Voice for a Rising Chorus : A New Monthly Newspaper Pulls Together the Issues of Community, Church and Gospel Music

Divine inspiration or divine intervention?

In the case of her new gospel-oriented newspaper, Lisa Collins figures success could probably be attributed to a little bit of both. That, and “a whole lot of prayer,” says Collins, whose L.A. Focus on the Word has been snapped up by hundreds of Angelenos after Sunday sermon, or served as brunch-time’s most colorful conversation centerpiece.

Enthusiasm over the tabloid-sized monthly, which began publishing early this year, has been more than encouraging to Collins, who wants to make sure, however, that the paper’s mission isn’t underestimated.

“People aren’t clear on what it is,” explains Collins, who combines her editing duties with a full-time post as Billboard magazine’s gospel music editor. “We are not solely a church newspaper. We are not a religious paper. We are a paper that at its base has the church but we want to focus in on issues that impact church-goers . . . and there are very few issues that we won’t touch.”

Collins prefers to define the paper’s mission as pulling together church, gospel and community issues--weaving these separate but certainly not disparate worlds together on a page.

“Our central mission is to recognize the church as the base of the African American community.”

Since slavery, the church has been the rock, the center--politically, socially, economically--in black communities across this country. Providing a bond as well as the balm as crucial political or social issues have sharpened or softened in focus, the church has been the place to educate, inform and fashion a plan of action. It is in the same spirit that Collins and her editorial staff hope to inspire--their pulpit in newsprint form.

The topics run from the religious to the secular world, and the arenas in which they blur: L.A.’s black clergy summit to consider recalling Gov. Pete Wilson; the Southland’s growing number of women pastors; the lowdown on the runoff race for the 10th District; America’s hottest selling gospel choir; and the ever-important question of--after being fed spiritually--where to find the best Sunday brunch.

Content ranges from hard news to film reviews to a featured Sunday sermon delivered by one of several area ministers. That along with a regular rotation of columns--”Saving Grace,” “Through the Storm,” “Out on Faith”-- which provide a forum for worshipers, says Collins, “to share their personal testimony and their walk in faith.”

With a print run of approximately 16,000, the bulk of which are delivered directly to churches, Collins and staff are now strategizing on how to build a strong retail base as well.

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All this comes naturally to Collins, whose bloodline carries the tradition.

“We spent so much time in my grandfather’s house. It was a parsonage attached to a church. I mean, I remember going up to the top of the roof of the church and looking for Martians,” laughs Collins. “Growing up in church and being at Billboard, you see that there is a tremendous void between gospel music and the church. There are people who go to church and people who buy gospel and not necessarily the twain shall meet.”

That void coupled with the incessant refrain about the dearth of positive images in the black community sparked something in Collins that could only be described as epiphany.

“People are always talking about how there are no role models in the black community. And [yet] there are tremendous role models in the black community if you look at the black church.”

L.A. Focus on the Word would work to connect the church with the community at large, dismantling the walls erected in many minds separating the two. Part of the challenge was recasting an old image--proving that young, famous, hip and successful people could have it all and shout their faith too. Religion wasn’t just for the blue-haired old ladies waving funeral parlor fans.

It too would serve to revive and underscore the activist nature of the working church: rolling up its sleeves, pulling the firebrand image of a passionate and hungry civil rights-era clergy out of mothballs.

“The black community is always griping about . . . wanting a better quality paper. The gospel community is trying to reach the church and the church community is trying to have a voice. And I just decided that if I could marry the three components in the newspaper that I could pretty much fill a void.”

Once Collins assembled her friends in her living room to articulate the vision, the next step was to gain the blessing, so to speak, of area ministers. Getting inside their oftentimes hermetically sealed world wasn’t easy. But Collins was able to rely on the assistance of her father, the Rev. G. Mansfield Collins Sr., as her entree.

“Going into it you think that the church is like an institution,” says Collins. “A lot of times they don’t have to open the doors to you. They are like a world among themselves and they seem to have been very happy with it.” The biggest hurdle was how to get the key minister, the one who can influence the others. In the church community, Collins underscores, “you have to go in the right way.”

As the Rev. Dr. Thomas Kilgore coolly advised, tone dignified: “I’ve been telling everybody about your paper. It better be good.”

“It was really wonderful the kind of support we got,” says associate editor Sandra Stevens, who brought in her own minister, Bishop Charles E. Blake of West Angeles Church of God in Christ (who now sits on the paper’s minister advisory board), and whose father, J.T. Stevens, a retired executive for Anheuser-Busch, acts as business consultant. “I think we were a little surprised.”

Stevens, who is a programming manager with Fox Broadcasting, is concerned that the media all too often have not given African Americans a chance to “define ourselves for who we are.”

At the forefront of this endeavor was finding a voice for the church. And helping to raise the volume about good deeds that were taking place in the communities surrounding these churches and linking community organizing efforts proved to be the newspaper’s strong suit.

“There was truly a debate about going into a marketplace that was undercapitalized,” says Stevens. “But my feeling was so strong about this venture and the void that had been there, I couldn’t see it failing, or people not being supportive.”

The assistance from Collins’ father opened the doors wide, and ministers and their flocks began speaking candidly about issues that affected their lives in and out of the church. And in these pages Collins hopes to do those stories justice, capturing the freshness and immediacy of movements and trends that are affecting black L.A.’s religious community and beyond.

“People are moving away from denominations. There’s been a number of young African American evangelists who have people lined up . . . to see them. Affirmative action is a huge issue in the church right now. As is drug prevention, and what to do with gangs. It’s what affects all of us.”

Collins and Stevens both hope that the readers can use the pages as a practical, service-providing source as well, especially when navigating Los Angeles’ ever-blossoming church community, the size and scope of which is often tremendously daunting.

Here profiles aren’t simply a glimpse into a personality and a stroll through their world, says Collins. “We talk a little bit about a minister’s background, about their church, so you can see if this is like a church you want to go to.”

People embark on complex searches, have complex needs today. “They are moving away from conventional religion, they want to develop a relationship with God. They want to be more active in a church and that means that they are going to have to connect with a minister,” Collins explains. The reports, profiles and investigative pieces, she hopes, provide a means of introduction.

It’s like making any fruitful, lasting match, says Collins. “When people ask me, ‘Can you recommend a church?’ I ask them: ‘What’s your background. Do you talk in tongues? Are you conventional? If you tell me a little bit about yourself, I think I can find just the right church for you.’ For me it’s relationships. Building relationships with a pastor, with people in the community at any opportunity I can. Real viable stuff. It’s important that they all know that they have my support.”