A light in Brooklyn!

How do brethren preach the gospel in the inner city?

A drive between Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn takes one past burned out buildings, stripped cars, walls painted with graffiti and other signs of urban blight. Groups of rough looking young men on street corners look furtively around for customers for their illegal drug trade. Scruffy looking stray dogs poke around the doorways of abandoned buildings looking for tidbits of food in the garbage that has been dumped there.

There's another side to life in Brooklyn. If you walk up Washington Avenue towards Brooklyn Museum on a Sunday afternoon your ears may pick up a sound that seems out of place in the midst of the noise of traffic and loud reggae music. You may hear, faintly at first, the strains of acapella hymns. Following the sounds of the singing will lead you a few feet off of Washington Avenue onto Prospect Place to the front of the door of a humble meeting hall. If you open the door and look in, you will see the backs of about 30 people, black, white, tan and all shades in between, singing their hearts out in praise to God. The booming bass voice coming from the front will be Sam Turrentine's, who apart from the Lord, is the one most responsible for this oasis of love and consecration in the desert of selfishness and despair which is New York City.

When the singing and praying are completed, the Christians greet each other lovingly. There are hugs as well as kisses on the cheek. In the middle of it all is the dignified and loving Sam, as he is known affectionately to all, handsome in his nifty yet not extravagant suits, looking much younger than his 79 years.
Sam is proud of the fact that the Christians in Brooklyn are visibly affectionate towards one another. "Jesus said that all men would know we are His disciples if we have love towards one another", says Sam. "That's why it's important that we be a loving church".

But love, to Sam Turrentine, does not merely involve hugs and outward expressions of affection, but also carefully following God's will. The desire to respect God's authority has cost Sam several comfortable preaching positions, but it has enriched his relationship with his Lord.

Sam was born in Clanton, Alabama and raised in Birmingham where he became a Christian. In the 1950's Bull Conner made life in Birmingham uncomfortable for African Americans like Sam, and so he and his wife, Mildred, set out for a new life in the northeast.

Sam arrived in New Jersey and in 1953 began working with a congregation composed primarily of black brethren in Newark, New Jersey. The rest of his life has been spent working with various congregations around New York City.

In 1977 Sam was invited to preach for the Flatlands congregation in Brooklyn even though he was known to be "too conservative" for many there. Sam succeeded in convincing the brethren to stop paying for their picnics with the church's funds and also to discontinue support for several unscriptural projects. However, when he began to point out that there was no authority to send money to the Herald of Truth program, he ran into strong opposition. Finally, Sam was forced to leave and in 1979 he, his family, Todd Hawkins and a few others began the Prospect Heights congregation.

Though separation was necessary from those who insisted upon unscriptural practices, bitter recriminations were not a part of the process. It is interesting to note that many members of the Flatlands congregation still attend meetings at Prospect Heights. They obviously still have a high personal regard for Sam and he in turn hopes that a few more of them may cross the unburned bridges to worship and work with the respect for authority that Christ demands.

The Prospect Heights congregation is not large or well known, but the loving spirit that Sam has nurtured gives it a kind of inner strength and nobility that rubs off on those who visit. I'm sure God would say of the brethren there, "I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name" (Rev. 3:8).

Advancing age does not allow Sam to give as much time to his work as in the past. For that reason he feels especially blessed to have the capable assistance of Gary Hunt, who began helping him on a full time basis at the beginning of this year. Sam's legacy of love and firm convictions will endure for many years not only in Brooklyn, but throughout the Northeast where he is greatly loved and respected.

When images come to your mind of big, bad New York City, think not only of the muggers, addicts, garbage, confusion and noise. Think of your loving brethren that meet at 404 Prospect Place in Brooklyn. Think of Sam Turrentine, who has given his life to shining the light of Jesus Christ where darkness abounds.

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