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LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

When Helen Fleming visited the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, she was soon inspired with the notion that local churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference could benefit from its services. She went to work and now more than 60 churches in the conference are benefiting.

'I wanted churches to build partnerships in their communities,' said Fleming, assistant to the bishop for leadership development. She saw that the FBCI office could help them with grant monies. But before that could happen, 'our churches needed to have their own tax-exempt status as community development corporations, separate from their church 501 (c) (3) status,' she said.

Most churches, however, didn?t have a clue about what they would need to do to be able to plug into some of the grant monies the FBCI offered.

Consequently, Fleming designed a curriculum to teach, coach and assist leaders in developing new faith-based nonprofit community organizations. She offered workshops over four weeks in January to help churches prepare the complex forms they would need in order to submit applications for federal funds.

Creating a non-profit entity separate from the church is important, said the Rev. Sonia King, who attended the training to apply for grants for Haven of Hope, the after-prison ministry at Asbury UMC in Jessup. 'It prevents someone from messing with the church?s assets,' she said. In case of possible lawsuits, the church is protected.

Altogether, 62 churches and nonprofit groups participated in the workshops, and 44 are in various stages of finalizing the many tasks to reach their tax-exempt status. Those tasks include completing the 28-page application for 501 (c) (3) status (referred to as the IRS 1023 tax exemption), developing articles of incorporation and writing bylaws for the proposed organization. Churches are also required to have the approval of their administrative council, develop vision and mission statements and produce a budget.

Critics of the faith-based initiative have long complained that it blurs the separation of church and state. But Fleming says otherwise.

As long as a church separates its purchases from what is for church use from what is for the nonprofit?s use, there?s not a problem, she explained. 'You can?t use federal funds for church, but you can use (them) for training, or programs for youth or after-school programs.'

That?s easier to distinguish when the church?s nonprofit organization has its own budget and board of directors, two of the requirements workshop participants discovered.

The conference partnered with Deborah Harmon-Pugh, president of The Healthy Caregiver in Philadelphia and an expert in training novices on forming nonprofit companies. She and her husband led the workshops, which took place on Saturday mornings in January.

Most of the churches are still working on their plans, but the training gave them the tools and information they need to apply for faith-based grants.

Participants came from as far away as Boonsboro. The Rev. Helen Steiner Smith, who serves Benevola UMC, took the training with her husband. They are creating a nonprofit called Creation Keeper to provide educational services on spirituality and sustainability. 'The course was very helpful,' she said. 'It taught us what we need to know.'

Another ministry that will be helped along as a result of the training, is a community and economic development corporation started at A.P. Shaw-Congress Heights UMC. Gayle Hebron, the church?s community developer, found the training very helpful. 'It cut through a lot of layers we would need to go through,' she said. The corporation?s goals are to provide adult literacy classes and workforce development training in the Southeast Washington neighborhood. The core group 'will meet every Monday night until everything is done,' she said.

Community UMC in Washington, D.C., plans to start some ministries for children and youth, including after-school and summer enrichment programs, said Josephine Battle, one of four Community UMC members who took the training. They are meeting to finalize their narrative statement and confirm the board members for the nonprofit organization in order to complete the documentation and apply for a grant.

King is looking to expand Asbury?s Haven of Hope program that assists people when they are released from prison, and she hopes to qualify for and obtain faith-based initiative grants. Not only did she gain a lot from the trainers at the workshops, she said, 'It was good that people who had already done it were also there.' One person from Douglas Memorial UMC in Washington, a successful grant applicant, worked for the Internal Revenue Service and 'answered our questions.'

As King and two members of her church rush to finish the last of their required documents by their March deadline, the pastor is grateful that the workshop leaders continue to be available by e-mail or telephone to answer questions and explain details.