Mission Waco has been a cornerstone of the Waco community for decades. Even before the official creation of Mission Waco, founders Jimmy and Janet Dorrell worked hard to make a difference in the impoverished neighborhood of North Waco.

After originally meeting while working at the Waco State Home when Janet was a Baylor student, the Dorrells found their way back to Waco in 1978. They purchased a large, dilapidated house in North Waco with the express purpose of living among those they planned to serve. They began slowly fixing up the home and getting to know those in the community. Beyond the weekly kid and teen clubs they set up, the couple also worked closely with the Campfire organization and Reconcilers Fellowship of Waco.

The Dorrells’ initial incursion into Waco outreach lasted only a year, as they moved to Houston in 1979 for a few years so Jimmy could study under a local pastor experimenting with the idea of cell churches, or smaller home churches, to help spread the gospel throughout large communities. From there they traveled with their firstborn around the world for three months on an exposure trip, learning about poverty and struggle around the world. Upon their return to the United States, as Janet was pregnant with the couple’s second child, they moved back into their home in North Waco with a deeper understanding of poverty and all the more eager to serve those around them. They continued their grassroots community outreach and urban missions for a little less than a decade.

It was not until 1991 that the Dorrells saw the need to form an official nonprofit to support and expand their neighborhood ministry, and they founded Cross Culture Experiences Inc (CCE). The initial intent of this organization was to get middle-class Americans out of their comfort zone and plugged into service and mission work. This goal birthed some of the Dorrells’ first national and international ventures, Poverty Simulation, and “exposure trips.” Poverty Simulation is designed to give people a taste of what it is like to be homeless. Participants sleep in the backyard of a Mission Waco building, find food around town with no money, and much more. The exposure trips were designed to give Americans a window into poverty beyond what they could see in their own towns, true third-world poverty. The Dorrells also continued their neighborhood ministry and Bible clubs while launching CCE. That same year, the Christian Missions Concerns (CMC) Foundation saw the good work the Dorrells were doing in Waco and beyond and decided to fund a new program under the Dorrells’ leadership, Mission Waco. The new program exploded and was quickly brought under the CCE umbrella with continued support by the CMC. Every year since then the Dorrells have launched new projects and learned how to meet the needs of the Waco community in diverse ways.

In the next couple years, Mission Waco made some big moves in the neighborhood. First, the Dorrells purchased an old carpet store next to their home and made it the home base for Poverty Simulation. But the most significant purchase came when they bought the entire shopping center on North Fifteenth Street and Colcord Avenue (on map below). The shopping center was notoriously seedy, housing four low-end bars and a pornographic theater, the Capri. Mission Waco completely renovated the center and began using it for job training, GED. classes, and more. The Dorrells also turned the Capri into a children’s theater and meeting place for the community. Named Jubilee Center, it runs programs like Urban Expression and Prelude Gloria, visual arts and classical music programs for kids. The center even houses a twenty-eight-foot rock climbing wall as well. The building next to the shopping center then became the Youth Center and is a hangout for high-risk and at-risk youth to play video games, pool, and foosball; lift weights; and even hop into the later-added recording studio and let their voice be heard. The initial renovations earned Mission Waco the 1994 “Audrey Nelson Community Development” award, one of five awarded each year nationally. In the coming decade the center would become home to the main offices of Mission Waco and the Mission Waco World Cup Café and Fair Trade Market, located at the intersection of Fifteenth Street and Colcord Avenue. The café and market not only support artisans around the world through fair trade and train locals in food service, they bring middle- and upper-class people into the area and spread awareness of poverty in Waco. By 2000 the Dorrells also founded the Waco Community Development Corporation to bring similar economic development to the area and help provide affordable housing like the Mission Waco-owned Ark Apartments.

