Author: Rich Magee (Elder) The story of Maplewood began back in the late 1800’s when John Nelson Darby came to the United States to encourage the founding of assemblies. One of the families that he visited and stayed with was the Bellingers in New York. They had a son Charles who become an insurance executive and attended a NY assembly. In the early 1900’s Charles moved to East Orange, attending the East Orange meeting, and then to Maplewood around 1910. He became very friendly with two men who lived nearby his home in Maplewood: Willard Low and Lucius Main. Both were attending Morrow Memorial Methodist Church nearby on Ridgewood Road. The men met with Charles for Bible studies and expressed their dissatisfaction that the Methodist Church was becoming more and more liberal and moving away from biblical truths and doctrine. These three men decided to start an assembly in the then Village of Maplewood in 1913. Around the same time, several families, without brethren backgrounds, moved to Maplewood. In searching for a fellowship where Biblical truths were expounded and practiced, they joined with the new assembly and became mainstays in the work. The original congregation – about 20 persons – met in the auditorium of the old Town Hall (which later became the Public Library) across from the Fire House near Maplewood Center. Sometimes meetings were interrupted with the sound of the fire sirens going off. After several years the Chapel moved to rented quarters at 8 Highland Place off Maplewood Center. In 1929, to increase their impact and presence, they rented a store at 1787 Springfield Avenue, the main artery in town, several short blocks from the current Chapel. Gospel texts were placed in the windows and were an effective means of spreading the Gospel. In the summer the saints would gather outside to sing hymns. The store front had two large windows and a different page of the Bible was displayed each week. This outreach attracted the interest of a Mrs. Lanuto, who stopped on her way past the store front to read the Gospel texts. She eventually came inside to find out more and accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. After many, many years of prayer by her and the saints, her husband also accepted the Lord and joined the congregation: more on the Lanutos later. The work grew and a larger, more permanent facility was needed. This was during the Depression and money was scarce. A well-to-do Christian brother, worshipping at another assembly, offered to provide funds to purchase land, if a suitable location could be found and the congregation would commit to building a church. A triangular plot of land bordered by Lexington and Burnett Avenues, the current location of the Chapel, was located and purchased for $2,900 on March 31, 1937. Gifts and a bond sale financed the $22,000 construction cost. The Chapel issued $12,000 in bonds, 120 bonds in $100 denominations. These bonds paid interest and principal annually on February 1st and were fully paid up February 1, 1953. Lucius Main was an architect by profession and had built a model of the church that he envisioned long before the land was purchased. It sat in his house on Mountain Avenue, Maplewood for all to see when they visited. He designed this building, which has essentially remained the same in layout since it was constructed, and supervised the construction which commenced in December 1937. His vision became a reality with the opening of the Chapel in May 1938 with about 70 regular attendees. The Chapel continued to grow as more and more families joined in Worship and as outreach to the community increased. Maplewood became the destination of choice for many believers because very few assemblies had their own building. Len and Esther Brooks decided to be married at Maplewood in 1949, because in Esther’s words, “It was the most attractive assembly”. Maplewood was blessed with a host of young singles and young couples, many with growing families, and many wise shepherds. The names of Low, Main, Myers, Mauger, Lough, Bellinger, Fortune, Humphries, MacKenzie, Brackenridge, Scheele, and others are part of the early leadership history of the assembly. For years people would speak glowingly of the blessings derived by attending Charles Bellinger’s Bible studies. Mr. Bellinger was the leading brother in establishing The Fields in 1938, forerunner of Christian Missions in Many Lands (CMML). Shortly after moving into the Chapel the congregation made a critical change in the order of meetings that generated a lot of discussion and some resistance. For years the meeting schedule was Sunday School and Adult Bible class at 9:30 and Breaking of Bread at 11:00. Gospel meetings were held at 6:00 in the evening. This created a problem when individuals in the neighborhood began coming for what they anticipated to be a traditional church service at 11:00 and had to sit in the back and observe this “strange” meeting A decision was made to begin Sunday with the Breaking of Bread Worship Meeting and then follow it up with a meeting that had two concurrent activities: Sunday School and the Family Bible Hour. It was not very long before the saints recognized the spiritual benefit of beginning the Lord’s Day meeting with the Breaking of Bread Worship Service and fully embraced the change. It has been the practice ever since. During the mid-1940s, Mr. Bellinger was returning from his job in NY and as he approached the ferry to Hoboken, he encountered a young man who had recently been converted at Percy Crawford’s camp in the Poconos. This young man was handing out tracts and preaching the Gospel. Mr. Bellinger was so impressed by this man’s zeal and enthusiasm for reaching the lost that he felt he would be an excellent asset to, and help at Maplewood. He offered to buy a house and let him live there if he would come and help at Maplewood. The young man’s name: Jack Wyrtzen, who had already founded Word of Life. They were broadcasting on a local radio on Long Island and they already formed a team that held evangelical rallies. Jack and Marge Wyrtzen and their family moved to Maplewood and made the chapel their church home in 1946. Young Don