There’s more to church than worshiping and praying, a Memphis clergyman said

Dr. William M. Young

The church has long been an anchor in the Black community. But can the church provide respite from stress, tension and difficult situations, including mental and emotional distress?

There’s more to the church than worshiping and praying, a local clergyman explained, particularly when the current problem is a virus that has infected millions, killed tens of thousands, separated loved ones, and now triggering widespread depression.

The novel coronavirus is ravaging this country and shattering lives. “Praying is not enough,” said Dr. William M. Young, senior pastor of The Healing Center Full Gospel Baptist Church in the Oakhaven community in South Memphis.

“If I’m having a heart attack, I don’t look for scripture and verse before I try to get some help,” he said. “You can pray, but you need prayer and therapy. When a person is depressed, just praying for them is not enough.” 

Dr. Young understands the church has to do more than save souls. In his role as senior pastor, he believes a holistic approach is needed to “take care of the mind, body and spirit.”

His first job was in 1977 at Western Mental Health Institute, a psychiatric hospital in Bolivar, Tenn. He was the first Black chaplain there and also was the first Black chaplain on staff at Methodist Healthcare in Memphis in 1981.

“I’ve been in this field for 47 years,” said Dr. Young, who is licensed by the state of Tennessee as a marriage and family therapist, professional counselor, and as a clinical pastoral counselor.

His expertise enables him to provide counseling and therapy to those in the church, as well as the unchurched struggling to overcome addiction, stress, anxiety, anger, family violence, grief and loss.

The daily stressors and tension that one generally suffers from prompted Dr. Young and his co-pastor, Rev. Dianne P. Young, to launch The Healing Center Wellness & Stress Clinic of Memphis, which addresses physical and emotional health. 

The clinic opened in 1999 on the grounds of the church. After a slow start, the Youngs eventually formed a partnership with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), the University of Memphis, Rhodes College, local government, Memphis Area Legal Services, and the West Cancer Center.

“We wanted to have a church that would encompass the many faceted needs of our community,” said Dr. Young, denouncing the naysayers who may not believe there’s a connection between counseling and spirituality, or that the mind often needs therapy. 

“As pastoral therapists, we’re trained for the mind,” he said.

In 2008, the Youngs received a grant from the state of Tennessee and opened the Emotional Fitness Centers of Tennessee, a network of 10 faith-based counseling centers and two satellite sites providing access to mental health care and substance abuse screenings in the African-American community. 

They also provide COVID-19 testing. In Tennessee, for example, more than 366,000 people have contracted the virus as of Nov. 29. More than 2,000 have been hospitalized and more than 4,500 have died.

The statistics are alarming. People fear the inevitable – an ongoing surge in infections, hospitalizations and deaths – and more disruptions in their lives. Additional restrictions may soon follow.

“There is a thing called COVID overload, where you’re just stressed out with the many restrictions we have,” Dr. Young said. “The financial stress and strain are taking a toll on many people.” 

Before COVID, the number of people grappling with emotional distress had increased significantly. Lives literally hung in the balance and prompted a response from the Youngs. 

In 2003, they organized the first National Suicide and the Black Church Conference at The Healing Center to create awareness of the prevalence of suicide among African Americans. 

“That (conference) was based upon a lady in our church who took her life,” Dr. Young said. “She had asked for counseling. We were going to see her on that Monday. Early that Monday, she got up under the cross, took a pistol and ended her life.”

It happened in 2002 near the front entrance of the church, under a 20-foot cross suspended above the facade. Since then, the suicide conference has sparked interest all over the country. 

The first conference drew about 50 people to The Healing Center. Ten years later, after the Youngs formed a partnership with UTHSC, the biennial conference attracted more than 500 people.

The Black community is just as prone to suicide as the White community, Dr. Young said. “We were still saying that Black people don’t commit suicide because they’re stronger than the Whites. [But] we concluded that all people take their lives…”

Suicide is triggered by depression, emotional turmoil, he said. The common denominator is pain. “Just like a person wants to get physically fit, we developed a concept of emotional fitness.”

He said emotional fitness is the key to dealing with the coronavirus and other vexing problems causing undue stress and mental anguish. It is, likewise, the key to the growing suicide rate. 

“The one thing that keeps people going is hope,” the pastor/counselor said. “Hope is intangible. But it’s the expectation that something better is going to come.”

Young men flock to ‘church’ with a different kind of Christian doctrine

     After the shooting death of Michael Brown and the resulting media firestorm, old racial wounds between African Americans and law enforcement quickly resurfaced. Israel United in Christ, however, was there in Ferguson, Mo., trying to quell the frustrations that African Americans were feeling by spreading “the word of God.”

     Israel United in Christ is not your average Protestant church, where worshippers sing traditional and contemporary gospel songs. It also is not a church where a charismatic preacher delivers the sermon using pulpit theatrics and the age-old practice of “call and response.”  

     “It’s a (faith-based Christian) church/school. And we focus on the laws, statues and commandments of the Bible,” said Michael McVay, a 31-year-old mental health case manager calling himself Michael Ben Israel, a surname the members adopt meaning “son of Israel.”

     The church/school also recognizes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, said McVay, who once worshipped in the Baptist faith with his mother and sister. His grandmother, he said, is a member of the Church of God in Christ.

