That We Might Win Some

Editor's Note: The Charlotte World first started covering Jackson Park Ministries soon after we began publishing in 1993. Kelvin Smith, who led that ministry, eventually planted Steel Creek Church in southwest Charlotte. Over the years we have seen Steele Creek Church grow from a few families to more than 1300 worshippers on most Sundays. But what is perhaps most unusual about Steele Creek is that it is an evangelical church that has actually achieved a level of racial and ethnic diversity that comes close to matching the racial make-up of Charlotte. Charlotte World Publisher Warren Smith recently visited with Kelvin Smith to discuss the church's philosophy of ministry, and its involvement with the “Lost Boys Of Sudan.”

Warren Smith: In the evangelical movement there has been a lot of discussion about racial reconciliation, but it reminds me of what Mark Twain said about the weather: Everybody talks about it but no one does anything about it. But here at Steele Creek Church you guys seem to actually be doing something about it. What are some of these things

Kelvin Smith: We are trying to be a small part of the solution of breaking down the barriers of class, race, and denominationalism. To simply be a part of the process of fulfilling Jesus' prayer in John 17 that the church be one, be unified. The reason he wanted unity is so that the non-believers will look at the church and say certainly “the Father has sent the Son.” That has just been a passion of ours from day one, not only here at Steele Creek but in our ministry at Jackson Park. Our ministry there really reached out to the African American community and to Hispanics as well. So when we planted the church here at Steele Creek in September of 1995, that philosophy just carried over. Here we just have been very intentional about reaching out to all classes. You know classism is just as sinful as racism, so we have been intentional in reaching out to any person no matter their class or background. It may have been simply trying to introduce them with an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

WS: Say something about that evolution from an inner-city urban ministry in Jackson Park, to planting a church and then growing that church into a fairly large church.

KS: I went to Gardener-Webb College with the intention of getting a business degree, which I did achieve. I was going to work in the insurance business my father worked for, Allstate. I was going to work with him and eventually take over his portion of the business. About my sophomore year of college I ran into a young man from Cameroon, Africa, and he still is a friend of mine today. He is a member of our church and he lives here in Charlotte. He just began to teach me about the simplicity of life. How much we had to have here in America to make ourselves content. He would say to me, “But Kelvin, in my home in my country all we care about is do we have our God, and do we have enough clothes and food. If we had those things we are content. You guys here in America are so discontent.”

It just stumped me and by that time in college it was the first time as a believer that I began to read the Bible, even though I grew up in the church. I really began to read the Bible for the first time and it really convicted me during that time. In 1984-85 the first pictures of the families of the Ethiopians coming across the television screen and it just did something to me in a tremendous way and God really began to put in my heart to minister to those in need. I graduated from school and I knew God had called me. I came home and told my father that I was being called to the ministry and I am called to serve those in need.

WS: What was his reaction to that?

KS: Not too good at the time, although he is my biggest supporter today. Like any father would be -- and I would be the same way to my son. He was asking me questions like: “So how are you going to live?” I was getting married two weeks after college graduation. And he said, “How are you going to provide for your family?” I don't know what we were going to do. So I got a job working at a window manufacturing company making just barely above minimum wage. I walked into what was at that time the Mecklenburg Baptist Association. I walked into the head guy's office and said I would like to volunteer at the worst church you have. That was Lawrence Childs and I remember very clearly he didn't have to think about it or pray about it. He said right off, that would be Jackson Park Baptist Church. That is where you need to go serve.

I didn't know anything about it. I was raised on the East Side of town in a middle class neighborhood. I didn't know where Wilkinson Blvd was so I ventured out and found the church and it was a church that was planted after World War II. It grew to its height of about 200 people. All the white, middle-class people in the neighborhood behind it began to leave, and the neighborhood began to change to a low-income white, and black, and little Hispanic. So the great white flight began.

They put the church up for sale and I was just volunteering there and wanting to serve. About 3 months into the contract, the bi-vocational pastor who was there left. By that time I had gathered 70 children and 30 adults and most them were on drugs or alcohol, or were prostitutes. All kinds of problems that come with the inner city. That little band of people looked at me and said, “Kelvin would you be our pastor until we find one?” That has been 17 years now and they still haven't found one, because I am it. That is how it all began. We began that ministry there and reaching out to the people in west Charlotte and that is really where my schooling took place. In the streets of west Charlotte learning life.

