Chapter 2 - A Community of Love and Prayer

worship fell on the group. Someone might volunteer a\ testimony or feel impressed to read Scripture. Carol might offer\ a short exhortation. Many nights there was more prayer and\ worship than there was practicing; sometimes the choir never\ got around to singing at all.\ This experience put people...

worship fell on the group. Someone might volunteer a\ testimony or feel impressed to read Scripture. Carol might offer\ a short exhortation. Many nights there was more prayer and\ worship than there was practicing; sometimes the choir never\ got around to singing at all.\ This experience put people in a whole different frame of\ mind. The choir wasn't just coming up with two "specials" to\ sing before the sermon; rather, the members were engaged in\ full-scale ministry.\ The band members were as untrained as Carol. Joey\ Vazquez, who became the bass player, learned the instrument\ "on the job." He had been plunking around on a bass at a\ friend's house one day; at choir practice the next night, his\ friend jokingly said that Joey knew how to play. Carol assumed\ the friend was serious and put Joey to work. That was the\ beginning of his career as a bass player; he is still with the\ church today.\ Our drummer, Michael Archibald, a man from Trinidad, has\ likewise never had lessons. Jonathan Woodby, our organist\ (and one of the best in America, we think), cannot read music.\ Yet these two have performed on two Grammy Award-winning\ albums. The choir played a crucial role when we started\ hosting monthly rallies in cooperation with Teen Challenge, a\ ministry to drug addicts and gang members that was started in\ Brooklyn in 1958 by David Wilkerson. Together with Teen\ Challenge, we rented a big Baptist church. For the first rally we\ advertised the film The Cross and the Switchblade, which tells the conversion story of the notorious gang leader Nicky Cruz.\ The crowd was so large we had to show the film three times\ that night so that everyone would get a chance to see it.\ For the next rally, Nicky himself came to speak. It was\ amazing; here he was, preaching in the very building where\ years before, out on the steps, he had knocked out some Italian\ guy, ready to kill him if the cops hadn't showed up.\ Nicky's story was a great inspiration to me. He was a symbol\ of things to come in our church: God taking hopeless, even\ crazy people and changing them. I knew that a lot of churches\ gave lip service to the idea that God can do anything. But we\ needed to have real faith that anyone who walked in,\ regardless of his or her problems, could become a trophy of\ God's grace. Ever since that night, Nicky has been a close\ friend of mine and a frequent guest at the Tabernacle.\ As more churches got involved in the rallies, Carol formed a\ multiracial "New York Challenge Choir" made up of people from\ the Tabernacle plus any others who wanted to sing---eighty or\ more voices altogether.\ It was about this time also that Carol wrote her first song.\ She took the Christmas carol "Joy to the World" and created a\ new melody for it. Again, she didn't know how to write it\ down, but simply taught it to the choir by rote.\ A COMMUNITY OF LOVE AND PRAYER WE NEVER KNEW WHO might come to Christ at the Brooklyn\ Tabernacle. There were junkies, prostitutes, and homosexuals.\ But lost lawyers, business types, and bus drivers turned to the\ Lord there, too. We welcomed them all.\ There were Latinos, African Americans, Caribbean\ Americans, whites---you name it. Once people were energized\ by the Holy Spirit, they began to see other races as God's\ creation. Instead of railing at homosexuals, we began to weep\ over them. People began driving thirty or forty minutes from\ Long Island. The one---and perhaps only---advantage of our\ location in downtown Brooklyn is that excellent mass transit\ was available, which meant that people from Manhattan,\ Queens, the Bronx, and elsewhere could reach us easily on the\ subways and buses. By the time we grew to 150 or 175 on\ Sunday morning, the prayer meeting was up to 100. There was\ life, joy, a sense of family, and love. When a meeting ended,\ people weren't in a hurry to leave; they lingered and prayed\ and talked to one another.\ There was no air-conditioning, so on hot summer nights we\ would have all the windows open and people even sitting on\ the sills. One Sunday night in August, when it was 90 degrees\ outside and probably 100 degrees in the building, I felt oddly\ impressed to lead "Silent Night, Holy Night" as an expression\ of love to Jesus. A drunk was passing by and stopped to\ listen. In his confused brain, he said to himself, This drinking\ problem of mine is getting totally out of hand. Now I'm\ hearing Christmas carols. I'd better go in this church and get some help! The ushers were there to meet him and minister to\ him.\ The mentally disturbed could drop by as well. A fellow\ named Austin, recently released from an institution, started\ coming to church. One Sunday he said something vulgar to\ one of our women. When I called him on Tuesday and warned\ him that this wouldn't be tolerated, he said, "Oh yeah? I'm\ going to come take care of you with my 'boys.'" He was a huge\ man, so I didn't laugh.\ I replied, "Austin, you might take care of me, but not with\ your 'boys'---the way you act, I doubt you have any 'boys.'"