|
The Apostolic movement was defined by Bishop Luke Edwards, who began to address the issue of black economic disparity as early as 1965, just as the Civil Rights movement celebrated the signing of the Voting Rights Act. As a pastor in Michigan, Bishop Edwards began to teach disadvantaged youth how to grow food on land that was donated to the church.
Bishop Edwards eventually settled in Meridian, Mississippi and pastored a small congregation, the Greater Christ Temple Apostolic Church. Most of the church members were welfare recipients. One Sunday, he asked the congregation to refrain from putting any money in the offering tray. Instead, Bishop Edwards asked them to write on a slip of paper the amount of public assistance they received each month. The total amount surprised him. Although individually, the members of the church were poor, collectively they had a substantial amount of wealth.
The congregation began purchasing food wholesale together and set up a grocery inside of their church, despite their initial resistance to the idea. The buying club was so successful that soon the congregation was able to purchase a small local grocery and sell products to the community.
Their financial success was met with the typical economic backlash from the local white business establishment. Wholesale prices were raised to unreasonable levels. Banks would not provide a line of credit. The only alternative for the members of Greater Christ Temple Apostolic Church was to generate their own investment capital.
Would they accomplish this by selling alcohol or drugs to exploit the private vices of their impoverished neighbors? No. Rather than to take advantage of the moral crisis in the community, the members of the church bought some farmland and began growing peanuts—and from peanuts, they established their own community development bank.
This was not an easy time for the congregation. By now, they had agreed to give up their personal preferences, privileges, perversities, and pleasures in order to serve the health, interest, rights, and needs of one another. They had given up personal assets in order to live the common life. Now they left family and familiar territory to travel the highways, stopping in cities and towns across the U.S. to sell peanuts to raise money for their bank.
As the church members continued to sacrifice and build up the common treasury, they were in a position to increase the collective assets of the church. They bought more farmland and also restaurants and gas stations. Although they were once unemployed welfare recipients, they were now successful business owners.
Greater Christ Temple Apostolic Church and REACH, Inc. continued to grow and prosper, having found favor with God. Their next move was to Alabama. In rural Sumter County, on the border of Mississippi, the congregation built their first housing settlement, Holyland.
From this new headquarters, the community further expanded its reach into economic independence through the acquisition of hotels, a meat processing plant, and heavy construction equipment. Soon, they were breaking ground for a new residential subdivision in Eutaw, Alabama featuring attractive single-family brick homes, a new church, and a senior residential facility.
A breakthrough in the church’s administration came with the introduction of the 501(d) organizational structure set up by the Internal Revenue Service to protect the interests of religious or apostolic communities. This type of tax shelter respects the vow of poverty taken by individual members who pool their resources in a common treasury.
The next major development was the acquisition of a CITGO truck stop located off the exit of two major interstates in west Alabama. Noble Truck Stop became the jewel in the crown of this experiment in spiritual holistic economic development. It is believed that Noble Truck Stop is the only black-owned truck stop in the nation.
Any other congregation with similar financial assets would boast a large church, a wealthy pastor, and an economically disadvantaged people.
Truly, this is a modern miracle and an example for the world’s downtrodden to emulate. |
|
REACH, Inc., 312 Hyde Park Avenue, Eutaw, Alabama 35462 (205) 372-0113 PHONE (205) 372-0115 FAX |
