Arkansas church welcomes all, especially police officers

Members of The Gathering Place raise their hands during worship Sunday morning in Searcy.
Members of The Gathering Place raise their hands during worship Sunday morning in Searcy.

© 2016, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

SEARCY -- Pastor Barak Stafford looked up at his congregation and once again told them sad news: four people shot to death in a racially charged conversation between black people and police in Louisiana.

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CLARA TURNAGE

Barak Stafford speaks Sunday during a sermon in which he announced the death of three officers in Baton Rouge. The Gathering Place in Searcy is a multiracial church where several police officers from Searcy and White County departments are members.

Some of the congregation cried, hugging one another.

Policemen and civilians, blacks and whites, prayed together, as they do every Sunday here at The Gathering Place.

They meet in a renovated department store.

On Race Street.

The building was broken, he said, but God wasn't finished with it yet.

Some people call this the cop church because so many officers from Searcy and White County departments helped this congregation grow. On Sunday, officers stood with their families. Some held their sons in their arms; couples held hands. Here, Stafford said, they are not officers; they are people.

The church is a family, Stafford said. When something like this happens, the family pulls together.

As a black policeman, Brent Rowsey is at the crux of the tension that has sparked protests in multiple states. But at The Gathering Place, he has never had to ask, "Will I be welcome here?"

"When you meet somebody that's real and that's caring, they don't look at if you're a police officer or a minority," Rowsey said. "Church is like that. Come as you are. It doesn't matter. Black, white, purple, green. It doesn't matter."

Seeing officers out of uniform helps the community see their human side, he said. People often see the badge, but not the person behind it. In church, it's different.

"You're going to get people from everywhere, but they all come as one," Rowsey said. "No one looks at you as what your economic status is. No one looks at where you came from. No one is going to judge you when you come through these doors."

Before the congregation moved here, this building was dead. Its bricks were crumbling. The roof had collapsed.

"Some people come through our doors and they're broken like the building was," Stafford said. "We just try to deal with people honestly where they're at."

Stafford has drawn many officers to the church through his ties to the Police Department. Stafford met many of them when he was a dispatcher for many years with the Searcy Police Department. As the church grew and demanded more of his time, he had to give up the dispatcher job.

He said it is important for officers to have a place they can talk about the work they do and feel welcome.

"Sometimes [policemen] don't need advice from me," Stafford said. "They just want to know at the end of the day that they have friends who support them. I want our community to be a friend of police."

But most people come to The Gathering Place the organic way, Stafford said, through word of mouth. James Taylor came to church through the recommendation of a friend but stayed because he felt welcome.

"I love my church because it's a melting pot," said Taylor, who now sings in the worship band. "You've got everybody in here, and everybody knows each other, and everybody loves each other."

Cassandra Stafford, who now teaches ninth and 10th grade at Searcy High School, said the unity and trust she sees in church is the same as that she encourages in her classroom.

She invites officers like Trace Madden to come speak to her students, and students can get to know them on a personal level.

Some students go to The Gathering Place because those officers go there.

"Seeing that play out in my classroom, it's got to happen here, too," she said. "Here is where people let their walls down."

Cassandra said church is supposed to be a safe place for everyone, but especially students. She said trusting adults with their problems without fear has led to lifestyle changes.

There are other leaders in the church.

Cameisha Brewer leads the Classy Lady Awareness Foundation, a group in Searcy that she began six years ago to help mentor young women in the community. Brewer said many young girls didn't have the role models she had.

Brewer said The Gathering Place has supported her group since she first came there. The church has hosted sleepovers, and members have become mentors. Brewer said the key to fixing the disparity between different races and police officers can be found in her church.

Stafford talked about racial unity last week. This week, he'd planned to talk about something else. But when violence flared up in Baton Rouge, he knew he had to comfort his family.

As the congregation held hands Sunday, Stafford prayed that the nation would find the unity he has found in his church.

"The big thing to remember is that, at our core, we're all human beings. No matter what your job is, no matter what your ethnicity is, your social class, when all that goes away, you are a person," Brewer said. "If we can keep that at the forefront, we can learn how to be united and come together."

Metro on 07/18/2016

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