WS: Today the racial makeup of your church is what?

KS: I think it is probably 20% African American, 5% Hispanic and the rest white. With that and the number of people we have, that means we have a lot of diversity here. Some Jews, A couple from Iran who just converted to Christianity.

WS: So you weren't a white church who said “let's be diverse.” You came by your diversity fairly honesty in that it was in your genes in the very beginning, which makes you unique. If you were going to give any advice to any church that shared your passion and heart but didn't share you history, what would that advice be?

KS: Well, it would be to be very intentional in your music style and leadership. I would even put that in the reverse order. When African Americans look in a church, they want to know if other African-American people are serving in positions of leadership. Hispanics are the same way. Of course, white people are no different. When people come to the church, they are often not saved or are very immature in their faith. They are looking at the people. One of the values here is to reach people where they are, so we don't expect them to come in here spiritually mature. We expect them to come in with their prejudices and we try to meet them where they are. Teach them and train them and hopefully mature them, so that they are not looking at a man's skin color but looking at the content of his character.

WS: So when they come into your church from the back door and look toward the front and see you, you are a white guy and senior pastor. But the rest of your staff reflects the diversity you want to create?

KS: We have 4 African Americans on staff and the rest white and a couple of Hispanics working on some volunteer things. We are even working on that, on our staff being reflective of our views. The same for our worship team. Back in February, we did a series on racial diversity and oneness in Christ. One of our African-American brothers took a Sunday and I took a Sunday and I know for a lot of people, especially if they are new here, it was probably the first time they sat under the spiritual authority of a black male, and we talked about that and we are very honest about it.

WS: How did the congregation receive that?

KS: Oh man, it was phenomenal! I mean, to hear some of our white brothers admit that that was the first time they had ever listened on a Sunday to a black pastor.

WS: Chuck Smith and the folks at Calvary Chapel and the Calvary movement had a big influence on you.

KS: My introduction to them is when we had our first Christian radio station here in Charlotte. It was an AM station. I was really struggling at the time, wanting to be discipled. Really wanting to have a form of leadership and I wanted to be biblical. I heard this Mexican guy teaching on biblical leadership and I was raised here in the south in a Baptist church. I wanted to study that so I called the radio station wanting to know who that was. He was Pastor Ruiz, I called him in California and in the first conversation and he said, “Kelvin I want you to come to a pastor's conference with me.”

WS: So you were already leading Jackson Park at this time?

KS: Yeah, I was looking to grow. He sent me a thousand-dollar plane ticket not even knowing who I was. They picked me up loved me, and took me to the pastor's conference which was held in Pastor Chuck Smith's church. I walked in there and it was a glove that fit on a hand perfectly. I didn't fit the typical pastor seen here and I still don't to a large degree. By no means trying to be rebellious I am just a middle class guy who just wants to do ministry and reach out to people. People that some people don't have a desire or maybe the capability of reaching out too and it just fit me.

So I walk in there and saw all these hippies. Some were barefooted and in jeans and really worshipping God and it just grabbed my heart. I then learned their philosophy of teaching through the Bible. Verse by verse, chapter by chapter. It's very fundamental on the faith, but very liberal by the grace of God and the reaching out of all people. It convicted me and I was home and I have been very close to their ministry even though we are not officially a Cavalry church.

WS: Today you led a presentation called “The Lost Boys of Sudan” and it came out of some of your personal experience. You went to Sudan with Voice of the Martyrs. Was that your first trip to Sudan, and your first trip with the Voice of the Martyrs?

KS: Yes, yes.

WS: What caused you to do that?

KS: We had been supporting Voice of the Martyrs for quite some time. We have just become a lead church for them on the East Coast. They approached us about going and they knew we had an interest in the persecuted church.

They were very up front about their intent. They said, “We want to take you as a pastor to see what is happening first hand to our brothers and sisters in Sudan. Then come back and to be an advocate for the persecuted church.”

