Racial Reconciliation in Religion
From Atlanta Journal-Constitution, by Marcus K Garner
Credit to, of all people, Canon Kendal Harmon at Titus 1:9 for posting

The Rev. Walter Kimbrough stretched his hand skyward Sunday morning as he asked his congregation a rhetorical question: "How many of you have been in a car with a navigation system?"

On cue, a multitude of hands shot up, perhaps an indication of the affluence of this north Fulton church.

As the African-American minister looked out over the congregation of Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church, few of the white faces he saw reflected his own.

Miles away from the predominantly black Cascade United Methodist Church, where Kimbrough had been pastor for 26 years and retired six months ago, the southwest Atlanta icon's towering 6-foot-5-inch frame and even bigger personality was helping to lead a new flock — and possibly bringing more black members into the fold.

"It's so many white people here, it was comforting to see and hear him speak," said Nancy Waitathu, a black woman recently relocated to Alpharetta who attended Mount Pisgah for only her second time on Christmas Eve morning.

"But what's more important is the word that he delivered. That's what I came for, and he spoke it so well."

Since June, when Kimbrough left Cascade and joined Mount Pisgah's ministerial staff as a part-time preaching assistant, senior pastor the Rev. Allen Hunt said he has noticed more black faces joining.

Hunt says minority recruitment is not the reason Kimbrough is here.

"Walter is not here because he's African-American," Hunt said. "He's here because he's an excellent leader."

Mount Pisgah, with 7,000 members, is located on a sprawling campus that includes a school. It is on Nesbit Ferry Road near the border connecting Alpharetta and the new city of Johns Creek.

Lynetta Jobe, a black woman from Roswell who has attended Mount Pisgah services for a year without joining the church, said she's recognized an uptick in black attendance that began late this summer. But she credited much of that to the church's friendly spirit.

"It's got a very loving environment to be such a huge church," Jobe said. "The fact that he's there just makes things even better."

In a time when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s suggestion that Sunday morning is "the most segregated hour of Christian America" still holds true after 50 years, Mount Pisgah has found a way — whether by design or by default — to shift that paradigm.

Church makeup

The church doesn't collect racial information on new members, but Hunt estimates the breakdown at 5 percent black, 5 percent Hispanic and 2 percent Asian, with the remaining majority being white.

Even though the surrounding communities of Alpharetta, Sandy Springs and Roswell are majority white, each city has more minority residents than the church does, according to U.S. census data.

Hunt says the church is making baby steps toward a more diverse membership, and Kimbrough may be part of the reason for that.

Although Hunt rejects the idea that the 65-year-old Kimbrough was lured from retirement to attract more minority members to the Johns Creek church, Hunt said he welcomes any increase in diversity that Kimbrough garners.

"It helps us to be the body of Christ that represents the world and represents the population of the area that we're in," Hunt said.

The church warmly welcomed Kimbrough and his wife, Marjorie, when they first joined on June 25.

Judy Doyle, a longtime church member who lives in Roswell, has yet to meet Kimbrough in person, but said his warming charisma from the pulpit easily won over the church.

"You feel like you know him," she said. "It feels like he's talking directly to you when he's speaking from the pulpit."

His friendly preaching style often includes humor. He began his June 25 sermon by poking fun at perceived cultural differences between black and white churches.

It's OK to clap and call out during the service, he added. "You don't have to hold your hands."

Part-time work

After serving for more than two decades as the leader of one of the largest African-American United Methodist Churches in the country, Kimbrough is warming to the role of assistant to the pastor in a suburban church.

"I want to be able to help Pastor Hunt achieve his goal of reaching as many souls as possible," said Kimbrough, an Atlanta native.

At Mount Pisgah, he is responsible for covering a Sunday every four to six weeks, preaching the three sermons of the day. On other Sundays, he is in demand as a visiting preacher at other churches in Atlanta and across the country.

With five years left before a United Methodist Church-mandated retirement, Kimbrough said he wanted to leave under his own terms, and be able to pursue his own ministerial endeavors without being tied to any church.

"[Hunt] asked me, and after some thinking, I accepted, and I told him, 'I only want to be part time,' " Kimbrough said.

Hunt said he could think of many more roles that Kimbrough could take on at the church, but respects Kimbrough's wish to play a limited role.

Creating disciples

Cascade began almost 80 years ago as an all-white church of fewer than 100. The first black family joined in the early 1970s, and Kimbrough took over later, growing the membership to more than 7,000 over 26 years.

He said he doesn't have those expectations for himself now, and that his primary task is to help Hunt.

"I'm interested in helping him grow his vision and make disciples of Jesus Christ," Kimbrough said.

At Mount Pisgah, members have taken advantage of the chance to reach across color lines. The first funeral Kimbrough presided over at Mount Pisgah came not from Hunt's direction, but from a request of the family of the deceased white man.

"They requested this black preacher to do the funeral. I said, 'Wow,' " Kimbrough said. "Does it mean the kingdom has come? No, it does not. But it means we're moving in the right direction."

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/northfulton/stories/2006/12/26/1226kimbrough.html