The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General

Assembly 2011

Teaching self-help in Haiti and the Congo; Building peace in North Korea; Remembering America’s growing elderly. Learn how churches across the U.S. are changing the world through our communities’ most personal space: the home.

Kirk Lyman-Barner

Greetings from Ryan Iafigliola…

• The Fuller Center Bike Adventure program had a setback en route to their starting point in Washington

• All passengers survived and within days our family of supporters raised enough funds to buy a new van

• The executive director of the Americus New Horizons Habitat affiliate raised funds and bought the Fuller Center team a new trailer

• Ryan is still on the road with the cyclists as they make their way across the country, sleeping and speaking in churches and spreading the word about The Fuller Center for Housing

First, a little trip down Memory Lane…

Clarence Jordan

• Southern Baptist

• Degree in Agriculture from UGA and PhD in Greek from Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville

• Experimented with common purse - Fund for Humanity and “Koinonia” in the 1930s

• Progressive Social Gospel influences

Millard Fuller

• Attorney, self-made millionaire with Morris Dees (who went on to found The Southern Poverty Law Center)

• Marital crisis lead to giving up wealth to follow God’s direction

• “Outstanding layman in the United Church of Christ”

-Clarence Jordan

Fuller first met Jordan in 1965 at Koinonia Farm (founded in 1942)

Clarence and Florence Jordan, along with Martin and Mabel England, founded Koinonia with the hope that it would be a interracial demonstration plot, an experiment in community based on the early Christian community as described in the 2nd chapter of Acts

The Southern context and culture in which they operated was strong in its resistance to racial integration by both the society and the church

“WHEREAS, said members are strongly opposed to the infiltration of our homes, through the literature published by the Methodist Church, and strongly endorsed by some officials of the Methodist Church, advocating the complete removal of all racial barriers in our homes, Churches, schools, recreational facilities and business places, the inevitable result of which will be the complete destruction of the American home.”

–Lee Street Methodist Church Resolution, February 22, 1957

After Brown v. Board of Education (May 17, 1954) the Ku Klux Klan took notice that at Koinonia African Americans and whites shared meals together and received the same wages. Koinonia was shot at, crosses were burned and their stores were dynamited. A full boycott by the local residents tried to drive Koinonia away. It almost succeeded.

Today, the people of Sumter County have a new attitude• In many ways, the children took the lead on

race relations as their schools were integrated in 1971-72

• The economic impact of the Sumter County Initiative, a collaborative effort to eliminate all substandard housing by the year 2000, created good will among its residents as a sea of shacks were replaced by simple, decent houses

• African American and white churches worked side-by-side hosting visitors from around the world who came to build houses

• Today, the First United Methodist houses and supports a growing Hispanic congregation

• Koinonia Farm was named “2009 Agricultural Business of the Year” by the Chamber of Commerce

• Clarence Jordan is recognized by city officials in the Americus Walk of Fame

The church backgrounds of Millard and Clarence were significant…

• The democratic governance of the Baptist church polity, that Clarence grew up in, inevitably meant that the church would be a reflection of the culture

• Clarence’s prophetic and radical challenge to the Church created a disruption to the democratic and evangelical Southern Baptist denomination

• Millard’s Congregationalist and United Church of Christ upbringing predisposed him towards ecumenism and he brought to Clarence the experienced global mission efforts of the Disciples and the UCC

The birth of the modern affordable housing movement….

• In May of 1968, Millard had wrapped up a successful term as fundraiser for Tougaloo College and reconnected with Clarence at Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur (currently affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship)

• Following a day of talking and prayer in Pastor John Nichol’s study, Millard and Clarence were convinced that “God had given a radical new direction” to their lives

• This meeting was followed by a mid-August four-day “Partners” session with 15 like-minded men where they came up with…

A three platform strategyPartnership training and teaching and application:

1.Partnership industries

2.Partnership farming

3.Partnership housing

All would be financed by a “Fund for Humanity” at no profit, providing loans with no interest to the borrowers (Exodus 22:25)

“The purpose of the fund will be two-fold: (a) to provide an inheritance for the disinherited, and (b) to provide a means through which the possessed may share with and invest in the dispossessed.”

On October 21, 1968, Clarence wrote:

What the poor need is not charity but capital, not case-workers but

co-workers.

And what the rich need is a wise, honorable and just way of divesting themselves of over-abundance… The fund will give

away no money. It is not a handout.

The first house was built in 1969 for Bo and Emma Johnson. Clarence died suddenly before the house was completed.

Turning recipients into

donors..

20 years later - Bo and Emma at mortgage

burning ceremony

Bo and Clarence in the Cotton Patch. Bo had to sign his deed with an X because he could not

read or write.

On July 1, 1973 Millard and Linda Fuller flew their family to Zaire, eager to test out the concept of the Fund for Humanity in Africa

The idea travels around the world….• In September 1976,

Millard and Linda returned to Koinonia Farm and called together a group of supporters to discuss the future of their dream. Habitat for Humanity International as an organization was born at this meeting.

• Today, Habitat for Humanity has built more than 400,000 houses, sheltering more than 2 million people worldwide.

• In 2005, The Fuller Center for Housing was launched to continue and expand on the original vision dreamed up in that Baptist church in 1968.

