Historic Beaumont church takes it to the streets

BEAUMONT–Eyebrows rose when Pastor Christopher Moody announced the church’s plan for last summer’s Vacation Bible School. But it wasn’t the first time the congregation of First Baptist Church of Beaumont had been thrown for a loop from the pulpit.

“We have been a church all about change,” said Carol Matherne, FBC Children’s Team director.

In its 140 years in downtown Beaumont, FBC has seen its share of change and some was no laughing matter.

“It was a mega-church before there were mega-churches,” said Moody who, for almost three years, has pastored the church that gave birth to such iconic Southern Baptist stalwarts as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelly. Patterson’s father, T.A. Patterson, was pastor of the church from 1946-1960. At its apex there were at least 2,000 members and church services were televised every Sunday for decades.

But change came to the city of Beaumont in the 1970s in the form of school desegregation. Moody said there were those in the church who would have nothing to do with it. At that, he added, “God removed his hand from the church” and its membership dwindled to a fraction of its former self.

Those who remained were committed to the gospel and ministering to a community unlike their own–the very community that was avoided over 30 years earlier. Then about six years ago with a transitional pastor at the helm, the remnant began spending their Wednesday evenings serving hot meals to the homeless in the church’s downtown neighborhood. They provided personal and vocational counseling along with the gospel of Christ and have seen many freed from life on the street.

“That’s when the church started turning around. It was a work of God,” Moody said.

Deacon Chairman Mark Freeman said their work has been about “taking the love of Christ outside this big, red brick building.”

With that credo, the church began looking for a like-minded, full time pastor. Their search ended in Corsicana where Moody was pastor of an SBTC church plant. Moody said he was not looking for a new job but the call from this group of about 250 people committed to evangelism and outreach touched a chord.

The amalgamation of a young pastor (35 years old) with a passion for sharing the gospel combined with a relatively small band of believers who want to impact their neighborhood in a tangible way can cause the unexpected. That’s what happened one Sunday last April.

The congregation should have known something was afoot when they were told during worship that the next Sunday would be “casual Sunday.” Considering most folks attend FBC Beaumont in what could already be considered casual attire, the announcement should have piqued someone’s curiosity.

When casual Sunday rolled around, Moody gave a 10-minute sermon on the definition of church and then told the congregation they were going to live out that definition. Given a small bag with a Bible, a calendar of church events and a map, the congregation of about 400, including the members of the Spanish-language congregation at FBC, paired up and completed their Sunday morning worship by handing out 500 Bibles in a neighborhood about half a mile away.

A month later Moody did it again. Without warning and after another brief sermon, the church was sent back out into the same neighborhood to prayer walk. He said the older members of the congregation were especially excited about the effort. Those who could not take the trip to the neighborhood stayed at the church in a prayer room while their peers rode a bus and did “drive-by praying.”

Moody said the outreach emphasis is not his own but a continuation of the work begun by those who remained faithful to God’s call to FBC Beaumont. The Wednesday evening meals to the homeless were the first step in what would become a short walk outside the church building and into the neighborhood a previous generation might have left to its own devises.

FBC Beaumont chose to “adopt” the area of neighborhoods that feed into Charlton Pollard Elementary–predominantly black, struggling, inner-city neighborhoods. Downtown Beaumont is flanked by Interstate 10 to the north, the Neches River to the east, the oil refineries to the south and the west leads to the neighborhoods on the outskirts of Lamar University.

Inside are neighborhoods beaten by time and storms. “Blue roofs”–temporary tarp coverings–common to the Gulf Coast following a storm still adorn the tops of homes damaged by hurricanes Ike (2008) and Rita (2005).

FBC Beaumont is mostly white and middle class. Taking the gospel outside the big, red brick building could not be initiated without a discussion of race.

“That has required a lot of prayer and time. We are still a very segregated city,” Moody said.

SIMPLE KINDNESS
Although the staff considered their adoption of the neighborhood as a witness for Christ, they understood it could be perceived as a condescending gesture.

“We didn’t want to do something that would come across as demeaning. We didn’t want to hand out things that were loaded–that came across as being Santa Claus …. or white people gifts,” he said. The church did not want to appear as if they were trying to entice anyone out of their area to FBC’s “better area.”

There is nothing “loaded” about praying with people, giving them a Bible or leading their children in Vacation Bible School, Moody contended.
Yet another change to the natural order of things at FBC Beaumont was to host VBS at Charlton Pollard Park in the heat of June and in a neighborhood many considered unsafe. Matherne, the children’s director, said most everyone was receptive to the idea but there were some who rejected the move outright.

“The people who know the neighborhood, it has a lot of stigma from the past associated with it. There are those who didn’t want anything to do with it. You just can’t worry about those people,” Matherne said.

Moody said the concerns were not unfounded. The park does have a reputation, especially after dark, as a hangout for drug dealers and prostitutes.
But during the day, the city community center in the park hosts a bustling business of summer activities for neighborhood children and their families. That facility served as the location for the VBS craft activities.

Matherne said the park was very well maintained and provided the perfect outdoor view for their ministry.

“It was fun. We had a good group of workers. They threw their hearts into it.”

Thirty FBC volunteers oversaw the activities of 135 children–53 from the church and 82 from the neighborhood.

There were nine salvations during the week-long event which wrapped up with a hot dog dinner with the families. Matherne said initially there seemed to be little in common between the parents and the church volunteers; it was the children who gave them common ground.

It also opened the door for the advancement of yet another ministry to the neighborhood, Christmas in October, which the church held on Oct. 9.
The deacon-led event sent work crews into a neighborhood north of the church in 2009. This year’s crews returned, this time south of the church, where they have been concentrating their efforts this year.

“I think the response, without exception, was extraordinary,” he said of last year’s efforts.

Speaking of an 88-year-old widow who had been in her home for over 50 years, Freeman recalled, “I saw the thankfulness and graciousness on her face. She was just beaming. She was very appreciative.”

Freeman said some contacts made during the Vacation Bible School put him in touch with the individuals or families most in need of assistance.

Several businesses and contractors in Beaumont donated supplies needed for the one-day construction ministry, Freeman said.

Moody said the church’s year-long ministry to the neighborhood is part of a two-year project they are piloting. In 2011 the church will do most or all of the same outreach events in a neighborhood adjacent to the one they are currently ministering to.

“The primary goal is not to put them in the pews of First Baptist Church Beaumont,” Freeman said. The main concern, he said, is whether or not the people they encounter have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Moody said that is the fuel that drives all that they do. What is done inside the church building focuses on worship and discipleship but everything else, he said, is being channeled to reaching people for Christ. He said he understands that such an aggressive approach to evangelism—something that is not standard fare in other churches or generations—can be off-putting, even to some in his own congregation.

“We have to be more committed to reaching people than keeping people,” he said.

Although the ministries to the neighborhood have been successful as measured by church participation and enthusiasm, Mood and Freeman are still seeking a “man of peace” within the area they desire to serve.

“I wish there was a deeper connection,” Moody said, referring to his relationship with the religious establishment in the Charlton Pollard Elementary School area. He said cultural and political rivers run deep and he has made little headway in charting those waters in search of a pastor who also desires to see kingdom work done.

Freeman said the goal of their efforts is “to let these people know that the love of Christ exists in this community.”

Proclaiming Christ is the message in the ministry and, if in the process of proclaiming that message race relations are mended, then, Freeman said, “Glory be to God.”