Chelsea Langston Bombino with Reverend Harold Dugger
Editor's Note: The First Baptist Church of Capitol Heights, a Sacred Sector Community participant organization, has a long history of serving the local community. Since 1908, the “Church in the Heart of the Community, Reaching the World for God,” has been serving its local community and seeking partnerships with other churches, community-serving organizations, and the local government. Below, Reverend Harold Dugger shares about how his congregational community is navigating COVID-19.
[Our church has] been thinking and praying about our Sacred Sector friends, and how Sacred Sector’s investment in our ministry helped prepare us for this time. The Lord led me to put together a strategy team to navigate COVID-19. Thanks to Sacred Sector, we already knew our legal rights and legal boundaries, but also the importance of organizational structure in this time. The main thing is that we recognize how COVID-19 is impacting every area of life, including every area of our congregational life: how we understand public policies related to COVID-19, how we shift our organizational norms and practices, and how we communicate externally. COVID-19 requires our faith community to act proactively, strategically and in a coordinated way. Our church needs to steward our resources well, and recognize that we can't be everything to everyone. That is why God gave each of us, individually and institutionally, different strengths and gifts. The challenge is for us to recognize our limits and find people and ministries to coordinate with who have different strengths and areas of expertise from our own. The Lord led me to put this team together to navigate COVID-19.
Meeting the Physical Needs of the Community
We have multiple streams of congregants activated and focused on different elements of serving human needs. Our church is the centralized hub, with a number of connections in the community. As a pastor, this helps me to not feel overwhelmed. Our church’s relationship with Sacred Sector has really made me sensitive to how important it is to have structure in place; it makes things flow so much easier. Some members of our community are really anxious at this time, while others are fearful. We have volunteers who are assigned to check in on our senior citizens, especially to give them a call because they don’t use a computer. These seniors need human connection; they need someone to minister to both their spiritual needs, as well as their physical needs.
Beyond senior citizens, there are so many needs in our congregation and in our local community. Some people don't have the means of getting information through Zoom and webinars. Some people do not have internet or social media. Some people are physically isolated. Some people are not able to access normal medical care. Some community members cannot get the food or basic supplies they need because they live in areas where grocery stores are already in short supply. We have people in the hospital in our congregations, and now we cannot go and do pastoral care and visits because of COVID-19. It’s led us to innovate and recalibrate the ways in which we serve our communities. We recognize this has impacted every institution in society. Our church has recognized that we need to be open to recommendations and be slow to judge.
Strategic Government Partnerships
We have hungry people in our local community. We have been running a food bank for years. With respect to our food bank, we are applying the “Three P’s” framework that we learned from Sacred Sector: What are the local and state public policies that impact us? What are the best practices right now with respect to food distribution, health and safety? What public positioning and public education factors should we consider?
For example, our governor [of Maryland] released an order that all non-essential businesses must cease activities. We had to make sure we were able to continue to operate, as a food bank. We also are attuned to public policy developments that may impact any government partnerships that could help us distribute food and essential goods to our communities. I was not sure before reaching out to Sacred Sector about whether our food bank could move forward under the governor's order for all non-essential businesses to be shut, and whether that applies to food banks. We are navigating our distribution, but we know that our normal sources for food for our community are greatly diminished. Our COVID-19 response team met with and communicated with the local government officials in Capitol Heights to coordinate efforts until the government shut down in late March.
A Spiritual Hunger Amid COVID-19
The last two Sundays, I sent out sermons via Facebook Live from my home. In my most recent sermon, I focused on the question "what is it that we really know as Christians?" We know that perfect love casts away fear. We know that God is omnipotent in this moment, and always. People are calling me and calling the church asking for a brief word of prayer or devotion every morning. People are spiritually hungry right now - and not just our congregation, but the entire world. It is during times like this that you can see the real value of faith.
