Gift Helps Cement House of God

Two pastors brought their congregations together on Super Bowl Sunday.

That the two churches mingled is not so remarkable. What is remarkable is where they mingled: in the new, completely finished, 5,000-square-foot Second Missionary Baptist Church in Simi Valley.

Both congregations were thinking back to Super Bowl Sunday 1997.

On that day, Pastor Willie Mack Gray was in the middle of his sermon in the small, crowded, converted house that Second Missionary Baptist had been using as its church for 19 years.

Congregants had been trying to raise funds to finish a partly completed church building next door, but setbacks including the 1994 Northridge earthquake had stymied their efforts.

Securing a loan had been tough, too.

During that January 1997 sermon, Gray paused. He and his congregation heard a commotion outside. It sounded like . . . singing. Lots of people singing.

It was. “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High” rang out.

“Pastor Ken Craft and his whole congregation from Sonrise Christian Fellowship a mile away had walked over to our church during the middle of Sunday worship,” Gray remembered this week.

“They surprised us all, and didn’t just loan but donated a check for almost $28,000 to help us finish up our church.”

Gray still shakes his head, thinking back to that day. “It was awesome,” he said.

Craft agreed about the “awesome” part.

“On that Super Bowl weekend, we took special offerings from the three services we held at Sonrise,” Craft said. “The Saturday night crowd gave $7,000. The first service on Sunday gave $8,000, and the service at 11 gave $13,000.

“I was blown away,” Craft said, laughing.

Although his church averages a whopping 2,700 in attendance during a weekend of services, Craft had figured that the special offering would amount to about $10,000.

“We ourselves had a new church and we’d seen their long struggle to get theirs,” Craft said. “I’d been in a pastors prayer meeting with Pastor Willie, and he had shared the difficulties his church was going through with their building project.

“I thought of the Bible, which says, in Luke 12:48, ‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.’ Those are the words of Jesus.

“So after our last service on Super Bowl Sunday ‘97, we counted the offering and drove down to Pastor Willie’s church en masse,” Craft said. “Half our church showed up--about a thousand people. We met a block away and marched down the street, a thousand-voice choir marching down Pacific Avenue singing the hymn as we walked. As we got closer, they heard us.

“I even had a megaphone. ‘Is Pastor Willie in there?’ I hollered. When he came out, I told him that we as a church had watched his church struggle to finish its building and we wanted to help.”

So, Craft told Gray, “From our church to your church, we want to give you this check for $27,700.

Joyful chaos ensued.

“Their people just started shouting and rejoicing,” Craft said. “Then our people started shouting and rejoicing. And we all hugged.”

It truly is more blessed to give than receive, Craft said.

It also is “a treat and a joy to be here in this new church every Sunday,” Gray said.

Which is why Gray invited Sonrise Fellowship members to join him and the 200-member Second Missionary Baptist congregation at an open-house celebration on Super Bowl Sunday 1998 in the new 5,000-square-foot church, big enough to hold two congregations.

“We put that $28,000 to work right away and finished up the church by last September,” Gray said this week. “We still have to do the parking lot, but the urgency was getting out of that little old house.

“That’s why our church’s theme for this year is ‘A Fresh Start.’ ”