Wyrtzen, who is now well known for his sacred music, started out by playing the piano in the MBC Sunday School. When I arrived at Maplewood in 1948 the work was thriving. I remember that every Sunday the previous week’s Sunday School attendance was posted on a plaque on a wall in the basement. Typically the number exceeded 90 and I recall the excitement when we broke 100. Bessie Low, who had gone to Biblical Seminary in NYC to prepare for the mission field, had her plans changed when she married Willard Low in 1925. She had a vision for VBS and organized the first VBS, a two-week program, as well as a very elaborate Christmas program that she scripted. Children’s programs expanded and the Friday night Craftime program was started, eventually growing to almost 100 children. Weekly children’s evangelistic meetings were held at times throughout the year. Favorite speakers were A.P. Gibbs who used his slides to present the Gospel to children and David Stifler with his chalkboard, black light presentations. Many were saved. Maplewood always had a strong youth ministry for its teens. Couples that were faithful as leaders over many years in guiding this important aspect of MBC’s ministry included: Jim and Arlyne Lane, Ray and Joan Stumpf, and Jim and Susie Lane. As the Chapel grew, the need for more space for Sunday School was needed. In December of 1961 the Chapel purchased a small house on the adjoining property for $15,000 and connected it to the existing Chapel via a hallway. This is what we refer to as the Annex. Jack Jacober, a member of the Chapel who had a construction business, managed the work. To pay for the property and connecting construction the Chapel issued 180 $100 bonds to raise the $18,000 needed. These bonds were fully paid off December 1, 1975. In 1978 Maplewood received a bequest from the Lanuto estate of their small nearby home in Vaux Hall. They had no children and were grateful for MBC in bringing them both to the Lord; they wanted to help support and continue the Lord’s work at Maplewood. It was sold in 1979 for $40,000. The monies were invested and allowed to grow while providing additional funds to support special work and ministries. These monies and their growth were fully expended for the Chapel renovation projects over the past several years. During these growing years the assembly commended Bill and Anita Clark to work in Central and South America, Bob and Joyce Clark (jointly with Kenilworth Gospel Chapel) to a preaching and radio ministry in the US and Lois Pellegrin to work in Zaire. The assembly has also faithfully supported Dave and Maryann (Wyrtzen) Cox in their work with Word of Life Brazil since they departed in 1963. Missions have always been an important aspect of Maplewood’s activities. Over the years MBC has had a role in the work at Yonkers Gospel Mission, in Yonkers, NY, Goodwill Rescue Mission in Newark, and Market Street Mission in Morristown. Dave Scott, previously an elder at MBC and with us today, currently serves as the Executive Director at Market Street and he previously was the Executive Director at Yonkers. As the years went by and many of the earlier elder leadership went home to be with the Lord, the saints were encouraged in the work by elders D’Addio, Elder, Ellis, Fortier, Lane, Magee, Mortland, Rust and Scott. By the end of the last century as members began to age, they moved away to be closer to children or were called home to glory. The congregation began to shrink and it was not clear if the ministry would survive. We continued to pray, modestly, not boldly, that God would send one family at a time to help us sustain our programs and testimony. Faithful brothers willing came to minister at our Family Bible Hour knowing that there would most likely be less than 20 in attendance. The list included Len Brooks, Tom Wilson, Horace Young, Alan Schetelich, Dave Naysmith, Ed Gray, Eton O’Connor, Ed Gordon, Victor Bonett, John Schetelich, Christian JaVois, and Victor Gill. This support was a great encouragement during these trying years. I remember one Sunday morning, when I was preparing to open the 11:00 service, seeing only 4 in the audience (there were others teaching Sunday School). We eventually grew to about a dozen that morning. In God’s time He answered our prayers and faithfulness. In 2006 a young Indian couple, Abie John and Ruby Samuel-John, moved to New Jersey, two miles from the Chapel, so that Ruby could do her residency at UMDNJ in Newark. God directed them to MBC. They chose to worship with us because they felt they could help with our youth ministries. Well they were help in ways that we never imagined. They revitalized our youth group. Abie became an elder and refreshed our thinking. Ruby played the piano. But the real blessing came when they introduced Bethel Brethren Assembly to MBC. Bethel had been using rental facilities that were no longer available. They needed a permanent home and were looking to purchase a building. After several joint meetings and much prayer, God lead them in 2010 to decide to join with Maplewood. So from one brother and one sister, God blessed us with over 25 new families, totaling over 80 in number. What God has done, Brother Jean Fortier reminded us several years during a cottage meeting devotional, was similar to how God answered Elijah’s prayer for rain in 1 Kings 18. As Elijah prayed, he directed his servant to go look toward the sea. Six times he saw nothing. On the seventh time, the servant saw a little cloud coming out of the sea. Shortly, thereafter the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. So it was with Abie and Ruby, a little cloud. Then the heaven was opened and God blessed us with over 80 wonderful, loving and caring believers from Bethel. The blessings that we have experienced through our new brothers and sisters I cannot fully describe. It has been wonderful what God has done. TO GOD BE THE GLORY! You will hear more about Bethel’s history in the next session.

Maplewood Bible Chapel continues to be a thriving assembly of believers, with emphasis on faithfulness to God's Word - the Bible, and abiding in Christ Jesus our Lord for all matters of faith and practice.