\ I alerted the ushers that if he showed up again, they should\ call me---and also immediately call the police. That very night,\ Austin came back. I left the prayer meeting and went out to talk\ with him, stalling for time. Soon the police burst through the\ door and took him away. They wanted me to press charges, but\ I declined. Instead, I went back in and rejoined the prayer\ meeting. Episodes as strange as this became a regular part of\ ministering in this section of the city.\ The offerings, as one might expect, were never great because\ of the kind of community we served, characterized by single\ mothers, people on public assistance, people seeking to\ become free of drugs. But people who were settled and secure\ were coming, too, who didn't mind the socioeconomic mix.\ Because I had been a basketball player, it never dawned on me to evaluate people on the basis of color. If you could play,\ you could play. In America it would appear that there is more\ openness, acceptance, and teamwork in the gym than in the\ church of Jesus Christ.\ SPACE PROBLEMS\ BY 1977 MORE PEOPLE were trying to fit into the pews on\ Sunday morning and Sunday night than there was room for.\ Down the block was a YWCA with an auditorium that could\ seat 400 to 500 people. We were able to rent it on Sundays and\ began lugging our sound equipment and other supplies down\ there every week. The windows were painted shut, and there\ was no air-conditioning. Often we had to sweep out the place\ on Sunday morning before we could set up chairs for church.\ But at least we had space to use. We rented the YWCA for\ two years. Some of the earliest memories of church for our two\ younger children, Susan and James, are in that building. I\ remember glancing up during the singing one Sunday and\ seeing, to my horror, my acrobatic preschool daughter turning\ 360-degree flips on some parallel bars over on the edge of the\ hall. So much for the "perfect pastor's kids"!\ When Lanny Wolfe, a well-known gospel singer and\ songwriter, visited a service, he was captivated by the choir's\ sound, now up to one hundred voices. He encouraged Carol to\ write more. "You have an eclectic feel that's totally different,"\ he said. "The songs you write are unlike anything I would do,\ or Bill Gaither, or anyone else." Lanny's encouragement meant a great deal to both of us.\ Since then, of course, Carol's music has gone far and wide\ across the country and is sung in all kinds of churches,\ whatever the style of their worship. After selling one million\ units of Brooklyn Tabernacle sheet music, Word Music gave\ Carol an award in 1994. Ironically, the Tabernacle has not\ bought a single piece of her music---it wouldn't do any good\ for a choir that doesn't read music.\ Meeting in the YWCA was a temporary solution, at best, to\ the overcrowding. We purchased a lot across the street in the\ hope of erecting a real church building one day. It required a\ big step of faith, but God provided the funds.\ We scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony, excited about\ starting a new building, a permanent home. Would you believe\ that on that special Sunday, it rained so hard we couldn't go\ outdoors to put a shovel in the ground? Disappointed, we\ packed ourselves back into the Y auditorium that evening.\ But in that meeting God clearly spoke to us that it wasn't the\ ground across the street he wanted to break. Instead, he would\ break our hearts and build his church on that foundation.\ The downpour, as it turned out, was providential. A few\ months later, a large 1,400-seat theater on Flatbush Avenue,\ the main north-south artery of Brooklyn, became available for\ only \$150,000. We were able to sell the lot at a profit. We needed to sell the\ run-down Atlantic Avenue building as well in order to buy the\ theater. Some pastors came to look at our old place and\ appeared serious about buying it. We agreed on a price---only\ to find out later they hadn't even tried to secure a mortgage.\ By then we were in danger of losing our option on the theater.\ All our dreams were about to come crashing down. At a\ Tuesday night prayer meeting we laid the problem before God,\ weeping and pleading for a last-minute rescue of some kind.\ On Wednesday afternoon the doorbell at the church rang. I\ went downstairs to answer. There stood a well-dressed\ stranger, who, it turned out, was a Kuwaiti businessman. He\ walked in and looked around while I held my breath lest he look\ too closely at crooked walls, dingy bathrooms, and\ questionable plumbing. The basement ceiling was so low I\ feared he would hit his head on one of the pipes that hung\ down.\ "What are you asking for this building?" he said at last.\ I cleared my throat and answered weakly, "Ninety-five\ thousand."\ He paused a moment and then said, "That's fair."\ I was shocked!\ He continued, "We have a deal." "Uh, well, how long will it take you to make arrangements at\ the bank?" I was still worried that our option on the Flatbush\ property would expire before we could close this deal.\ "No bank, nothing," he answered abruptly. "Just get your\ lawyer to call my lawyer---here's the name and phone number.\ Cash deal." And with that, he was gone.\ Once again, our prayer had been answered in a surprising\ way.\ God had formed a core of people who wanted to pray, who\ believed that nothing was too big for him to handle. No matter\ what roadblock we faced, no matter what attack came against\ us, no matter how wild the city became in the late seventies---\ as cocaine arrived on top of heroin, and then crack cocaine on\ top of that---God could still change people and deliver them\ from evil. He was building his church in a tough neighborhood,\ and as long as people kept calling out for his blessing and\ help, he had fully committed himself to respond.