The Fuller Center supports the original grassroots leadership model:

• Unashamedly Christian

• Decentralized local leadership teams, each responsible for decision making, fundraising, family selection guidelines, construction and volunteer management

• Churches are more important than corporate sponsorships

• No interest loans

• Limited government funds

• Rural ministries are as important as large urban areas

INTERNATIONAL COVENANT PARTNERS

The Fuller Center is working with partners around the globe 

ArmeniaAustralia

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

El SalvadorGhanaHaitiIndiaNepal

The NetherlandsNigeria

PeruPhilippines

Sierra LeoneSri Lanka

Building in 25 states in the US

Alabama

Chattahoochee Valley

Arkansas

North Central Arkansas

California

San Diego

San Fernando Valley

Colorado

Moffat County (Craig)

Florida

Central Florida

First Coast-Jacksonville

Greater Sarasota

South Walton County

Tallahassee

Georgia

Americus-Sumter County

Greater Atlanta

Augusta-Harrisburg

Cusseta

Flint River at Lake Blackshear

Fairburn and Union City

Henry County (McDonough)

Jefferson County

Koinonia Farm Heart to Heart

Idaho

Silver Valley

Illinois

Central Illinois

Iowa

Iowa Lakes

Pottawattamie County

Kentucky

Central Kentucky

Louisville

Springfield

Louisiana

Ginger Ford Northshore

Northwest Louisiana (Shreveport)

Webster Parish

Maine

Southern Maine

Michigan

Berrien County (St Joseph)

Minnesota

Greater Twin Cities

Mississippi

Greenwood / Leflore

Yalobusha County

Missouri

Greater Kansas City

New Jersey

New Jersey Pines (Tabernacle)

North Carolina

Johnston County

Lenoir County

Ohio

Drake County

Lorain County

Greater Toledo

Northwest Portage County (Aurora)

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City

Pennsylvania

Greenville Area

South Carolina

Greater Columbia

Spartanburg

Texas

Dallas

San Antonio

Virginia

Carroll County Greater Area (Hillsville)

Northern Virginia

Smyth County

West Virginia

Potomac Highlands Partnership Housing

The Church is an important partner

The Fuller Center is not a church, but a servant to the Church providing dynamic mission opportunities for congregations both in the US and internationally.

"This is the greatest illustrated sermon I have ever

preached," said Derek Vreeland, pastor of

Cornerstone Church in Americus. 

The Greater Blessing ProgramIn everything I did, I showed you that by this

kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ --Acts 20:35

Taking on the challenge of aging housing for an aging, fixed low-

income demographic

The Fuller Center will partner directly with your congregation Do you have

shut-ins or people living in the shadow of your steeple who need repairs?

Don’t wait to get started

The Fuller Center Faith Builders team will provide technical support

HaitiWithin a few weeks of signing an MOU with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the January 12, 2010 7.0 catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti. The Fuller Center and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship quickly teamed up for a coordinated response.

•Leogan, primary partner Lott Carey•Lambi (just east of Leogane),

primary partner Grace International

•Balan (east of PAP), FCH project with Homes from the Heart•Overall partners, Haiti Housing Network: FCH, CBF, Conscience International, Baptist

General Convention of Texas, Volunteers

of America SE

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

David Snell, President and cofounder of the Fuller Center for Housing presenting a Bible at a house dedication in Bolomba

The Millard Fuller Academy in Bolomba has two training goals:

•To teach the policies and procedures of The

Fuller Center to those interested in starting a covenant partner in other parts of the Congo;

•To teach a philosophy of independence and self reliance to a people who have lived in a culture of little hope for improving their life circumstance

Reflections from David Snell…

Our basic notions of sweat equity and repayment are unknown in Haiti and unfamiliar in Congo.  

In both places we are trying to tie dignity-building into the mix by applying these principles.  In Haiti especially there has been so much given to the people over the years that they have, as human nature seems to dictate, become resentful of the donors, and demanding that more be given.  

Our goal in Haiti, as it is everywhere we work, is to give in a more thoughtful way, one that encourages the participation of the recipient, enhances feelings of self-worth, and turns receivers into givers.

North Korea

Awaiting transfer of building blocks from China so first work teams can help get building started. The plan is to build 25 duplex units at Osan Ri, a collective tree farm located between Pyongyang and the airport.

This project is intended as a peace making opportunity and will bring US volunteers together with North Koreans to build the houses.

FCH is partnering with the Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Volunteers of America, the Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) and others from the community together in a coordinated effort to restore McDonald Chapel in the wake of the April 27 tornado that killed one person and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.

 Mark Johnson, associate pastor at Shades Crest Baptist Church, speaks with McDonald Chapel residents at Katherwood Baptist Church about efforts to restore the community.

McDonald Chapel Restoration Partnership

Love makes things blossom and allows little children to become all that God intended them to be. Children given the opportunity to grow up in a decent home, may even change the world.

-Millard Fuller

Will you join us?

Questions?

Some ways your congregation can get involved…

Pray for the collaborative ministries of The Fuller Center for Housing and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

Sign up to be a Fuller Center Faith Builders Partner Church

Organize a Fuller Center Global Builders mission trip

Sponsor a house

Invite a Fuller Center speaker to give a presentation

Start a Fuller Center repair ministry in your neighborhood

Join us in the Gospel of action

• In spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is a place for words, verses, music, art. Those can all be wonderful, faith-enriching things. But there is also a place for action. That's what we at the Fuller Center for Housing are about, and we in the Fuller Center's Global Builders program take that Gospel of action around the world.

• Jesus was a carpenter, and God made this Earth. Global Builders allows you to combine those two – building homes and relationships while also seeing God's beautiful world in ways that so very few others do or even can.

• If you want to see the world, and see the world as God sees the world, in a spiritually fulfilling way, join us. Come work with us. Volunteer. Donate. If you can't tag along with us, help a friend or fellow church member who can. Help them help others. Help us build homes and smiles.

• Help us spread the Gospel of action.

Thank you!

For more information contact:

Kirk Lyman-Barner, Director Faith Builders

The Fuller Center for Housing

kirk@fullercenter.org

229-924-2900

www.fullercenter.org