Storefront churches are springing up in the Midtown district, meeting people's needs in a very direct way.
By LINDA YOUNG and MEREDITH YEOMANS
Published December 31, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - People are praying in a former supermarket. Scriptures are being read in an old convenience store. Voices of praise can be heard in what used to be part of a cafeteria.
Storefront churches, small places of worship in former places of business, have become a familiar sight in Midtown. Several are tucked away here and there, mostly in commercial areas throughout the community in near south-central St. Petersburg - and their numbers continue to grow.
They have names like the Breakthrough Christian Center (located in the former Food Lion grocery store on 34th Street S), the Bible Truth Deliverance Church (in a former 7-Eleven) and the Upper Room Church of God in Christ (in an annex to Atwater's Cafeteria at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street and 22nd Avenue S). Some also meet in former offices and private homes.
The congregations are small. And that's one of their main attractions, members say. The storefront ministries are more personal than the large, more formal, established churches in the area.
In the smaller congregations, all the members know each other and can give and receive individualized help and support. All can participate in discussions of the Scripture and be involved in church activities.
"We are a very loving family, and we try to extend that to people when they come and visit, and it makes them feel very comfortable," said Constance Samuels, pastor of the Earth Mission Miracle Temple of Deliverance, located in a small white building with purple trim in a residential area at 26th Street and Fifth Avenue S.
Like some of the other small churches, the Earth Mission has a specialized focus: It works at increasing self-esteem among children from low-income families by having them participate in the arts, including singing, dancing, rap and poetry, Samuels said.
The mission also focuses on helping individuals "who think things are hopeless," said Samuels' daughter Deborah Green, youth pastor at the church. She said that this is the reason for a slogan that appears on the front of the building: "The Anointing Makes a Difference," meaning that seeking spiritual help can change people's lives.
Samuels, who is a granddaughter of Charles Henry Gardner, founding pastor of the Greater St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, opened her mission 23 years ago because at that time the Baptist church did not ordain women. Almost 15 years later, Samuels became the first woman ordained in the Baptist church in the state of Florida, Green said.
Over the years, Samuels has helped several other people start their own missions and has personally ordained eight ministers, many who have gone on to be pastors, Green said. As is the case with the leaders of many of the small storefront churches, Samuels is not paid. Her church is supported by donations from its congregation of 50 people. Her own income has come from her work as a foster parent for 30 years.
While her church is more than two decades old, several of the other small missions have appeared in Midtown locations over the last three or four years, including the Praise and Worship Center on Fremont Terrace, the New Life Ministry Center in a small two-story office building on 34th Street S and the Solid Rock Ministries, which was located until recently in a cement-block building that also housed a hair salon and a laundry at 21st Street and 18th Avenue S. (That building was torn down in recent days to make room for the Kash n' Karry project.)
Adjacent to Atwater's Cafeteria, the Upper Room mission opened its doors nearly three years ago. Pastor Eugene Huff started the church after he moved to St. Petersburg from Detroit, where he had worked as an autoworker for more than 30 years.
Huff said he pledged to start such a mission after he saw some co-workers maimed and killed in accidents at the car factory.
"I made a vow to the Lord that if he enabled me to retire after 30 years in good health, I would go to Florida and start a church and devote the rest of my life to the Lord and his ministry," he said.
Huff's church is open to everyone regardless of their problems or socioeconomic backgrounds, he said. "They can be old, poor, rich, black, white, Hispanic, drug addicts, homeless, widows. I don't narrow it to anyone."
In addition to providing spiritual leadership, he helps church members with any personal problems they may have, such as marriages in crisis or young people who need counseling. The church roll lists 110 members, but only about 25 regularly attend services, he said. The Upper Room is affiliated with the Church of God in Christ Inc. Huff was an elder for 15 years in several Detroit churches of that denomination, he said. All church work is done on a volunteer basis, including the ministry. "My salary is appreciation," Huff says. "Appreciation is my compensation."
Huff established his church at the Atwater location after going there to borrow some extra chairs stored in a vacant room that previously was a serving area for the family-owned restaurant. Mattie Jane Atwater, matriarch of her family of nine children, 24 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, had set the room aside to be a prayer room. She told Huff that since she wanted a room filled with prayers and he wanted a place to pray, perhaps he could use the room for his church.
Huff thanked her, he said, and went on his way, thinking "a lot of people say a lot of things" and that she was just saying that to be kind. But about a month later, she telephoned him and said the room was ready. She had installed new carpeting and a makeshift pulpit.
"When I came in and saw the room, I was just so overjoyed," Huff said. "The Lord opened the door for me through Mattie Jane Atwater."
Mrs. Atwater died Nov. 24 of cancer at age 68.
At a recent anniversary celebration, the little church was packed with nearly 50 people. The congregants sat on rows of chairs. At the back of the room was a desk - which replaced a stove that used to be there - and on the desk was a Bible and a collection plate. Pictures of friends and family members and Huff's certificates of ordination were displayed on the walls.
Huff said his church and many of the other small storefront churches in Midtown are founded on the same philosophy, regardless of their denominations or the specific needs of their memberships.
"We all seem to have the same thing in common," he said. "Our goal is to reach the lost at any cost."
- Linda Young and Meredith Yeomans wrote this story for the Neighborhood News Bureau, a program of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
