Habitat for Humanity needs Baptists to help preserve its Christian character, said Habitat founder Millard Fuller.
Fuller and his wife, Linda — both natives of Alabama and members of Maranatha Baptist Church, Plains, Ga. — launched Habitat in 1976 to provide “a simple, decent, good place in which to live” for every person on earth. Since then, Habitat has built almost 160,000 homes for nearly 1 million people across the globe, Fuller reported.
“I have a deep concern that Habitat for Humanity remain firmly a Christian ministry,” said Fuller, the organization’s president. “From the beginning, I have seen Habitat as a new frontier in Christian missions — a creative and new way to proclaim the gospel.
“The missionary enterprise has been going on for many, many years, and there have been traditional ways to do missionary work — hospitals, schools, agriculture, preaching, revivals.” Fuller said.
Creative witnessing tool
“But I see Habitat for Humanity as a new and creative work to do what we are commanded to do in Matthew 28, which is to proclaim the gospel, and proclamation occurs in many ways — verbal and incarnational.”
Incarnational proclamation involves living out the gospel, much like Jesus did when He came to earth to demonstrate God’s love for people, Fuller explained.
Ironically, success may be the biggest impediment to Fuller’s vision, he conceded. Habitat has attracted millions of volunteers who want to help end poverty by providing affordable housing.
“Some of them are not Christians,” he noted. “We have an open-door policy” to accept all volunteers who want to build homes in order to end poverty. Consequently, people of all kinds of faiths and no faith have stepped up to participate.
This trend offers a couple of benefits. First, more homes get built. And second, since Habitat crews begin each day with a devotional and prayer and Christians work on the projects, the non-Christian workers theoretically receive a spiritual witness when they work on a project.
But if evangelical Christians don’t do their part, if they get crowded out, then Habitat could lose its Christian flavor and the spark of its witness, Fuller fretted.
“My greatest concern for Habitat for Humanity is going secular. It’s not foreordained that this ministry remain a strong Christian ministry,” he said. “All that it will take for Habitat to go secular is for Christians to stay away from it.”
Consequently, Fuller has been focusing his attention on challenging Baptists and other evangelical Christians to get involved in Habitat.
“We urgently need [Baptists], not just to saw boards and pound nails, but to have a presence on site that introduces people to Jesus,” he stressed.
Jacque Cordle, program manager for Habitat for Humanity of Tuscaloosa, said although churches have sponsored the majority of the 26 houses built by the Tuscaloosa affiliate, “We [still] need church sponsors.”
She said Habitat for Humanity of Tuscaloosa has several programs designed specifically for church involvement.
Occasions such as Building on Faith week and Habitat Sunday on the third Sunday in September allow Habitat affiliates to share with churches Habitat’s goals and ideals.
The Tuscaloosa affiliate also has a variety of ways for the money churches donate to be used to the fullest — through church partnerships combining money to sponsor a house, or one church donating the volunteer work with another providing the financial backing.
Presbyterians and Methodists have provided the strongest support to Habitat, but Fuller is singling out Baptists. This denominational breakdown is mirrored in Tuscaloosa, Cordle said.
She said one reason churches may hesitate to participate in Habitat for Humanity is that they are not aware of how to be involved.
“A lot of people, when they think of Habitat, they think the only thing they can do is swing a hammer, and that’s not true,” she said.
Pointing to programs such as Nail Sales and 2-by-4 Sales, Cordle said churches and individuals can support Habitat even if they feel unequipped to build. Sunday School classes could provide lunch on a Saturday for volunteers working on a house.
Cordle said the women of the church can get involved in a Women Build. “It’s a house built by women and sponsored by women’s groups,” said Cordle. “This would be ideal for a woman’s group such as Woman’s Missionary Union.”
Fuller said, “I want to issue the strongest possible appeal to Baptists to come out and join us, to keep Habitat for Humanity faithful to its founding principles.”
Those principles are distinctively Baptist, Fuller insisted, pointing out Habitat’s Baptist lineage.
According to Habitat for Humanity International, Millard Fuller grew up in Lanett, attending Lanett Congregational Christian Church, and Linda Fuller grew up in Tuscaloosa at Alberta Baptist Church where the two married in 1959.
After Linda Fuller graduated from Huntingdon College, Montgomery, and Millard Fuller graduated from The University of Alabama School of Law, Millard Fuller founded a marketing firm with a friend, becoming a millionaire by age 29.
But as the business prospered, the couple’s marriage suffered. After reconciling and renewing their commitment to Christ, the Fullers founded Habitat in 1976 out of the influence of Koinonia Farm, a Christian community near Americus, Ga.
Two Baptist couples on the farm — Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mabel England — had a housing program called Partnership Housing, which inspired the idea for Habitat for Humanity.
“From the very beginning, the leadership of Habitat for Humanity has been Baptist,” Fuller said. “But that deep Baptist connection is not known by a lot of Baptists.”
(ABP, TAB)
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