WS: When you got back from Sudan, you were at an Eagle's game. You recognized some people that looked like they could be Sudanese and you went up to them and talked to them. That is how you discovered the Lost Boys of Sudan. Some of them are here in Charlotte.

KS: That's correct. I knew they were here because one of the Catholic social service ladies let me know they were here. She was to set up a meeting for one of our members. Dustin Swineheart was a player for the Eagles, said, “Kelvin, I have met these guys.” We were trying to get a meeting but didn't. As I was leaving the Eagles last soccer game, I saw a couple of them and knew they were from the Danka tribe. I just knew. So I went up to them and said, “You are from the Danka tribe.” They were just shocked that we knew that. From that night we have been pretty inseparable to this point.

WS: What are your long-term intentions with these folks, with these boys. Well, they are not boys now. They are young men. I mean it's a neat story, but what are you long term goals?

KS: Our #1 goal is not to enable these guys. We have run an inner-city ministry here for 17 years and we are not here to give them everything. We want to see them be educated and be responsible for their lives and to be a blessing to God and to their country and that is what they are here to do.

WS: I know this is a bit of an inflammatory question but since September 11, we've heard that Islam is really a peace loving religion and the folks involved in the terrorist attack are radical extremist. Yet we also see in Sudan that war has been raging for years and has involved millions of people. How radical is mainstream Islam? How committed is mainstream Islam to eradicating Christianity?

KS: The best way for me to answer that is that in the Koran, Muhammad was very open to Christians and Jews in the beginning of his writings. At the latter part of his writings, he began to be a little more coarse in his teachings about how the Muslims were to behave or to act towards non-Muslims. He became coarser and there are certain statements in the Koran, especially in the latter part, that doesn't show a lot patience to the infidels. I do believe that there are people who are reading the Koran and taking it to another level, and that is to create what is now this Islamic state. At any cost. And that is what is happening in Sudan.

But I want to guard my words about Islam. Not because I'm scared, but if I am harsh in my words against them, who will come to our church to hear the gospel? We want to represent Jesus to them. We even called the local mosque in the days after September 11 to extend hands to them, to be a bridge. But they wouldn't let us come to their service.

WS: They didn't let you come?

KS: Not that day. He was very suspicious of me and I said listen, we are not trying to paint every Muslim with the same brush. The only way to take that out of our minds is to come together and have dialogue. All we wanted to do was come and represent the church of Jesus Christ and to sit with you, because I saw it on TV. So I called to get directions and they didn't want to do it but I still left it open to them. We're trying hard not to paint every Muslim with the same brush. Yet if they take the words of Muhammad literally at the end of his writings you can begin to see how they get that.

WS: Talk about the future of your church. I understand you are planning to plant another church in the near future, but how will you replicate the DNA that started this church – in fairly unique circumstances – in the new church?

KS: As a matter of fact, there are a couple guys that are here now who we would specifically like to see plant a church. We don't know when. We are not putting a timetable on that but we will love to see a congregation start with that kind of philosophy. You know way south and way north and other parts of the city, but God has to bring that person and have to bring that team together. We haven't really pushed it. We are just waiting on the right people and we got a couple right now that has began to share that vision.

WS: What else do you see for the future for this church?

KS: Well, we would like to be a small part of just bringing unity to the church. To disciple people in the word of God and to accept all kinds of backgrounds. One thing that has happened here is that we have every single denomination here presented. It's also a church for all people. From very wealthy, middle class to very poor, to come together Sunday morning and be the family of God. This is a tremendous blessing for us bringing people from our ministry to Jackson Park and our homeless families' complex. We have 16 apartments that we bought and renovated and bring those families together to just penetrate every heart in this city. A part of that is doing what we are doing with the Sudan, is trying to get the church to think about someone other than yourself that is what we are trying to get across our goal is to have people living and breathing the mission of Jesus Christ. Not just on Sunday, but every day of their life and that will set people free. That is what we are about and we want that to penetrate every church every lost person every believer and we just invite people to be apart of the mission of Jesus' church. Its totality and we are trying to do that.

We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we are certainly trying to fulfill what Paul said to become all things to all people. We might win some and that is our heart here and that is our philosophy of ministry. We want to see that everywhere in the city.