The mid-nineties also saw the arrival of Church Under the Bridge and Friday Morning Breakfast. It all started as a Bible study with five homeless men, and Jimmy would also take these men to breakfast on Friday morning. The Bible study grew quickly, as those who were not comfortable within the walls of a church felt accepted in this group of peers. It eventually grew so large that Mission Waco named the gathering Church Under the Bridge, and it met every Sunday morning under the I-35 overpass. When the group grew too large for Jimmy to accommodate for breakfast, First Lutheran Church stepped in and started the official Friday Morning Breakfast gathering at their church, run by volunteers. Church Under the Bridge too became its own entity separate from Mission Waco and now boasts a congregation of three hundred people. This work with the homeless and impoverished shed light on the problems of drugs and alcohol addictions among the homeless population and led to the founding of Mission Waco’s Manna House, an alcohol and drug recovery home, and the Lighthouse, a transition home for those coming out of Manna House. Mission Waco would later found a homeless shelter of its own, My Brother’s Keeper, but not until a decade later in 2004.

Another monumental addition for Mission Waco came in 2005 with the opening of the Meyer Center for Urban Ministries. Mission Waco calls the Meyer Center its “one-stop-shop for the poor and marginalized.” Funded by the Paul and Jane Meyer Family Foundation, this center in downtown offers showers, laundry, clothing vouchers and shelter vouchers, along with a computer lab, job training, and job search aid. The clothing and shelter vouchers can be redeemed at My Brother’s Keeper and Mission Waco’s voucher center, where people can exchange vouchers for free clothes. Mission Waco also runs The Clothesline, selling donated clothes to support other Mission Waco ventures, and it shares a building with the voucher center. In 2011 the Meyer Center also added mental health and relapse prevention services with the help of the Baylor University psychology department. The Meyer Center would later open a chapel for weddings and events in 2013 to help pay for its other services.

In 2012, Mission Waco adopted the name Mission Waco Mission World to better reflect the organization’s work. On top of the many programs Mission Waco operates in the local community, it also still works with partners in Haiti, Mexico City, and India. Mission Waco also continues to take groups to these locations on exposure trips to serve the local populations.

A very important addition to Mission Waco’s ventures was the Jubilee Food Market in 2016. Operating within a known “food desert,” meaning no grocery store existed within walking distance of the neighborhood, Mission Waco wanted to provide low-income families with fresh and healthy foods. Produce is grown behind the store as part of the Urban R.E.A.P. program, allowing the store to sell fresh vegetables at a low price.

In 2018, Jimmy Dorrell passed the executive director position on to John Calaway, but Jimmy remains president. Mission Waco has undeniably changed the face of the city and helped thousands of its residents. Its facets and programs extend beyond those mentioned here, and it continues to provide every service possible to break the cycles of poverty and empower those in need.

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Mutualistas were first established in Texas during the late nineteenth century by Mexican immigrants. These mutual aid societies provided immigrants with a connection to their home country and a support network to meet basic needs as they forged a life in a new and unfamiliar country. The popularity of mutualistas grew significantly in the twentieth century, with more than 100 estimated to be in Texas. While the majority of these mutualistas have closed, there are still a small number in operation today. This includes the mutualista in Waco, which has been a part of the community for approximately one hundred years.

Established on July 6, 1924, the Waco mutualista was initially located within the thriving Hispanic community living at and around Calle Dos. That same year, St. Francis on the Brazos was founded to serve the poor Mexican American community in the area. Likewise, the mutualista formed under principles of union, fraternity, and progress, with its primary goal centered on watching over the Mexican working-class community. This idea is reflected in its name, La Mutualista Sociedad de Jornaleros, as the word jornaleros means “laborers” in English.

As the mutualista was made up of a majority of Catholic members, the organization worked closely with St. Francis on the Brazos in scheduling so that the mutualista’s activities did not overlap with church activities. While most members were Catholic, a few were Protestant. Additionally, the mutualista in Waco allowed both men and women to participate, making it distinct from other mutualistas which were only open to men or had elitist membership restrictions.

