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Issue date: February 11, 2001
Dr. Calvin Butts, 51, outspoken pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, is a longtime advocate of economic self-determination in the black community. Since 1989, Abyssinian's development branch has overseen $75 million in urban renewal projects, resulting in 600 housing units. Butts called on the Rev. D. Darrell Griffin, 35, of Chicago's historic Oakdale Covenant Church, to discuss religion's evolving role.
Calvin Butts: When I started seminary, back in the early 70s, a mentor of mine named Lawrence Jones, said that in order to address the larger community concerns of the 21st century, ministers were going to have to be "dually competent." He explained that the black minister has always had to do a number of things, but now the black minister was going to have to do more: he's going to have to be a minister and lawyer, a minister and accountant, a minister and physician, a minister and social worker.
Darrell Griffin: Churches are going to have to get more involved with community development. Reverend Butts taught me that in order to be an effective pastor, and in order for the congregation to be an effective community, I had to respond to the needs of the community. Push it to be a church without walls, to take up social services the city doesn't provide: for senior citizens, or making sure our youth have a safe place and after-school programs, making sure that our citizens are not vulnerable in the community.
C.B.: Leadership in the church is about meeting people's needs. It's congruous with the ministry of Jesus: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless. Rev. Griffin's ministry is exceptional because it's in keeping with the best business practices. It's not a stumbling and fumbling through real estate development, not-for-profit development, and commercial development, it's a familiarity with these things that goes hand in hand with the ministry. It's a flourishing new type of ministry that builds the community and also focuses on people's spiritual needs. The hurt and pain that people go through across the country, particularly in urban areas, you need an individual like Reverend Griffin who is warm and has the kind of gregarious spirit that pulls people together.
D.G.: The black church has always been the center of the community. Whether or not the church is prepared for its increased role in community development, it will step up. Think about the civil rights movement: The church wasn't equipped to deal with the legal aspects. As we get more into community development, we have to invest in our infrastructure. We need to hire individuals [with] expertise in community development -- fund-raising, social workers, educators. Even parishioners are a resource; they have just never been "tapped." They've taught Sunday school or organized church events. Now we're saying, "You run a business. Why don't you teach us? You're a lawyer. Hold a legal clinic at our church." If someone's interested in running for public office, rather than releasing them into back-room
politics, why don't we create a public policy institute of the church?
C.B.: It all takes second seat to advocacy on behalf of poor people. If the mayor says, "We have the land to develop 200 units of low-income housing. As long as you and I get along, you can have that development." That means I have to keep quiet while the police are running unchecked through my community. But I can't. That's one of the things that makes Rev. Griffin different. He doesn't sacrifice the prophetic ministry to meet an immediate social need.
D.G.: That's right. Everything we do must educate and empower. The moral foundation is so important, because this is tough work. We're out in the heart of the community. It's not always glamorous, the rewards are sometimes few, but this is a calling.
C.B.: Based what we've just said, you can see why Reverend Griffin is an excellent model of where I think religious leadership is going in the 21st century. He has a triple competency: he's well-educated, he understands the direction of the church in terms of its cross-denominational approach to community development, he recognizes the need to be involved in the salvation of the total person, both spiritually as well as physically. He's steeped in tradition, the deep black church tradition. He is a spiritually grounded and spiritually exciting preacher. No matter how competent you are in all those practical things, if you can't speak the word to the people in that tradition, you're not going very far.
-- Moderated by Minna Proctor, now working on a book about the ministry
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