September 2020 — pg. 27
urfm You are the church
Around the same time the family moved to Missouri, the Bloods and the
Crips began engaging in gang warfare across north St. Louis. Families fled that
part of St. Louis and moved south to the city’s central corridor that included the
Tower Grove area, home to Lighthouse.
“The gangs came with them, and it created a whole volatile situation. At one
point, we had 11 shootings in two weeks just on the block where the church is
located, and that summer a fourth of the congregation left and a third of the
board,” he said. “One after another said, ‘We believe in this church, and we
believe in your ministry, but we can’t stay here.’”
The exiting members tended to be the best-educated people who provided
much of the financial support for the church. Despite a loss in membership, the
church remained extremely important to the neighborhood.
“The church really functioned as the community center for the whole
neighborhood. If there were any community meetings, they happened in our
church,” said Olver, who recalled being approached at one meeting by a leading
St. Louis politician who told him, “Pastor, if Lighthouse Church closes, you will
leave a tremendous spiritual vacuum in the heart of this community.”
Olver reflected, “That was the voice of God. I went home and told my wife, ‘I
don’t know what it’s going to take, but we’ve got to find a way to keep this church
going, and, through a series of events, we did.”
The neighborhood quickly shifted from evenly divided between Black and
White to predominantly Black.
Olver worked part-time doing regional work for the denomination’s
department of evangelism and church growth. While attending church growth
conferences, he met a Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) church growth
consultant with urban experience. She visited Lighthouse and told Olver that
unless he wanted the church to close within five years, “You really need to find
an African American who understands the city and understands street culture
who can work with you.”
Olver recalled, “We began looking and praying, but in those days, Black
pastors weren’t very common in our denomination.”
The consultant called him later and said she had just visited a Bible college in
Oklahoma, and “I met this guy who I think would be perfect for your church.
His name is Kenny Martin, and he is trying to decide right now what direction
to go with his life.”
Olver contacted Martin, who moved to St. Louis to become Lighthouse’s
assistant pastor.
“Some amazing ministry resulted. Through another series of circumstances,
the Board of Education asked us to run the gym that was across the street with
Adams School,” said Olver, who added the church was “basically given carte
blanche to run whatever we wanted to out of that gym as long as it was for the
good of the neighborhood.”
“I found out that
I was addicted to
ministry and to
stress.”
— Howard Olver
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