DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240380

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

GRASS-ROOTS STRENGTH WILL REMAIN AFTER REED LEAVES, SAY LOCAL COALITION MEMBERS

When Ralph Reed leaves the Christian Coalition, he will take along his genius for politics and organization, but the heart of the group will remain, local coalition members said Wednesday.

The lifeblood of the organization is the local membership, and their energy won't flag when Reed steps down in September, they said.

``It's a coalition of people of faith at the grass-roots level,'' said George Faatz of Virginia Beach, vice chairman of the Hampton Roads chapter. ``Reed always said the strength is not one guy sitting on top; the strength is in the local chapters.''

The Christian Coalition has 96 chapters in Virginia and will start a new one in Chesapeake today. The Hampton Roads chapter is the fourth largest, but membership numbers were not available.

Reed's announcement that he would leave to start his own consulting firm took the local coalition by surprise, although not completely.

``I sort of sensed things were changing a little bit,'' said coalition member Betty Hansel, who is active in distributing the group's controversial voter guides to local churches.

The coalition's communications director, Mike Russell, and an assistant have left in the past five months. But Hansel did not learn of Reed's departure until she heard about it on ``The 700 Club'' Wednesday morning.

``I don't think this is a step down; I think this is a step forward,'' Hansel said. ``We're going to pray hard for another one (executive director) that is just as great . . . I don't even think Pat (Robertson), when he hired Ralph, had any idea of the effect he would make in the media circle and nationally.''

The Samaritan Project, the Christian Coalition's recent push to cross racial barriers and reach inner cities, will take form in Hampton Roads in coming months, Faatz said. The encouragement for action to come from the grass roots is Reed's legacy, he said.

Reed is described as bright, well studied and diplomatic, with a genius for organization and politics. Coalition members said they trust in God to bring another such leader.

``The Lord brought Ralph for such a time as this and he probably has somebody else in mind to take his place as Ralph moves on,'' Faatz said.

Hansel agreed. ``We can pray, and that's what we ought to do, that God will raise up the right person.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page A1 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT for this

date.]

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