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RELIGION/tElie CjNnrlatte
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Black pastor coalition protests gay marriage
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARLINGTON, Texas -
Black pastors representing
thousands of congregants in
the DaUas-Fort Worth area
are calling for a constitution
al amendment banning
same-sex marriages.
The pastors, who formed
the Not On My Watch Coah-
tion six weeks ago, kicked off
efforts Saturday with a rally
at Arlington City HaU that
drew 1,000 supporters. The
group included representa
tives from Promise Keepers,
an international men’s min
istry.
As gay and lesbian couples
celebrate in Massachusetts,
the first state to make same-
sex marriages legal, the
coalition denounces parallels
drawn between the gay
rights movement and the
civil rights movement.
Members say legalizing
same-sex marriages will
have irreparable repercus
sions on the country.
‘We’ve taken the blow of
cohabitation. We’ve taken
the blow of divorce. We’ve
taken the blow of absentee
fathers,” said the Rev. Bryan
Carter, pastor of Concord
Missionary Baptist Church
in Dallas. “Homosexual mar
riage could be the knockout
blow.”
The group asked attendees
to sign a petition asking law
makers for a constitutional
amendment that would
define marriage as being
between a man and a
woman.
“The church caimot allow
the gay rights movement to
hitch itself to the civil rights
movement,” said the Rev.
William Dvright McKissic,
one of the coalition’s
founders. “It is insulting,
offensive and racist. It is to
compare my skin with their
sin.”
Randall Ellis, executive
director of the Lesbian/Gay
Rights Lobby of Tfexas, based
in Austin, said Saturday
that his organization was
unaware of the rally but is
familiar with such groups.
“They’re rallying to con
strict rights and weave dis
crimination into the very
fabric of our Constitution,”
he told the Fort Worth Star-
Thlegram for its Sunday edi
tions. “And really that’s all
they can do, is hold rallies
like that. Fair-minded and
open-minded people have a
hard time disagreeing with
what gays and lesbians are
after: fairness and equality
under the law.”
Rural churches struggle to maintain their
congregations with sanctuaries in disrepair
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPRING MILLS, Pa. -
The stained glass windows
are being removed from the
old First Pentecostal
Church, now falling apart in
this central Pennsylvania
village.
Less than a mile away, a
“For Sale” sign sits outside
the centuiy-old St. Mark’s
Lutheran Church. Just
down the highway, two
reunited congregations cred
it their newfound growth to
a new building.
Across the cormtry, rural
churches are struggling to
maintain their congrega
tions and their way of life
while facing a daunting real-
ity-it’s hard to get new mem
bers in old churches.
“Part of the problem with
rural churches is that old
buildings don’t appeal to
yoimg couples,” said Robert
Seater, pastor for New Hori
zon United Church of Christ
in Wisconsin, recently creat
ed from three congregations
in rural Sheboygan and
Washington counties. New
Horizon hopes to build a new
church and sell the three
older buildings.
“They’re hving in homes
that are $150,000, $300,000
homes, and they don’t want
a building that just has a
bare basement for their kids’
Sunday school,” Seater said.
“If the church is going to
meet the needs of the 21st
century, we’re going to have
to do something with these
buildings.”
Garth Brown, the council
president for New Hope
Lutheran Church in Spring
Mills, said the same situa
tion existed here.
New Hope was founded in
2001 when the congrega
tions from St. Mark’s and
Holy Cross Lutheran
Church merged. Both
churches had aging congre
gations and saw little room
for growth.
“The one building had
some parking, but there was
no fellowship haU, no Sun
day school area, nothing.
The St. Mark’s building,
there was a fellowship hall
in the kitchen, but there was
no parking,” Brown said.
“We worked with the synod
and the national church, and
the things that yoimg fami
lies were looking for we could
not offer from the old bvuld-
ings.”
All the while, just outside
of Spring Mills stood a stark
reminder of what could hap
pen if the churches couldn’t
save themselves.
Originally founded as a
Lutheran church more than
100 years ago, the building
that housed First Pente
costal hasn’t hosted regular
services in some 15 years.
Cracks streak the red brick
walls, the white wooden bell
tower is succumbing to rot
and vines are overtaking the
building.
Because of a deed restric
tion, when services were no
longer held in the building,
ownership reverted to 5^
year-old Delbert Decker, who
had gone to Sunday School
there as a child.
“I had a contractor look at
it. He said to try to restore it
and fix the roof, it would cost
$350,000,” said Decker, who
is allowing a salvage compa
ny to remove anything valu
able, such as the stained
glass, from the building
before tearing it down.
“There’s no place for people
to park here, and the build
ing doesn’t even have plumb
ing-no bathrooms, nothing,”
Decker said. “It’s a shame,
but there is something you
can get out of it.”
Rural churches aren’t
alone. Last year, the Nation
al Trust for Historic Preser
vation named urban worship
centers as among the
nation’s most endangered
historic sites.
But experts say rural
churches face particular
challenges in trying to main
tain both their congregations
and their buildings.
As the population becomes
increasingly urban and sub
urban, there are fewer peo
ple in rural areas to attend
those churches. In 2001, the
National Trust reported that
20 percent of prairie church
es in North Dakota sat
vacant.
Churchgoers increasingly
are looking for more than
just a pew and a sermon.
Flavil Yeakley, professor
director of the Harding Cen
ter for Church Growth Stud
ies at Harding University in
Searcy, Ark,, said churchgo
ers are seeking out bigger
churches that have day care
and other services available
aU week.