We know that people want to continue to gather in person for fellowship. But now more than ever, people are realizing that we are the church, not just the building. Our community understands the importance of not meeting in person right now. In terms of assembling, some people want to continue to gather in terms of fellowship. But what people are now realizing is that we, the people of God, are the Church, the building is not the church. The building is just the central meeting place, if we met at McDonalds, that would be the central meeting place, if we meet online, that is the central meeting place. But we, God's people, are the church. Our community understands the importance of not meeting in person right now. Having individual calls has helped our community realize that we value them, apart from the building. I tell my congregation that social distancing is so important. We need to listen to our governing bodies and our medical communities.
But being home does not mean sitting in front of the TV and absorbing COVID-19 news on a loop. The news should not paralyze our ability to recognize we still need to bear God’s image in our families, our churches, our workplaces, our communities, even though how we do that looks different right now. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace those who are steadfast, because they trust in you.” The Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. We have to make that real in our lives and in our institutions. God has given us directions, and if we are not careful, we can allow the event itself to override what God is doing and who he is. The Gospel is the central animating theme of our lives, and we have to view the coronavirus through the lens of the Gospel. COVID-19 is not the primary framework through which we should structure our lives, but Jesus’ redemptive love and presence in all areas of life as our Creator and Savior.
An Opportunity for Collaboration and Innovation
Especially in the black community, our congregants are older and our style is more traditional. The world and culture is evolving, but the church is not. Sometimes the black church gets left behind. We should not change our message, but we should change our methods. Churches should discern what resources their communities need from government, making sure they don't reject those resources just because they don't agree with certain public officials. This is a time for innovation and seeking God’s face in everything we do as a church. Pastors should consider new partnerships, whether with government or other groups, to advance the health of their communities. I’m seeing so many faith-leaders try new things, like using Facebook Live as a vehicle for His glory. It’s also a time to network with one another, because if my church doesn't have one thing, your church may have it. We need to shift our institutional habits, and be much more intentional about connecting (through phone calls or online) to coordinate our assets as faith-based ministries so that in this season we can better serve the people of God in our communities with whatever resources we have at our disposal.
Sometimes I think our personal biases get in the way of what God wants to do. Even before COVID-19, my church was open to partnering with government without compromising our religious freedom. For example, we recognized we could serve the members of our community better if we considered an opportunity to develop affordable housing for senior citizens through an Opportunity Zone (Note: The Internal Revenue Service defines an opportunity zone as an economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment). People would ask me, “Pastor Dugger, we have such a small church, how are you doing such a big project?” I would say, “Well, the opportunity zone was offered through the federal government, and sometimes God gives us opportunities to amplify our impact through these collaborations.”
When people say we shouldn't engage with the government, I encourage people to read the Bible passages that feature Daniel or Joseph. We are called to pray for public officials, but we are also called to engage our governmental authorities, to shape the common good. I learn so much through discourse with my communities, and sometimes I learn that people don't have what they need to understand how God has given us public officials so we can engage them and in an active dialogue with them to help shape policy. That is true now, too, as COVID-19 is impacting every element of our congregational lives and those we serve. We need to know how legislation or regulations being passed will impact us and hopefully help us better serve our communities. Sacred Sector has given us some of the tools and resources we need to do this, showing our church the value of proactivity in engaging government officials and community partners.
Sacred Sector has helped us understand how public policies, even as they develop in this time, impact our churches and our communities. There are people in our communities who don't understand that government has a distinct role to play, and that if government is offering assistance at this time, because of the incredible circumstances, churches should seriously consider partnering and coordinating and sharing resources, whether it is with government or other faith or community groups.
Chelsea Langston Bombino is the Director of Sacred Sector, an initiative of the Center for Public Justice. Sacred Sector is a learning community for faith-based organizations and emerging leaders within the faith-based nonprofit sector to integrate and fully embody their sacred missions in every area of organizational life. Chelsea also serves as an adjunct professor for Pepperdine University and serves on the board of several nonprofit organizations, including First Amendment Voice and Young Leaders Institute.
Reverend Harold Lafayette Dugger, Sr., is the Pastor of First Baptist Church Capitol Heights. Reverend Dugger is a graduate of both The Washington Baptist Seminary and Faith Christian University and Schools where he received a bachelor’s degree in theology and biblical studies, respectively.
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