The History of the Kalamazoo Dream Center

The Dream began in June 1998 when Senior Pastor Phillip McElhenny of Kalamazoo First Assembly Church and three other pastors from his congregation attended a minister's conference at the Dream Center in Los Angeles, California.  There was a statement made at this conference that changed the direction of Kalamazoo First Assembly's ministry.  The speaker asked the question, "If your church were to close it's doors tomorrow, what kind of impact would that have on your city."  Pastor Phillip and those with him began to pray and evaluate First Assembly's ministry.

Returning to Kalamazoo, Pastor Phillip decided to visit Mayor Robert Jones of Kalamazoo and asked him "What could we, as a church, do for the city?  The Mayor led them to the Edison Neighborhood and said that "this area has the greatest need for help."  The Edison Neighborhood is Kalamazoo's largest neighborhood with approximately 8,500 residents.  Half of the residents receive some type of public assistance and about 40% are headed by single parents.  The neighborhood has a high crime rate and a very high transiency rate at the neighborhood elementary schools.

Beginning in October of 1998, a group of people from Kalamazoo First Assembly began to visit the Edison Neighborhood each week to do work projects and clean up different areas and streets.  Then in May 1999 this group began to hold revival services once a month at a neighborhood church.  In July 1999 the first Summer Outreach was held in Reed Park which was located in the center of the neighborhood.  200 bags of groceries were given away along with free clothes, hotdogs, chips and drinks.  About 150 people came forward to receive Jesus Christ as Savior.  In September 1999, the first home Bible study group meetings were held every Monday night in the neighborhood.

In July 2000, the second Summer Outreach was attended by 1,200 people at Reed Park and over 100 people received Jesus Christ as Savior.  

In the summer of 2001 the Outreach festivities were again held in Reed Park.  The growing number of people and events necessitated moving to a bigger place and plans were made to find a larger park. Also during the year, Adopt A Block was busy each weekend with volunteers going into the neighborhood to visit with the residents and if necessary do cleanup and minor repairs.  This is the core outreach ministry of the Dream Center to show the love and mercy of Jesus Christ to the neighborhood residents.

In May of 2002 the Kalamazoo Dream Center ministry moved into it's permanent home at 1122 Portage Road.  It was an exciting time and the building quickly filled up with donated clothing and food to give away to the needy.  More volunteers joined the ministry to assist with the needs of the poor.  In July, the Summer Outreach was held for the first time in Upjohn Park, a much larger park located at the northern fringe of the neighborhood.  This allowed for more games, food stands and a crusade arena where services were held to tell the story of Jesus Christ.  

In 2003 several ministers were started.  In May, there was a "Car Care" day.  This event was to provide free oil changes and minor maintenance work on cars belonging to single mothers.  Sixteen women responded and were blessed.  There were work project teams to assist needy homeowners with minor improvements to their houses.  Prayer and Praise meetings started on Tuesday nights to pray for the needs of the neighborhood and it's residents.   Adopt a Block continued to expand to several more streets in the neighborhood and now visits nearly 500 homes. 

November 2004  Satellite office for Alternatives Women’s Care begins operating to reach out to hurting women. This opened up the opportunity to address the widespread problem of teen pregnancy.

  December 2005 Jim LaDuke resigned as executive director of the Dream Center and Rik Stone was hired as his successor.