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Where thieves rush in
Paradise Missionary Baptist Church sees attendance wane as criminals strike.
By RODNEY THRASH
Published December 29, 2005
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[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
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Pastor Franklin R. Williams, 67, put bars up at Paradise Missionary Church about two years ago to keep criminals from breaking in and stealing church property. Though built to seat 800 congregants, attendance is down to about 50 people per week. Williams calls thefts the "work of demons."
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TAMPA - He decided to call it paradise.
It was, he admits, an odd choice because here, amid time-worn rows of dingy white and bluish-green apartments, paradise seems so far away.
Poverty is palpable.
The dark hallways reek of urine.
Young girls rock babies.
Boys mill about, aimlessly, during school hours.
The Rev. Franklin R. Williams, 67, founded Paradise Missionary Baptist Church 15 years ago. For the children of Central Park Village. Too many of them, he says, are growing up not praying, not believing and not knowing what the inside of a church looks like.
He thinks that if they can hear and study God's word, they will want better, do better and live better.
A year or so ago, the break-ins started.
Thieves made off with a wall clock above the pulpit, speakers, flowers - even the communion tray.
"The work of demons," Williams says.
Burglar bars, electric blue like the rest of the building, now cover most every door and window. The church resembles the inside of a jail, not a place of worship.
He wishes there was some other way. Another time, another day, it would have never come to this.
But times change, people change and not even the fear of God is enough to fend off thieves.
Members have stopped coming. "If we have 50," Williams says, "that's a good day." Paradise has enough maple pews to seat 800.
He understands. They are afraid. Afraid to come into the neighborhood. Afraid that while they're inside singing, shouting, clapping, praising and worshiping, somebody's outside vandalizing their cars, or worse.
He now warns his members, the ones who have not left yet, that they are not in a safe haven, but in a place of destruction.
At E Scott Street and N Nebraska Avenue, a block from the church, someone wrote a message in black permanent marker.
Do what Jesus did
Love all
In spite of everything that has happened, Williams says he always has and he always will.
[Last modified December 29, 2005, 01:09:02]
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