Welcome to MOSES, Second Baptist!
By Pam Gates
MOSES President Saundra Brown has made it a goal of her presidency to bring more African American congregations into MOSES, and we welcome Second Baptist Church as her first success! Saundra made a presentation to the congregation about a year ago, and another one this summer, on Aug. 18, both times accompanied by our organizer, James Morgan. At the Aug. 18 presentation, several of us other MOSES members also present heard Pastor Anthony Wade and Rev. Richard Jones say to each other: “Let’s do it!” They applied, and on Sept. 28 the MOSES Leadership Board accepted their application and welcomed Second Baptist to the work of righting the wrongs of Wisconsin’s criminal-legal system.
“The work MOSES is doing is very important,” Rev. Wade said in a recent interview. “We believe in justice for everyone. MOSES is needed! The more churches that are involved, the better. My friend, Rev. Jackson, who is with MICAH [in Milwaukee], is so happy that we got involved. We got involved so we could help, so let’s do it!”
Second Baptist is a small congregation that is looking forward to its 72nd anniversary next June. The congregation has about 200 on the rolls, but fewer in attendance as they build back from Covid, which hit them hard. But building back they are, with lively, warm, and welcoming services, and serious effort to bring in more youth as well. For example, they held a vacation Bible school this summer, and 25 kids attended!
Second Baptist’s first home was on Olin Avenue, but since 1995 they have been located on Britta Parkway, just south of West Beltline Highway near Midvale Boulevard. Their 70th anniversary history book shows that they have been active in the community in many areas: working on voter encouragement, seat-belt awareness, health-related issues awareness, prison ministry at the Columbia Correctional Institution, and mentoring inside and outside of the schools.
Rev. Wade has been the Second Baptist pastor for 14 years, after two initial years as interim pastor. In 1992, when he was a senior public health adviser for the Centers for Disease Control, he was transferred to Madison, joined Second Baptist, and became a deacon. In 2007, he felt called to the ministry. He studied, was ordained, and then held both jobs until March 2020, when he retired from the CDC — after 41 years!
Beyond its Sunday services and Wednesday Bible studies, Second Baptist currently celebrates Annual Days, holds fellowship events with other churches, and is active with Allied Partners, a group of area churches that offers support to the Allied Drive community.
“We try to spread the word of Jesus Christ and to help those in need,” Pastor Wade says. “We try to teach love. If we truly loved one another, we wouldn’t have all this racism and meanness of spirit … I think if we continue to show the love of Jesus, we’ll get people … We’re a small church, trying to do what God instructed us to do …
“It’s about the people. When Jesus saw the people, He had compassion.”
And in working with compassion to help people less fortunate, people caught for too long in a complex criminal-legal system that is especially repressive to Black, brown, and poor people — that is where the efforts of MOSES are. We’re a good fit, MOSES and Second Baptist. As Pastor Wade says “Let’s do it!”