wfn.org | Inner-city church provides model, support for others

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 14, 2001 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{534}

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.

SBC-21 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.

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United Methodist News Service
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