wfn.org | Survival strategies, successful ministry highlight ministers

["Office of Communications"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

retreat
Date: March 17, 2000
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
E-mail: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

00b-9

	NORCROSS, Ga. (DNS) -- Survival strategies for African Americans and the 
success of a fast-growing suburban Atlanta church highlighted the 26th 
annual Black Ministers Retreat.

	The March 6-9 event was sponsored by the Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ) Homeland Ministries' division and drew 165 clergy and lay leaders 
from across the U.S.

	The entire work of ministry -- preaching, teaching, outreach and 
counseling -- should help ensure survival in a diverse but increasingly 
violent society and world, according to the Rev. Carroll Watkins Ali, 
Denver, Colo. The culprit, she said, is systemic racism that produces 
"genocidal poverty" that destroys families and individuals because of a 
"lack of material (economic) base." 

	In the midst of the country's outrage over the recent New York police 
acquittals, God is doing a new thing, said Ali. The violence that has 
gripped the nation "is not an African American problem," she said. "It's 
an American problem. And it will take a collective strategy to address 
it."

	Ali urged the formation of a pastoral theology that seeks to  "discern 
God's will as it pertains to God's people." In particular she is concerned 
with holistic pastoral care-giving that is relevant to the needs of 
African American Christians.

	Ali also criticized the burgeoning prison-industrial complex, saying that 
"under the 14th Amendment slavery is still quite legal if you are 
convicted of a crime." U.S. prisons are filled with "political prisoners 
who don't have the economics to keep from being railroaded into the prison 
system," she said. 

	People of color need the ability to resist systematic oppression and 
genocide, she added. African Americans, especially, need to recover "our 
rich African heritage that helped us to survive." Liberation, or total 
freedom from all kinds of oppression is the answer, according to Ali. 
What's needed is the ability to "self determine and engage in a process of 
transformation of the dominant culture through political resistance."

	The Rev. Cynthia L. Hale began Ray of Hope Christian Church, Decatur, 
Ga., in her living room with four people and lots of prayer. Fourteen 
years later, the thriving congregation has nearly 4,000 members and a host 
of community ministries. "The Ray" recently bought a 3,500-seat facility 
and is scheduled to begin worship there on Easter Sunday. 

	"The way to grow from four to 4,000 is for the leader to have a passion 
for souls," said Hale. That passion carries over to the congregation's 
life today. Its mission is developing persons into "first-rate 
evangelists," she said. Evangelism teams routinely minister in both the 
affluent suburb of Decatur and on the streets downtown Atlanta.

	Managing rapid growth, however, doesn't come easily, according to Hale. 
The demands of serving a fast-growing flock mean equipping others to 
assume leadership roles. And that means change . . .  change that often 
results in numbers of dissatisfied members. "Every time there is change 
there will be casualties," she said, "there will be people left behind."

	For her that occurred during the congregation's fifth year of existence. 
That was the first year of "exponential growth" at Ray of Hope. The 
congregation grew by 550 persons. It was then "I gave up control," Hale 
said.

	She hired a staff associate who is now co-pastor of the congregation. She 
also began focusing her efforts on training and equipping members for 
ministry. Churches often have persons who run America's corporations as 
members. There isn't any reason why their gifts can't be used to help run 
the church, she declared. 

	Changes at Ray of Hope involved more than retooling to meet the mounting 
pastoral care needs. The congregation's structural life also underwent 
radical change. The church moved from traditional standing committees to 
ministry teams, eliminated its church council or official board, and began 
appointing rather than electing persons to ministry assignments.

	Along the way the church has begun a health ministry, a transitional 
ministry for homeless men and Hope Institute, which houses a computer 
laboratory. 

	In short, Ray of Hope has done more than survived. It has thrived and 
continues to do so.

	In a message on the final evening of the retreat, the Rev. William 
J.Barber II, Goldsboro, N.C., issued a stirring challenge for pastors and 
congregations to fight for justice and to serve all people.

	"We can't be passive," thundered Barber, pastor of Greenleaf Christian 
Church in Goldsboro. "We must stand up for righteousness." Sometimes that 
challenge must be issued to the church itself. 

	He called on participants to "remind the church of her singular purpose 
-- to be a house of prayer for ALL people" and to be "a house saturated 
with prayer."

	Barber condemned the culture's "consumer religion" which has substituted 
market mentality for "the mercy seat." Churches and congregations must be 
transformed into caring communities for hurting persons. "The church ought 
to be a healing station and not a museum exhibit," he said.   

	To accomplish that, ministers have to lead parishioners toward spiritual 
empowerment, personal holiness and prophetic social consciousness, said 
Barber.

	-- end --

Disciples News Service releases 
are available at http://www.disciples.org/dns/index.htm