The St. Louis Metropolitan Clergy Coalition gathered with past, present, and prospective members at the United Way building on Thursday, May 24 to go over its mission, vision, and goals for the upcoming year.
The Clergy Coalition is a non-denominational assemblage of over 150 churches throughout the St. Louis area that it is open to churches of different religious affiliations. This gathering also included organizations with no church affiliation whatsoever.
“Yes, I am a sanctified minister, but I do realize that being in the community you must work with people that have different viewpoints other than your own,” said Bishop Elijah Hankerson III, the recently elected president of the Clergy Coalition. At 45, he is the youngest jurisdictional bishop in the Church Of God In Christ (COGIC), overseeing 65 churches in Missouri and the Midwest, and pastor of Life Center International COGIC.
Hankerson made sure to point out that there were white partners in the room, many of whom did not represent a church.
“I can’t swim, but if I’m drowning, I don’t care if you’re white, I don’t care if you’re black, I won’t even ask you, ‘Are you a member of the Church of God in Christ? Who’s your bishop?’” Hankerson said. “I’m like Peter: Save me.”
Although not all of the coalition’s partners are faith-based ministries, Hankerson said, they all follow the same mission.
“Our community is sinking,” Hankerson said. “Our homicide rates are just out of sight. Our young people are killing each other. We need all hands on deck. We are committed to the black community. We are committed to the betterment of the community as a whole, but it’s going to be everyone working together in order to make things probable for the up-building of the community.”
One partner highlighted at the meeting was Better Family Life (BFL). It has a flagship program called the Neighborhood Alliance, taking social services into the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods, onto front porches and into living rooms. Hankerson’s call echoes BFL’s “Pulpit to Porches” initiative announced May 2015.
“One thing that became glaringly real to us is that the depth of the dysfunction is real,” said James Clark, vice president of Community Outreach for BFL. “We understood that we couldn’t do it all. We partnered with over 82 social service organizations, and we meet with those organizations every month. We looked in the neighborhoods, and we said the most populated institution in every neighborhood is the church. So we’ve been very intentional in trying to realign neighborhoods and make the church a focal point once again.”
As for the structure of the meeting, board members began with a scripture from Hebrews 1-6 and a prayer. The core of the meeting was spent discussing the Clergy Coalition’s mission, vision and goals.
This mission of the coalition is to engage the local Christian Church and its community partners in developing solutions to the spiritual, social, and economic issues affecting St. Louis in general and the African-American community in particular.
The vision of the coalition is to be a leading faith-based organization in the metropolitan area dedicated to addressing issues that promote the advancement of the entire St. Louis community. Those issues include: spiritual enrichment, education, youth development, health care, political action, economic development, civil rights, and the promotion of a culturally inclusive community.
Its immediate organizational goals are to boost membership to 300, to maintain at least $10,000 in the treasury, and to honor all former coalition presidents. Its spiritual goals are to implement an annual citywide revival, to implement an annual Easter sunrise service, and to implement an annual conference. Its partnership goals are to build bridges with community groups that share the coalition’s vision and to build a strong media image.
For the rest of the meeting, Hankerson went around the room, introducing new prospective members and listing the Presidential Staff and Committee reports.
For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/ClergySTL/.
