African-American leaders hear needs of damaged churches

By Jeneane Jones*

NEW ORLEANS (UMNS) - The wish list for United Methodist churches damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is a long one.

"If you have it in your church, we will need it in our churches to be vital," the Rev. Martha Orphe told a group of the denomination's African-American staff. The needs cover everything from Bibles and hymnals and computers and printers to refrigerators, furniture, silverware and drywall.

Orphe, the United Methodist mission zone director for the greater New Orleans area, is in charge of helping some 45 churches in the area redefine their ministry. That effort is occurring in a post-hurricane world where - 11 months after the hurricanes - 80 percent of the citizens have lost homes, many churches remain mired in muck and mold, and pastors are relearning that the church is about community-building.

Nearly three dozen African-American staff from churchwide boards, agencies, commissions, conferences and districts gathered July 20-22 in New Orleans under the auspices of National Black Staff Forum for a "Rebuild Our Churches" summit. Afterward, they participated in two days of recovery work in the city and in Mississippi.

During the summit, the black staff members heard from Orphe and others who have been in the trenches since Aug. 29, 2005.

The pastors and lay leaders were emotionally spent, though spiritually strong. "We can't do this kind of living without God," was a refrain the staff members heard from summit participants, who described the loss of homes, church members and belongings with the rhythmic repetition of a sad song, sung too often.

Responding to the question, "What is the state of United Methodist ministry in New Orleans?" Orphe said, "Like everything else, it is hurt, broken and rebuilding."

The Rev. Andrew J. Douglas, a towering, silver-haired pastor working with the St. Matthews, Algiers and Boise United Methodist churches, answered another way.

Rising, he spoke about losing two of his best church members, of living 19 days in a shelter to escape the hurricane's violence, and traveling to Texas with a borrowed shirt and tie to deliver their eulogies. He lightly touched the shoulder of one from his congregation and added, "The district superintendent offered me a church in Shreveport, but I wasn't going anywhere."

His bass voice changed to a preaching timbre as he recalled the 14 members he had in church after the evacuation of New Orleans ended. "I told them to start calling. We would have church on that next Sunday. We had 300 when I got back. Nurture, outreach and worship is vital. When our churches are back, the people will come back."

New mission frontier
Across town in Mission Zone Six, the Rev. James Haynes said the floodwaters brought a sense of renewal to his community. He spoke with pride of the former white and black churches, once separated in worship, which have now, post-Katrina, become a symbol of connectionalism. "We indicated we wanted our churches to worship together. Now it's one of the strengths we have, that we all worship at the same time," he said.

In addition, Haynes' mission zone is setting aside Arabi United Methodist Church for housing work team volunteers. The church, nicknamed the "Arabi Hilton," can house 85 people.

At neighboring Hartzell United Methodist Church in the Lower Ninth Ward, flood damage has prevented worship services, but people want to maintain the church's presence in the community. Soon it will be available to host up to 125 volunteers.

"This is our new frontier of mission. We are rebuilding from the ground up," Orphe said. "And it is not just the structures that need rebuilding. We need help bringing our people back. We need churches to partner with us. We need people to come down to do vacation Bible school, discipleship training."

Orphe pointed out that damaged churches cannot look to the United Methodist Committee on Relief for assistance with rebuilding because the agency's mandate does not include repairing churches. Instead, the agency provides services to Katrina survivors. In response, the United Methodist Council of Bishops has launched the Katrina Church Recovery Appeal to help rebuild the storm-stricken churches. Information is available at http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?mid=11099.

Participants at the two-day session divided their time between strategizing in small groups and hearing from pastors and lay people from around the state. They discussed ways to reconnect churches in the region with the denomination's resources. They listened as pastors shared their needs, including expertise to strengthen their congregations and help finding their church members.

Churches of color needed
The summit grew out of a challenge made at last March's national meeting of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, according to Diane Johnson, executive secretary for the Office of Urban Ministries at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and president of the National Black Staff Forum. "We wanted to encourage African Americans to be a more visible presence among the countless volunteers that are helping rebuild the region." The summit and relief effort were organized by the board.

The Rev. Connie Thomas heads the Louisiana Conference volunteer effort. "We need partnership churches of color to be on the list," she said. "We are grateful to all who come to work with us, but we need to see the faces that look like us too. They represent our strength and a unique understanding of what we are going through."

Volunteer work teams can partner with the mission zone churches and learn more about the relief effort by visiting www.laumcstormrelief.com. They may also sign up to partner by calling (877) 345-5193.

Thomas noted that the conference's volunteer effort focuses on the people and the churches.

"There are less than 50 churches that need to be rebuilt and repaired. We have more than 200,000 families that need our help. They need a home to come back to before they can go to church. We need volunteers who can rebuild homes, as well as help to rebuild lives."

Listening and acting
At the start of the summit, the Rev. Kelvin Sauls told participants "we're here to listen and take action." The newly appointed national director of congregational development at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship led two work groups to the Gulf Coast earlier this year and helped facilitate the gathering of pastors and agency leaders at the summit.

By the end of the summit, the power of water, its capability for destruction, also came to symbolize the power of unity and rebirth.

Sauls recalled a South African proverb in urging participants to share the information they had learned as widely as possible. "'Any waterfall starts with one drop.' Our work is but one drop in a waterfall for justice and God's righteousness."

The National Black Staff Forum comprises 208 black and Africana people who serve in executive and professional positions on the denomination's boards, agencies, commissions, annual conferences and districts, as well as 25 bishops and four top agency executives.

*Jones is director of communications for the California-Nevada Annual Conference.