     “I’ve done my research and I felt the teaching I was getting in the Christian church didn’t touch me as a person,” said McVay. “I left the Christian church in 2010, and was studying (the word of God) on my own since that spring.”

     McVay joined the church/school last year in November after surrendering the tenets of the Baptist church for a “black” focus taught by Israel United in Christ, which is located at 1661 Lamar in the Glenview community. Members meet on Saturday for worship and/or study sessions.

Members of Israel United in Christ.

     Bishop Nathanyel Ben Israel, the principle teacher, founded the church/school in New York 12 years ago. Within that time span, he’s planted other church/schools in Ohio, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, California, Virginia, and Tennessee.

     “We’re working on getting schools in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Jamaica,” said Hoshaiah Ben Israel, one of the top “officers” overseeing the Midwest region – about eight states total, including Canada.

     “As the truth becomes widespread, more schools will be opened,” said McVay, subscribing to the ideology and tenets that black people are “the chosen people that the Bible speaks of.”

     “We teach everybody to learn the truth for himself or herself,” said Ben Israel, 31, an entrepreneur and recent convert who was around 8 years old when he last attended Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church with his mother.

     “When I started following the commandments, I got an understanding,” he said. “It changed my life when I applied the laws to my life.”

     Before Ben Israel committed to the church/school, he trekked to Orlando, Fla., to meet the church/school elders. “I read the entire Bible and watched a video that showed we are the true Israelites,” he said, and embraced the teachings with a determination to teach others.

     Although the Bible refers to the Jewish nation of Israel as God’s people, both Ben Israel and McVay surmised that today’s Jews are not descendants of ancient Israel.

     “They do not fit the prophecies concerning Israel and they do not suffer the curses that were placed upon Israel by the Most High,” said McVay, motivated by self-study and the “knowledge” that he’s acquired since he first joined the church/school.

     “It’s important to my faith,” he said, adding, “In grade-school were taught that we’re African-American. But we’re taught in the Bible that we’re Israelites. We can’t be two people from two different continents.”

     McVay pointed out Deuteronomy chapter 28, verses 15-28 to support his argument. He said black people and brown people throughout world history have suffered through slavery and degradation because of their disobedience.

     “We are here to wake up the so-called blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos to our true heritage – Hebrew Israelite,” he said. “The one way for the so-called blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos to identify with our true heritage is to turn to the Holy Bible.”

     Referring to the King James Version and the “1611 King James Version,” McVay said members of the church/school derive knowledge from the latter version because it includes the “Apocrypha,” or “the missing books of the Bible.”

     Although Israel United in Christ is fairly new to this area – about 2,000 members total across the country – Ben Israel said the church is growing.

     “We got a lot of young men with us,” he said. “We got the solution to change people. Young men catch on to this quickly because they’re looking for a solution.”

     For more information, visit wakeupisraelites.org.

‘A heart for people’ inspires the Servant’s Circle

       “I have a heart for people and I’ve always been a servant of the community. I just want to see people have the best in life,” said Minister Telisa Franklin, senior servant of The Servant’s Circle, a newly formed ministry that Franklin started Aug. 2.

      The Servant’s Circle is a non-traditional, non-denominational church that holds service on Saturdays in a building that Franklin has used as her place of business along a business strip at 2988 Old Austin Peay Hwy. Service starts at 6 p.m. each Saturday.

Minister Telisa Franklin

      “The ministry is a fellowship of people who want to serve,” said Franklin, the executive director of the Juneteenth Freedom & Heritage Festival before the name was changed this year to the Juneteenth Urban Music Festival.

      The mission of the ministry, she said, is to “serve our God, serve our family and serve our community.” 1 Samuel 25-41 (NIV) is the foundational scripture: “She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, ‘I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my Lord’s servants.’”

      “The bible says what you do for the least one of you, you do it to me. I took it upon myself seven years ago to serve the community,” said Franklin, who hosted a ministerial boot camp, a Community Shoebox for Seniors Brunch, an STD forum for young men and women, an annual Thanksgiving dinner for the hungry and homeless, and other community projects throughout the years.

      Forty people attended the inaugural service. “We serve on Saturdays as an alternative to Sunday worship,” said Franklin, a license minister with the Full Gospel Church Fellowship. She also is an ordained evangelist, which was bestowed upon her by a pastor in the Baptist church.

“We worship for 60-90 minutes,” she said, “and get in all the traditional worship that people are accustomed to and then get right to the heart of worship – praising God.”

      “I really enjoyed the service. I felt those words were especially for me,” Charlette Pipkin, a native Memphian currently serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Army, texted Franklin later that day.

      Following service, parishioners were treated to refreshments as a goodwill gesture and token of love and appreciation from the ministry’s staff. Many of them wore casual clothing, which she encourages during worship.

      “I’m not a traditional pastor. I’m just the senior servant,” said Franklin, who conceived the idea for the ministry three years ago, but sat on it until she was compelled “by the Holy Spirit” to bring the idea to fruition.

      “I was disobedient and didn’t want to lead people, so I presented the idea to a male pastor. But he didn’t think that was what he wanted to do at the time.”

Now that the ministry is up and running, Franklin said there will be a service project each month for parishioners who want to perform community service.

Later this month, college students will be the recipients of their goodwill.

For more information about the Servant’s Circle, contact Minister Telisa Franklin at (901) 281-6337.