The Waco mutualista held their first meetings on Bridge Street. They later relocated to another small building in the Calle Dos neighborhood just large enough to serve as a meeting space. Community festivities, such as dances and wedding celebrations, were held outdoors on a wooden platform—later replaced with a concrete slab. These events often drew large crowds, and over time the mutualista became a key entertainment center within the Calle Dos community.

Along with serving as a space for community members to celebrate their heritage, mutualistas provided access to services that community members were often denied, such as healthcare and education. They also advocated for improved working conditions and workers’ rights. Financial assistance was provided to cover expenses incurred from illnesses and funerals, which helped families prior to the era of hospitalization insurance and sick pay. Participation in mutualistas increased dramatically in the late 1800s and early 1900s, due to rising numbers of Mexican immigrants arriving in the American Southwest to fill low-skilled and low-waged occupations in areas such as farming, ranching, mining, and the growing railroad network. Financial hardship during the Great Depression forced many of these mutualistas to close. But the Waco mutualista continued to thrive through the thirties and forties, and growing membership meant an expansion was needed.

On July 17, 1952, the mutualista moved into a newly built hall located on 312 North Second Street. However, the organization’s time in this building was short-lived with the launching of Waco’s urban renewal program, which began in 1958 after a city-wide vote. By 1978, the Urban Renewal Project had helped channel more than $125 million into renovating Waco’s urban center. Slums and properties that were in disrepair along the Brazos River from modern-day LaSalle Avenue to several blocks past Waco Drive were cleared. Owners of cleared properties were compensated, though some controversy emerged over whether these payments were fair, especially considering that minorities were more impacted by the wide-spread renovation.

As part of the Urban Renewal Project, the homes and businesses of Calle Dos—many of which were in poor condition—were torn down. Among the buildings removed was the mutualista, and members relocated it to 2214 South Fifteenth Street, off LaSalle Avenue. This new property was purchased from a retired contractor. In addition to purchasing a building, the mutualista also bought five acres of land behind the property to be used for future expansion. Participation had boomed, and the organization had once again outgrown its previous location. The new site was larger than the previous location on North Second Street, with an occupancy of four hundred—making it ideal for hosting large dances and other community activities.

Today, the Waco mutualista continues to provide aid to the community, as it has since its founding. The organization collects money for scholarship funds, toy drives, and other service activities. While its focus remains on the Mexican American and Hispanic communities, the mutualista also seeks to serve the community at large—a continuation of its rich history of service.

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First United Methodist Church marks its founding year as 1850, when the Rev. Joseph Perkins Sneed, a circuit-riding Methodist minister, preached to the inhabitants of Waco Village at the foot of Jackson Street on the banks of the Brazos River. Legend has it he bedded down under a tree near the old river ford, where travelers crossed the waters in the years before the construction of the suspension bridge. Sleeping on his saddle blanket, the howling of wolves awakened the preacher just before dawn.

In the summer of 1851, Methodists built the first church structure in Waco. The building would also be used periodically by Baptists and Presbyterians, both forming congregations in the young village. Composed of oak and cedar wooden planks planed at a horse-drawn sawmill just south of the town, the original church stood at Second Street and Jackson Avenue.

In 1858, the congregation erected a new brick church at Franklin Avenue and Third Street. People reportedly traveled by wagon or horseback as far as 100 miles to attend the dedicatory services. The congregation at the time was almost 160 people. That congregation sold that structure a decade later, and the city’s Methodists met in the second-floor auditorium of Waco Female College.

The cornerstone for Fifth Street Methodist Church—which wouldn’t become First Methodist until 1920—was laid in 1876, and construction lasted more than two years on the edifice designed by W. C. Dodson. The inaugural service took place in November 1879. First Church, known as the Mother of Methodism in Central Texas, helped other congregations sprout throughout McLennan County, and served as a leader in the movement to bring the Methodist Children’s Home to Waco in the early 1890s.

