Pastor reflects on time in Columbia as Wilkes Boulevard church prepares to close next year
Mitchell Kaminski
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
When the Rev. Andrew McCausland was appointed to Columbia’s Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church in January 2024, he knew change was ahead.
His last appointment was in Union, Missouri, a rural town of just more than 12,000 people, with his new assignment bringing him to a city of more than 126,000.
“It has been an incredible blessing. This is an amazing community, Columbia,” McCausland said. “My last appointment, we had a Dirt Cheap liquor and a Dollar General. That was it.”
McCausland was told the ministry focused on serving the unhoused and that a day ministry, called Turning Point, operated out of the church. He said the move forced him to adapt his expectations of the congregation to be fluid in their expectations of him; but the goal remained the same.
“Our most important roles [as pastors] is facilitating the congregation’s ability to have a relationship with God. And that’s going to be different in different contexts,” McCausland said.
While his new role came with a different set of challenges, he said he felt prepared.
“This wasn’t a part of the decision to place me here, but I’ve had some experience as a child with homelessness and I’ve got a lot of friends on the edges, the margins in various other ways so I’m very comfortable with the vulnerable.”
The church McCausland was joining also carried historical weight. Built in 1911 and opened in 1918, Wilkes Boulevard Methodist Church has long been a fixture in Columbia. Located at the corner of Wilkes Boulevard across from Hickman High School, the church has ingrained itself in the community.
“I love these old buildings and the fact that they can still be vibrant parts of the community. One of my favorite parts leading up to our service is ringing the bell and hearing that,” McCausland said. “That’s to me just a part of community and the church being part of the community and trying to welcome the community.”
In recent years, the church’s mission shifted toward providing support and worship opportunities for the city’s homeless community.
“We see the most broken people in their worst situations but we get to be apart of their life, administering them and helping them to feel like human beings, which they like we all deserve to feel as special creations of God and that can get hard when you’ve fallen through the cracks and you’re unhoused,” McCausland said. “To have them as a part of a neighborhood can be a challenge and it’s been a challenge here. But it is incredibly important for us to reach out that hand.”
McCausland stressed the broader importance of helping those on the margins.
“In the world we’re living in today, most of us, I’m not going to say the majority, but a good portion of us are one disaster away from being on the streets,” McCausland said. “I talk to people every day that became homeless at 60-, 70-years-old, that had good, vibrant lives, and then things just snowballed.”
Wilkes Boulevard Methodist Church started Turning Point in 2014. Since then, it has turned into an independent, nonprofit organization. It also helped pay the church’s rent.
In 2013, the church was having conversations about closing its doors due to financial difficulties. But founding Turning Point gave the congregation new life.
“Turning Point gave them 12 more years to love people, serve people, serve the community,” McCausland said. “We do not have the steady membership that we used to have. There has been a wonderful, wonderful group of 15-to-20 people that has done God’s work for a decade, and it gets to a point where its time to pass that onto someone else.”
The church has been open about having financial difficulties, and hosted a public meeting in May to discuss the future of the church. But when Turning Point, the church’s primary source of funding, announced it would be moving to Columbia’s Opportunity Campus, which is expected to open next year, the writing was on the wall.
Earlier this month, Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church announced it would be closing “after more than a century of ministry in Columbia.” McCausland described the congregation’s reaction to the news as bittersweet.
“We don’t want to get caught up in a pile of bricks. It isn’t the bricks that did the work. It’s all the people that were here,” McClausland said. “It is a good and natural thing that Turning Point is moving to the new facility because that’s going to offer a lot more coordinated resources for the unhoused and the disadvantaged.”
The church and Turning Point will continue operations until the day the center moves. With the church set to officially close in June 2026, McClausland is hoping to end on a high note.
“We believe that an end can be full of grace and joy just as much as a beginning. And that’s what we’re trying to hope for, is that as we come to a close, as the church itself comes to a close, we’re going to close with grace and joy and celebration,” McCasuland said.
McCausland said the church has received interest from several local churches and a school in relocating to the property. As Wilkes Boulevard Church closes, the congregation will turn the building over to the Methodist conference trustees, who will determine its future use.
After a community town hall in May, it became clear that locals hope the site remains a church or community center. McCausland expressed optimism that the property will continue as a place of worship, though not as a United Methodist church.