New Jersey church makes good on $1 million pledge to Gulf Coast

Posted: 12/14/07

New Jersey church makes good
on $1 million pledge to Gulf Coast

By Jeff Diamant

Religion News Service

SUMMIT, N.J. (RNS)—Fountain Baptist Church, an African-American congregation formed 110 years ago in Summit, N.J., mostly by gardeners and domestic workers, recently gained the distinction of being one of the few churches nationwide ever to raise $1 million for a specific charitable cause.

Members of the congregation have been donating money for the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort since May 2006, when Fountain Baptist announced its $1 million pledge. The members met the pledge in November and celebrated the achievement at the church’s annual Thanksgiving services.

The Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, which monitors big donations from American nonprofit organizations, said it knows of only one instance in which a single church has made a larger charitable gift—Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles gave $3 million to help El Salvador earthquake victims in 2001.

“Anytime you help someone and know they’re going to be blessed by your effort, there’s no better feeling,” said Michael Williams, a trustee of the 1,900-member Fountain Baptist Church.

“For us to make sacrifices, because that’s what it was for many of us, to do something for people who basically have nothing—while we’ve been blessed with, from their perspective, everything—it feels great.”

The church beat its own two-year pledge timetable by six months. Many members know people from Louisiana or Mississippi who suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“When you look at what happened to the people in New Orleans, one day things were pleasant and sunny and all was well, and in one week’s time you go from having all that you had, to life being turned completely upside down,” Williams said.

Fountain Baptist Pastor Michael Sanders reported about $400,000 has paid for job and life-skills training for 200 families in Louisiana and Mississippi; $300,000 has helped 30 pastors whose churches were devastated by the storm, either physically or through member relocations; $200,000 has paid for housing and community-building projects; and $100,000 has gone toward general and administrative costs.

The Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention, an African-American Baptist organization based in Washington, D.C., has administered the donation.