First Methodist celebrated its first century in March 1950, with a two-night pageant featuring 150 church members and a historical plaque unveiling with Texas Governor Allan Shivers, as well as radio coverage in Waco and Dallas. Just three years later, on May 11, 1953, the tornado that swept through downtown Waco and killed 114 people heavily damaged the church. The steeple, a well-known community landmark, toppled from the winds, falling across the railroad tracks that ran past the church. Although the tornado caused considerable damage to the church, community contributions allowed the totally refurbished First Methodist building to be re-dedicated within six months, in better shape than it had been before the storm, according to most accounts.

In the mid-twentieth century, the decision was made to move the congregation to a plot of more than five acres of donated land in Northwest Waco. Members broke ground in April 1962 at Lake Air and Cobbs Drives for the facility that they dedicated in March 1963. The old First Methodist—the circa-1877 downtown structure—was demolished in September 1963. Bricks made of Brazos River sand, the baptismal font, plaster cherubs, and stained glass windows, and the 1953 steeple were left behind to be salvaged and sold by the demolition crew. Yet some pieces of the historic structure transitioned to the new space, including the 1876 cornerstone (given a prominent place in the history corner of the church foyer) and the old theater organ (a hand-me-down from the Waco Hippodrome when the days of silent movies ended in 1928). In July 2019, First Methodist "reunited" with Austin Avenue United Methodist Church and the latter became First Methodist's Downtown campus. Today, First United Methodist Church of Waco carries on the congregation’s long tradition of providing a faith community focused upon worship, faith formation, service, and outreach.

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According to founding Junior League member Margaret Barclay Megarity, mid-twentieth-century service opportunities for young women in Waco were limited to society luncheons and church-sponsored activities primarily run by older women. Frustrated and desiring to organize more public service avenues, Megarity invited nine women to her home on December 12, 1935, to discuss creating a new organization.

The fruits of that first gathering were almost immediately tangible. Thirty women attended the first official meeting of the Junior Service League of Waco on January 1, 1936. These founding members drew up a constitution for an organization meant to provide young women with a better understanding of their community, its needs, and its problems. Within one month of drawing up the constitution, the organization began its work in the community.

Children have long served as the focus of the service organization. The first function of the Junior Service League raised $36 (equivalent to nearly $615 in contemporary currency) to provide children’s shoes for Waco’s needy families. In the near century of service which followed, the organization pursued projects such as establishing a children’s symphony, providing resources for clients of Child Protective Services caseworkers, volunteering in children’s hospitals, and providing a playground in Cameron Park.

Though certainly proud of the projects accomplished by the league, leaders often spoke of the organization’s goal as being centered upon training volunteers to become active members in their community. In 1946, the Waco service group incorporated with the Association of Junior Leagues International, becoming the Junior League of Waco. From this time forward, new provisional members underwent an intensive, year-long course in community volunteer service. As early as 1959, the course consisted of two main parts: a history of the Leagues of America, and a history of Waco. The first portion consisted of lectures on the history of the leagues and working in Fort House, the Volunteer Service Bureau, and the Strecker Museum. The second half of the course consisted of lectures on Waco’s background and development, as well as on welfare and public health. Provisional members also toured the city, visiting school administrations, city commissioner meetings, and school board meetings. Information and skills gained from these training measures allowed members to serve the community in the most effective manner.

Despite its focus upon children, the Junior League remained involved in other aspects of the Waco community, as well. In 1956, the group purchased and restored Fort House, one of the historic homes dating back to the Civil War. The organization ultimately decided to turn the deed over to the Waco Society for Historic Preservation (later Historic Waco Foundation) after realizing the home’s historic value. The Junior League later purchased and restored another home, the Clifton House. Today, this historic house (noted on the Waco History map) continues to serve as the Waco chapter’s base of operations.

The reach of the Junior League’s programs is vast. Over decades of service, the group has aided numerous organizations throughout Waco such as the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children, Mission Waco, the Waco Independent School District, the Waco Hippodrome, Compassion Ministries, and many others. Today, the Junior League continues to serve the local community through its dedication to providing well-trained volunteers desiring to work for the good of the community. 

