CHARLOTTE
Pastor Eric Jones had led a congregation in New Jersey for 27 years when he said God told him in 2006 to move the church to Charlotte. He'd never even been here. Would his flock follow?
After praying about it, 45 of the church's 60 members decided they would, leaving jobs and houses in Plainfield, N.J., and heading 600 miles south to start a new life.
Judging by the scene on a recent Sunday at their new church home on Idlewild Road, they're thrilled to be here.
The Charlotte Observer reported that during a jubilant service that lasted nearly three hours, The Church of God dedicated the first phase of its planned campus, a 3,500-square-foot multipurpose building in the Piney Grove area. Next on the drawing board: A sanctuary that will seat 280 people and a membership big enough to fill it.
"I've never dedicated a building before," announced Jones, 53, who's a bear of a man at 6 feet, 5 inches. "But I thank God and praise the Lord -- how about that?"
Sherrlyn Liburd, 40, who works in real estate, was part of the exodus from New Jersey. She wrote a poem for the occasion.
"We were like Abraham, whom God told to go into the land that he would show them," Liburd recited, to shouts of "Amen!" "And when we didn't have the GPS on Jesus, he knew exactly where we were because he directed us. And look at where he has led us ... our little patch of heaven."
Pearl Jones Smith is the real-estate agent who has helped the newcomers find homes.
"When they'd arrive in Charlotte, I'd say, ‘Welcome to the Promised Land,'" Smith said. "The No. 1 thing the people said they liked after they got here was the weather. And they can't get over the fact that people are so friendly here -- that Southern hospitality."
The church's members, most of them black, started coming before the recession, so most were able to find jobs. "Charlotte is more diverse than before," Smith said. "That is creating opportunities."
Jackie Grimes, 50, moved to Charlotte in 2007 and is now a school secretary with the school system. Her husband, a postal worker, was able to transfer to a Matthews post office. They also brought two of their daughters, now 17 and 22.
"It was an easy decision for us," Grimes said. "We love the church family."
Tommie Lane, the senior member at 84, said that her children in New Jersey told her she was too old to be moving away. But that didn't stop her. She arrived a year ago, with her 22-year-old grandson, and bought a house a mile from the church. Some days, she walks rather than drives. "I get around better than my daughters," she said. "The Lord gave Pastor Jones a vision ... and here we are."
The Chicago-born Jones, a preacher since he was 23, called The Church of God an independent holiness church whose members call each other saints. It teaches that accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will cause people to stop living sinful lives -- including drinking, smoking and "shacking," having sex before or outside of marriage.
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