“In the last two decades, at
least, we’ve seen more of a
migration from small
churches to larger ones,”
Yeakley said, “The big
churches can offer programs
that the small churches
can’t.”
As people become accus
tomed to commuting longer
distances for work, school
and entertainment, they’re
more willing to commute for
church, said David Roozen,
director of the Hartford Sem-
inaiy Institute for ReUgion
Research in Hartford, Conn.
“The vast majority of con
gregations are commuter
congregations these days,”
Roozen said. “That shouldn’t
be a surprise _ not many of
us five where we work these
days,... but probably finding
a style of worship and educa
tion and mission program
that fit the person are more
important than the church
being close or local.”
There are fewer options for
an old, rural church building
once a congregation has left.
“In urban areas, if one
church gives up, often there’s
another church ready to take
over,” said Robert Jaeger, co
director of Partners for
Sacred Places, a Philadel
phia-based organization
dedicated to preserving reli
gious properties. “But that’s
not the case in rural areas,
where there’s a much thin
ner population density.”
The differences can be seen
even in the mostly rural
Centre County. Just 10 miles
from Spring Mills lies the
borough of Bellefonte, where
one former church was
turned into office space for a
financial services company
and ariother now houses the
local school district offices.
With just 6,400 residents,
Bellefonte is a far ciy from
urban. But it has three times
the population of Spring
Mills and Gregg 'Ibwnship,
.where First Pentecostal sat
vacant for more than a
decade, and where Brown
said other congregations
showed little interest in his
two buildings. Holy Cross
was sold to a neighbor who
planned to preserve the
building, but not to use it for
services. St. Mark’s is still for
sale.
“If you have some kind of
population, and you have a
structurally sound building,
you have a good chance of
finding a use for the build
ing,” Roozen said. “But in a
rural area, you won’t always
have that.”
But not everybody is ready
to give up on old churches.
Shannon Jung, professor of
rural ministry and director
of the Center for Land and
Theology at Wartburg Theo
logical Seminary in
Dubuque, Iowa, said even in
rural areas a growing num
ber of church buildings are
finding second fives _ a wed
ding chapel in EUzabeth, lU.,
a tuxedo shop in Asbury,
Iowa, and dozens of antique
malls around the country.
And groups like Jaeger’s
are working with congrega
tions to help them find ways
to stay in their old buildings.
Jung said some of the more
active rural churches
already are remaking them
selves to provide the services
new members want.
“I see lots of churches that
are recreating themselves to
address this new situation,
and I see a lot of very excit
ing rural churches that are
maintaining the building, or
modifying the building for
new uses, adding day-care
centers or elder care centers
- the services that larger
churches offer,” Jung said.
Brown said he still felt
some sentimental attach
ment to the Holy Cross
building, which his ances
tors helped to found in the
1770s. And he hopes St.
Mark’s attracts a good buyer.
But after six months in his
new church, along Route 45,
the region’s main traffic cor
ridor, Brown says he’ll never
go back. New Hope has a
children’s choir - something
neither of the old churches
could support - and Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts
Buy an extra copy of ^
to share
u
n
with a friend/
IS up
fueled
troops. Attendance
more than a third,
largely by young families, a
demographic that was sorely
lacking in the old buildings.
“I have some sentimental
feelings, but I often think our
forefathers were the kind of
people who came and built a
church because the commu
nity needed it,” Brown said.
CELEBRATE FRIENDS AND FAMILY DAY AT
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH-WEST!
Sunday May 30, 2004
Combined Worship Service - 9:30 AM
(New Summer Worship Schedule}
A Special Memorial Service will he held to honor
those who labored in love and hope as we enter
into the new Family Life Center.
Call (704) 372-1075 or visit w\vw.FBCWest.orj».
1801 Oaklawn i^venue, Charlotte, NC 28216
Dr. Ricky A. Woods, Senior Minister
ADVERTISEMENT
THE PROPHET’S COLUMN
9626 FELDBANK DRIVE
CHARLOTTE. NC, 28216-2131
“LET THEM ALONE” - PART SEVEN
J.M. LITTLE-TEACHER
Most of you in my family have been left alone. Most of you that I deal with on a
daily basis have been left alone. You are religious, but you are not in Christ.
Some of you are gospel hardened. The truth rolls off like water on a duck’s back.
You have no more interest in knowing Christ than a baldheaded cow out there in
me pasiuie. t ou are deiermtned to n%ve your way, not Knowing mat your way
means hell. I take no pleasure in seeing you go to hell.
Every sinner out of Christ is running from God. I, too, was running from God
when I was on that religious profession. But thank God He did not leave me
there, if He had I’d be in hell today. Sometime back I was talking to a small group
and made this statement; 'When I was born I should have been cast into the
hottest place in hell.” A young man spoke up quickly and emphatically; “But Mr.
Little, you didn’t know God back then!!!”! replied; “it makes no difference, I still
should have been cast into the hottest place in hell.”
Did you know that you were conceived in sin and shapen iri iniquity (Ps. 51:5)?
iart(
When you were in your mother’s womb you had in you S heilrt of hatred for God
(Rom. 1:30, 8:7). Did you ever see and know that by nature you hate God? And
the only thing God has to do for you to go to hell is just leave you alone. If you
have never seen that then you are not saved!!
f.;*-
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