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As one of the first churches built west of Eighth Street, Austin Avenue United Methodist Church has been a center of spiritual growth and community outreach for over one hundred years. 

Having decided that the congregation at Waco’s Fifth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South (now First United Methodist Church) had grown too large, its members petitioned the denominational conference for a church plant. Recognizing the aforementioned need, the quarterly conference approved the establishment of Austin Avenue Methodist Church on December 31, 1900. Dr. John R. Nelson, the incumbent pastor at Fifth Street, took the lead in organizing the new church.

To house the new church, the building committee purchased three lots on the southwest corner of Twelfth Street and Austin Avenue and commissioned architect Charles Bowman to build the sanctuary for $25,000. The main auditorium seated six hundred. The church building also included a special auditorium for Sunday school classes, a pastor’s study, a choir room, and a ladies’ parlor complete with a dining room and kitchen. The first service in the new sanctuary took place on April 13, 1902, despite the fact the stained glass windows had not yet arrived.

As the church grew alongside prosperous downtown Waco in the early twentieth century, church leaders decided a larger property was needed. After much fundraising, church leaders purchased two pieces of land at Thirteenth Street and Austin Avenue and hired architect R. H. Hunt to construct a two-story structure inspired by gothic architecture at a cost of $350,000. The new sanctuary was completed in 1925.

On Saturday, November 13, 1954, tragedy struck Austin Avenue Methodist Church in the form of a terrible fire. Though firemen fought to save the sanctuary, the blaze consumed the worship space and its roof collapsed. The adjacent educational building was spared from the flames but suffered extensive water damage. Shaken but undeterred by the disaster, the congregation assembled the next day at the Twenty-Fifth Street Theater to worship and hear a sermon titled “Fortunate People” by incumbent Pastor Dr. G. Alfred Brown.

Austin Avenue Methodist Church’s sanctuary and educational building reopened to congregants on March 11, 1956. The rebuilt worship space featured aesthetic improvements such as walnut paneling, wall-to-wall carpeting, and forty-eight beautiful stained glass windows depicting scenes from the life of Christ and important Christian symbols. The new three-story educational building contained ten large department rooms, nine restrooms, and three kitchenettes. These facilities continue to be central to congregational life well into the twenty-first century, although renovations occurred in the 1980s to accommodate the growing body of worshippers. In 1968, Austin Avenue Methodist Church became formally known as Austin Avenue United Methodist Church. The name change marked the merger of the Methodist denomination with the Evangelical United Brethren.

Over its long history, Austin Avenue United Methodist Church has served the greater community of Waco with a variety of outreach programs. During the Great Depression, the church established a soup kitchen to help feed local individuals and families hardest hit by the economic downturn. From 1942 to 1945, Austin Avenue contributed to the World War II home front by hosting Sunday evening programs and dinners for visiting servicemen. Congregation member Maybelle Rice even took on the role of wedding planner, happily organizing many a marriage ceremony held within the church for active-duty soldiers and their sweethearts. Austin Avenue’s commitment to American servicemen continued during the Korean War (1951-1953) as the church hosted parties each Friday night for the homesick cadets stationed at James Connally Air Force Base. In the aftermath of the 1953 F-5 tornado that devastated Waco’s downtown, Austin Avenue Methodist Church served as one of the main distribution centers for relief donations. Seeking to make better use of its resources in the mid-1970s, the church opened a kindergarten in its education building and used its kitchen to participate in the Meals on Wheels program. Two years later, a preschool was added to the kindergarten and the administrative board approved the adoption of Montessori-style instruction for those childcare facilities. Austin Avenue Montessori School remained at the location until 1993. To further meet the childcare needs of the community, the church started a Parents’ Day Out program in January of 1980.

In 1990, Austin Avenue United Methodist Church received an official Texas Historical Commission Marker.

As one of the first houses of worship established past Eighth Street, Austin Avenue United Methodist Church--which "reunited" with First Methodist in July 2019--continues to serve downtown Waco well into the twenty-first century.

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