiterated: Elder Bonner was their pastor. That was that.
Eventually, the church began recover. A portion of the church sought membership elsewhere, which increased Bonner's ratio of support among those who remained. The tiny continuing membership connected with Bonner's sincerity and prayerfulness. Bonner's wife, Sister Ethel Mae Bonner (née Smith), began noonday prayer services and a choir (High Places, 280). An experienced construction worker, Bonner began making improvements on the old bakery building with the help of some of the church brethren (High Places, 34).
Membership and revenue increased little by little, and after a while, "Bonner was able to buy an old used car," which he used to reach out to Cardboard Valley, a nearby community. Carloads of children were picked up for Sunday School, and eventually some of their parents followed. Bonner also established fellowships with other churches nearby, "which represented many denominations"; the mutual support afforded by the church's interdenominational relationships gave the church greater visibility in the community and brought in additional finances (High Places, 35-36).
Finally, the anointing began to overshadow Bonner's ministry. His homilies, heretofore "a bit boring," were now evangelistic in their focus, becoming the spiritual climax (rather than anticlimax) of what were already lively services (High Places, 36, 34), Three years into his pastorate, a visitor was spontaneously baptized in the Holy Ghost during a Sunday night musical. The experience "surprised" the church and young pastor, but surprise gave way to "great joy" (High Places, 36, 192).
To put things in perspective, it took over three years for Elder Bonner to establish himself in Detroit. Though the church was established, increasing the church's membership and its influence in the community was very hard work. Perhaps the hardest part of pastoring was being accepted by the church to which one was appointed. Of course, the prize of this sort of acceptance is the privilege doing more hard work: taking the lead in fundraising; initiating building campaigns; dealing with the personal and financial problems that inevitably occur in the course of ministry.
Often, church divisions are portrayed as the unhappiness of a few power-thirsty men bent on taking what they desire by force. While that certainly does occur, in the context of the present series, it suddenly seems reasonable that, after investing so much time and energy into a church and community for years, or decades, some of Lawson's maturing young preachers would find being overruled by a somewhat detached, geographically distant, financially absent patriarch hard to accept. More and more, it seemed, Bishop Lawson, wealthy and celebrated, was somewhat out of touch with the difficult concrete work of his pastors and with their expectations of him as a leader.
Bishop Bonner calls the 1957 separation "a confusing time" (High Places, 73); his decision to stay with Lawson was reached in prayer. Others reached their decisions by other means. We'll examine the events that began to foment dissatisfaction and that led ultimately to reformation among the brethren in the near future. First, though, let's examine Lawson's own life and ascension to affluence in light of the privations suffered by those who served with him.
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