News Archives

Inner-city church provides model, support for others

11/14/2001 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn

By Linda Green*

LOS ANGELES (UMNS) - Valuing the partnership between clergy and lay people is a strength that has distinguished an inner-city church as a resource center for African-American congregations.

Since 1998, Crossroads/Njia Panda United Methodist Church in Compton, Calif., has been working to help others breathe new life into their worship, social outreach, evangelism and mission. It is designated by the churchwide "Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century" initiative as a congregational resource center.

The initiative was approved by the 1996 General Conference and continued in 2000 for another four years. It seeks to strengthen black churches in the United States by linking growing congregations with partner congregations, and to revitalize the denomination's 2,600 African-American congregations. Its governing committee develops programs and strategies to help predominantly black United Methodist congregations become more effective in ministry. The initiative is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.

Churches are selected as resource centers because they are growing spiritually, have energy and excitement, and are willing to nurture and train other churches. They also value their Wesleyan heritage and cultural history, and they respond to real-world needs and problems.

The church has 16 congregational resource centers across the United States that have provided resources, training opportunities and models for church development to 400 teams of lay and clergy from local churches. These partner congregations use the congregational resource centers as living laboratories to find new directions and commitments to ministry and mission. The Strengthening the Black Church coordinating committee will announce the names of additional resource centers in January. A Congregational Resource Center Summit, a training event for all congregational centers, will be held March 8-10 in Atlanta.

"Our mission is to inspire, encourage and empower congregations to see their potential in Jesus Christ as they become vital mission stations in their communities," said Cheryl Stevenson of Wichita, Kan., the initiative's executive director.

Crossroads was chosen as a resource center in 1998. During a recent meeting in Los Angeles, the coordinating committee visited the church to witness the work firsthand.

Although Crossroads' membership is 600 strong, it "is not predominantly middle class, as (is) seen in so many black United Methodist churches," according to a historical summary of the church.

The Rev. Lydia J. Waters became the pastor of what was then Enterprise United Methodist Church in 1985. The Compton congregation had nearly 50 people and was located in "a community that has an unfair negative reputation across the nation," she said. The previous pastor had retired after serving 15 years of part-time ministry.

"We immediately began the journey of becoming a church that incorporated authentic protocol and worship in the tradition of the black church," said Waters, also a church growth consultant for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. The first step was to begin the healing of internalized racism and self-hate, she said. Growth began, and by 1994, membership swelled to 350, and the congregation was too large for its small building.

Another congregation, St. Peter's United Methodist Church, three miles away, was undergoing pains of a different kind. It had completed construction of a new sanctuary, but its membership had dwindled to 15.

"With prayer and planning, we relocated without losing members and merged without causing havoc," Waters said. The new church became Crossroads/Njia Panda United Methodist Church. "Njia panda" is Swahili for "crossroads."

The membership is 35 percent children, 25 percent young adults and 30 percent middle-aged. "Our outreach has been primarily to make disciples for Jesus Christ in a community where so many others do not want to come," Waters said.

"We are the church where men are loved and respected, women are cherished and protected, and children are cared for, not neglected," Waters said. Crossroads church is in the business of sharing with others the benefit of wisdom, she said.

The church has done significant work in staff-parish relations. Waters has developed her own book of "protocol" and uses it to train the lay members on how to work with clergy. The congregation has hosted three regional Strengthening the Black Church events focusing on the pastor, church administration, church protocol in the black church tradition and "womanist" leadership styles. Congregational leaders stress that worship is at the heart of all that happens at Crossroads.

The center of worship in the black church is preaching and music, Waters said, in a video highlighting Crossroads and the Strengthening the Black Church initiative. Traditionally, the choir is not located on the side but surrounds the pulpit, where the word is read and preached, she said. Music ushers in the presence of the Lord, and the choir prepares the ground, she said. "There is nothing like trying to preach in a church where the music is not right."

Preaching is at the center of the worship, she said. "We understand biblically that there is a life and a spirit in the spoken word of God, that people are healed from the spoken word, that there is power in the spoken word."

Not only is Crossroads' congregation strengthening other churches, it is working toward further solidifying its place in the community.

It is working to enlarge its sanctuary and parking lot, and to build a new fellowship hall and administration/training center with classrooms. The church plans on buying adjoining apartment property for transitional housing and building a "Dignity Center" that will minister to the total person - spiritually, emotionally, physically and socially - in a peaceful setting. "This is a vision today and a reality of tomorrow," Waters said.

Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century is an Advance priority for the denomination. Officials encourage United Methodists to contribute to Advance #194815-4 to help African-American congregations lead the way in training, mentoring and nurturing partner churches into becoming vital centers of ministry.

The United Methodist Board of Discipleship, through its Office of African-American Ministries, has created a series of guides for leadership formation and development of ministries. Two books in the series, dealing with stewardship and worship, are available. A third, on membership care and outreach, is being developed.

In the first component, the Rev. Helen Davis Bell, pastor of Seay Hubbard United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn., addresses stewardship. The Rev. Tyrone Gordon, pastor of Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Wichita, wrote the worship component and discusses the differences between praise and worship.

For more information on the series, contact Marilyn Magee, director of the Office of African-American Ministries, at (877) 899-2780, Ext. 7597, or e-mail mmagee@gbod.org.

# # #

*Green is news director for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.

Back : News Archives 2001 Main