Rev. Dr. Floyd H. Flake is a quintessential expert in faith-based community revitalization. He brought that expertise to Memphis last week for the 2008 Economic Development Fair. (Photos by Earl Stanback)

Such was the case last Thursday at the 2008 Economic Development Fair at Cook Convention Center. In this instance, the speaker was the Rev. Dr. Floyd H. Flake, longtime pastor of The Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York, speaking at Mid-South Minority Business Council’s “Community Impact” luncheon.  

Rev. Flake, a former U.S. Congressman, is a quintessential expert in faith-based community revitalization. During the past 30 years, he has nearly single-handedly refocused and renewed the community around his church in Jamaica, Queens.  His message to other preachers and community leaders is that investing in their communities can turn “a deleterious piece of property into a prosperous piece of property.”

During his pastorate, the 168-year-old church of 1,200 members has been transformed into a multi-million dollar facility with 23,000 active members and dynamic ministries for men, women, youth, young adults and singles.  A first-rate Communications Ministry sends his messages via live streaming of church services, satellite, cable, radio, free audio MP3 downloads of sermons and a downloadable quarterly magazine.  Also, the church opens at 7 a.m. every day.

Rev. Flake’s speech sparked conversation. Flake (center) talks with an Economic Development Fair attendee as City Councilman Harold Collins (left) engages in an exchange that includes Rev. Kenneth Robinson (second from right), who said he patterned his community development activities in Memphis after Rev. Flake’s.

“When you begin to build community from the inside out – the energy of the congregation, the outlook of the congregation, the vision of the congregation changes….The community is our garden which has not been managed,” said Rev. Flake during his PowerPoint-augmented speech.

In 1982, he opened Allen Christian School for 500 students, pre-school to 8th-grade, to provide them with a “Christ-centered, world-class education.”  In addition to the school and a Bible institute, Rev. Flake has launched more than a dozen corporations, including a bus company, development corporation, senior citizens housing, credit union, security company, in-house printing operation, domestic violence center and more.  

Now, the development corporation and other for-profit operations, with some 600-employees, have been separated from the church to avoid complications of federal accounting laws, particularly the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Rev. Flake co-pastors Allen A.M.E. with his wife, Rev. Elaine Flake.  As co-pastor, she receives the same salary as he does.

Attendees at the Economic Development Fair got a chance to share their experience with Rev. Flake and ask questions.

‘A pattern to follow’
 

Dr. Kenneth S. Robinson, pastor of St. Andrew A.M.E. Church in Memphis, said he patterned his community development activities after Rev. Flake’s.  

“What you see now in our community, it’s a microcosm of what he’s done,” said Rev. Robinson, whose faith-based community revitalization of the neighborhood near South Parkway and Mississippi Blvd. has created a daycare, elementary school, a CDC that has built 117 houses, a mortgage brokerage and more.

A former member of the House Banking and Finance Committee, Rev. Flake stressed the need for a business plan, a banking relationship, an ability to speak to bankers in terms they understand, and the absolute necessity for transparency.

He stressed that ministers must understand the difference between “God-talk” and “bank-talk.”   

“Church rhetoric does not work in the bank – ‘I’ve been praying the prayer of Jabez and God done told me you gon’ be my partner,” he said.  “They don’t understand God-talk, they understand numbers.”  

The 2008 Economic Development Fair was spearheaded by the Mid-South Minority Business Council (MMBC). Luke Yancy III, MMBC president & CEO, said the council is gathering a resource pool for churches to tap into and provide assistance for residents within their immediate communities.

A business plan can project the number of members into weekly revenue figures that the bank can understand, he said.  

For the $17 million dollar loan to build the new sanctuary, Rev. Flake said that he encouraged his banker to take the lead in gathering a group of other banks to cover the loan, too big for one institution to handle.  They were successful; and he said the first Sunday offering in the new building paid the mortgage.

“Once you start producing the visual evidence of God’s presence, they will invest in it,” said Flake, who received his doctorate in ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, and has a B.A. from Wilberforce University where he recently served as president and put the HBCU back on firm financial ground.  

“Be transparent on where money is going. Transparency makes it easy to get grants and loans,” said Rev. Flake.   

Once members understand and see how the money is handled, Rev. Flake said they will be enthused and excited enough to ask, “What are we going to do next?”

‘No need to be politician or pastor’

Although he served in Congress for 11 years, Rev. Flake told the audience, “You need not be a politician or a pastor to positively change a community.”    

For example, Allen A.M.E. has a weekly housing workshop to help people impacted by the housing crisis and also has an investment club. With a new president, he said, the market will turn around.

For Rev. Flake, on the horizon is his own real estate investment fund and a plan to invest in communities all over America. He is also working on an $800 million bid for a 5,800-unit housing project in Brooklyn. A member of the Fannie Mae Foundation Board of Directors, he said, “Fannie Mae has used me in every major city to go around and do seminars like the one I just did.”

Rev. Flake (left) said “once you start producing the visual evidence of God’s presence” a church’s congregation will invest in it. Also pictured, Bishop William H. Graves, the presiding bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and a TVA board member.

“It’s trying to get our black churches to understand that they must do more than worship,” he said

Following his speech, Rev. Flake said to change people’s lives, ministers must empower people “to go out and build their own communities. Jesus did it. Martin did it.”

“What is civil rights,” said Rev. Flake, “if it’s not educating them, putting them in houses and creating an environment where they feel safe.”