Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 8, 1990 TAG: 9007080073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE RELIGION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The church that called him had a relatively common, biblical name - Berean - after a city in what is now Greece visited by the Apostle Paul on his second and third missionary journeys.
But the name carried a stigma in the Roanoke Valley, Robertson felt, associated with the church's well-publicized financial problems.
It was bankrupt. Church attendance was less than half the 700 members it had claimed in the early 1980s.
To be able to move ahead, the Salem church needed a new name "to speak of new beginnings."
So, a few weeks ago, the congregation agreed to take on a new identity to symbolize the new beginning it has undertaken in the year since Robertson's arrival, and, coincidentally, to place it geographically in the Roanoke Valley. From now on they would be Lakeside Baptist Church and the school they operate would be Lakeside Christian School.
The change was unanimously endorsed by the 10-member board of deacons, five-member board of trustees and finally by those in attendance at the Sunday service in May when the vote was taken, Robertson said.
And today, the church is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special service and a renewed hope for the future.
"The past year has been tough," Robertson conceded in a recent interview, "but we feel the ministry is on the upswing."
The 58-year-old Richmond native came to Salem after the June 11, 1989, resignation of former pastor Rudy Holland. Attendance is up to an average of more than 400 each Sunday, he said.
Most of the increase in attendance in the past year has come from people who are new to the church, Robertson said. Few of those who left in the months after the financial disclosures have come back.
Robertson says he never thought early in his career that he would be making a specialty of helping financially strapped churches, but that is what his last two pastorates have involved.
Robertson came to Salem out of a traveling evangelism ministry that he ran from Greenville, S.C., for 2 1/2 years. For 10 years before that, though, he was pastor of a Miami church that had been $5 million in debt when he arrived.
It took seven years, but the church did erase the debt, Robertson said. The situation was different in Miami, he said, in that the church was not in bankruptcy and was not locked into a court-ordered repayment schedule.
When the Salem congregation reached the agreement to pay the secured creditors - those with liens on church property - "we knew it would be a heavy load," Robertson said. The church has to pay $4,300 a week to them and has to bring in $8,700 in the collection plates each week to meet that obligation and keep the facility running.
"We have one creditor, our largest, that is considering taking all the debt under its umbrella," Robertson said.
The Christian Training Foundation lent the church about $932,000 - almost half of the secured debt. Consolidating all of the approximately $1.8 million in secured debt with that company would make repayment easier by lowering the monthly payment, the Rev. Jim Williams said.
Williams, the church's financial director, said the foundation is eager to take on the whole of the secured debt and that the church is attempting to work out details with the creditors now. The church has not yet approached the bankruptcy court about the change and Williams said he expects it will take at least 30 to 60 days to conclude the process.
The church is about 10 months behind in its payments to a couple of the smaller creditors, Williams said, but he expects restructuring the debt will take care of that.
All in all, Williams said, he is delighted with the congregation's response to the financial crunch. "Those people who `hung in there' have been very faithful," he said, contributing an average of about $20 per person each week. He said that is a high level of giving and part of a demonstration that "we are past our past and ready to go."
Robertson said he has as little involvement as possible with the financial operation of the church, leaving that to Williams and the lay leadership. But he believes that even the current shortfall "is nothing that we can't handle."
It still will be 3 1/2 years or so before the hundreds of people holding unsecured notes and bonds from the church begin to receive repayments on their $2.5 million in investments. A bankruptcy judge approved a plan last fall that provided for a 15-year time span for complete repayment to them.
The financial strain extends beyond the simple need to make the bankruptcy payments. Portions of the church's buildings are now almost 20 years old and the 2,500-seat sanctuary is 12 years old.
During the late 1980s when the church was struggling to keep up with debt payments, maintenance went by the boards. Today, roofs leak, ceilings need replacing, walls need painting, carpet is worn through and patched with duct tape on steps.
The church cannot afford to pay for repairs, Robertson said, so members have volunteered to undertake the work themselves.
Families or individuals were asked to pick a room and take charge of its refurbishing. Already, the smell of paint signals work under way in the church's office building and school.
"I think people have really gotten to the point where they are ready for involvement" again, said the Rev. Art Hearne, the church's associate pastor for 12 years.
"There was a difficult time of hurt and disillusionment" after the church's financial problems came to light, he said, but people have recovered and now are excited about moving forward.
In addition to the interior renovations, volunteers are providing material and labor to build a small weight room addition to the gymnasium.
"We couldn't build right now," under the burden of bankruptcy, were it not for the volunteers, Robertson said.
The gymnasium, kitchen, dining room and even classrooms are used by the church as well as by the Christian school.
"There is growing excitement" about the school, Robertson said, as a new administrator, Stan Trost, has been hired.
Trost, who comes from an associate administrator position with a Virginia Beach Christian school, will be marketing the school during the rest of the summer, Robertson said.
There were just three graduates from the high school last May, the smallest class in the school's history. Total enrollment last year was 210 in a facility that has accommodated 300.
Robertson said recruitment efforts will be concentrated in the neighborhoods around the church to begin.
The focus in his ministry has been on people, Robertson says.
"I have been trying to get involvement with the people. I believe in pastoral leadership, but you have to work with people."
Today's 20th anniversary celebration of the Dalewood Avenue congregation is an opportunity to "speak of new beginnings," Robertson said, under the theme "Victory in Jesus."
"I don't approach our people in relation to the past," he said, only in terms of their future.
by CNB