Enon “sowing” for needy on Easter

There is nothing small about Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, particularly on Easter Sunday.

Not the choir, not the congregation, and not the charity, either.

"We don't apologize for being large, we don't apologize for packing out a place, but our largeness has got to turn into something for someone else," the Rev. Dr. Alyn E. Waller told thousands of congregants yesterday at a special service held in the 10,200-seat Liacouras Center.

Each year the church picks three charitable organizations to receive donations from congregants. The single service typically generates between $50,000 and $75,000 for the selected organizations, said Ellyn Jo Waller, Rev. Waller's wife.

The word Rev. Waller uses for it is "sowing."

"Today we come to sow into these organizations," Waller said.

The groups Enon selected this year were the child-services organization Wordsworth, the anti-violence group Father's Day Rally Committee, and a pair of doctors providing care to street children in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sowing, Waller said, was part of being involved in "real ministry" as opposed to simple "religiosity."

"The real test of what we do is when we give the benediction, and when we get up out of here, are you going to love somebody? Are you going to help somebody? Are you going to get inovlved in the community?" Waller asked his congregants.

As an example, he pointed to the Father's Day Rally Committee, which describes itself as a responsibility movement.

The money the organization collected yesterday will be used for its Rites of Passage Program, where African Americans between the ages of 10-17 discuss everything from financial literacy to conflict resolution.

"It's manhood development. We have sessions on male-female relationships, health issues, we take them to Harlem historical sites," said Bilal Qayyum, president of the Father's Day Rally Committee.

Qayyum did not know how many contributions his organization would receive.

"I have no idea but every penny counts for a group like ours," Qayyum said.

An Enon Baptist congregant who is the social worker for a foster mother employed by Wordsworth recommended that organization for the church's Easter charity drive.

Wordsworth offers a wide array of services - including a residential facility and a private school - for 1,700 special needs children in the Philadelphia area.

"We are thrilled to be a recipient, we're really honored," said Madeleine Kessler, Wordsworth's corporate director of community relations. "Everything we get will be used to help the children and families that we serve."

The final recipients of the congregation's contributions are Dr. Michael and Kay Johnson, former Philadelphia residents affiliated with an international missionary organization called World Gospel Mission.

The Johnsons, who were not at the service, provide medical care for thousands of homeless and orphaned street children living in Nairobi, Kenya.

"We're praying for our young people in the streets of Philadelphia and the challenges that are facing them. And we're praying for those in the streets in the cities of Africa," Rev. Waller said at the two-and-a-half-hour service.

The ceremony was a classic example of Enon's style. It featured a re-enactment of the resurrection in song and dance, a performance from a drum troupe, remarkable music, a slickly produced video urging young people to look out for each other, and a teleconference prayer with congregants in South Africa.

Like all pastors, Rev. Waller was intent on using the unusually large Easter crowd to try and win a few new congregants.

"I'm not one of those who likes to beat up on people who only come on Easter. If it's the only shot I got it's the shot I got," Waller said.