Redemption

Somehow I got to be chairperson of an Administrative Commission of Presbytery to close and dispose of an old church. The deed of the property dates back to 1868. The church was a black Presbyterian church which meant that it was a church built by the Northern branch of the Presbyterian Church in the South right after the Civil War. Obviously the white Presbyterians in the South had not been very good about helping the black citizens establish their own churches. In fact all over North Carolina there are schools, hospitals, and churches for African Americans that were started by the Northern branch of the Presbyterian Church.

This church has been at that corner since l868, but its distinguished history did not translate into active members. It shrunk till it could not afford its own pastor. Then it had to make do with pulpit supply preaching and nobody to do the calling and caring that was necessary to build it up. So about March of 2008 the last few people just closed the doors and walked away. They all joined other churches in the area. One Sunday they just had services, had Communion and walked away. There are still empty communion cups in the pew racks.

So we have been trying to sell the building. It has not been an easy task. Part of the reason the few who had been members walked away was because the building was needing major roof repair and they did not have the money. It has been estimated that around $50,000 would be needed to repair the building if done by a contractor. So they just left and the rains came. The snows came. The water poured in. The mold, mildew, rot, sheet rock got soaked and has fallen off the walls. The insulation is all hanging through the ceiling. But we have found another black congregation and we have made them a very attractive offer and they are taking it. They have some members who know how to do things.

I was watching them walk around and examine the building. I started thinking about how much work they would have to do and how hard it will be. But then I started thinking that this kind of redemption has been a part of the black community for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, they have been forced to take the old cars and make them run. Finding junk air-conditioners and fans and fixing them has been their only way to have coolness in the summer. Getting the run down old shack and trying to make it livable has been required of them. It has always had to be part of their faith and confidence that something old, dirty, disgusting can be taken and redeemed. Certainly as a people they have had much more experience, I suspect, with the whole reality of restoration and redemption than many of us in the middle class.

Dr. King once remarked that the white church had a lot they could learn from black Christians. I think what is involved in this notion of redemption and renewal is one of those things.