By Sha’Reena Bing | November 9, 2017

Riverdale’s Church of God of Prophecy (Photo by Sha’Reena Bing)

Where do the people go when they’re in need? Who is supposed to be the helping hand for the sick, the poor and the needy in the community? Well, if you ask Lessie Moore, she would tell you that it is the church, which she believes is the heartbeat of any and every community, especially hers.

Moore is the pastor of Riverdale’s Church of God of Prophecy Extended Hands Ministry. For years, her church body has moved from place to place in search of a true destination for their church family. From renting out churches, to having services in member’s homes, Moore has always been determined to keep a positive mindset.

The Riverdale church currently resides in a home and has been stable for about 10 years. Although it has some stability, Moore wants more than that. With the purchase of the home, Moore was able to gain 64 acres of land. Moore’s desire is to be able to have a church built on that land so that it can really enhance the work that they do within the community.

“I want to be able to have a place for people in need to stay. I want to be able to cook food and serve it after services to everybody in the community, but we can’t do any of that yet because we don’t have the resources,” Moore says. With the belief that building this church could actually really improve the community, the church has set up multiple events over the years to raise money towards its building fund.

The church has hosted revivals, sold dinners, hosted events for fun days in the community, and had fundraisers among its members and others. But even after doing these things for years, you need a lot more to build a church. 

“We actually raised enough money at one point to start getting the trees knocked down and the landscape cleared, but the guy we paid never held up to his end,” says Moore. Of course, this had to be a hard pill to swallow after so many years of not having an actual church building, so I asked her how she felt about the situation.

“Of course it was hard, but we didn’t retaliate. It’s funny because the guy that we paid was actually another pastor in our district. He works with construction and everything so we came up with a deal. He never did his part and we never got our money back,” Moore explained. “I could’ve sued, gotten the money back, but I realized that this man was supposed to be a child of God. I let it go because I know that eventually God will handle that situation.”

So this was a huge setback for Moore’s church but the fight never stopped. The church of has stayed positive throughout every struggle and its members refuse to give up because they know that their blessing is coming soon.

“We’ve had church in member’s houses every week, in hotels, and we’ve had church in my very own dining room. So to even be stable right now is a blessing in itself. We’ve been having church in this home for years now and we have gotten the chance to redecorate it over the years, so everything will fall into place eventually.”

Moore refuses to give up her goal of being that centerpiece in the community.  

“The people need us. They need us so bad and it is my duty as a woman of God in my leadership role to meet the needs of the people. I refuse to give up because I know that I have to work for it. Faith without work is dead, so I know that if I keep going my hard work will pay off,” says Moore.

“We’ve had people that we don’t even know come into our church services asking for financial help. Even though we don’t have the biggest congregation we always take it upon ourselves to raise an offering for that person, even if we never see them again. It is our job to do God’s work and that’s what we plan on doing even with the little that we have.”

It really was eye-opening to see how passionate Moore was about this. You could feel the emotion rolling off of every word that was said about her community and the goals that she has for her church. Knowing that this church is far from being a mega church hasn’t stopped Moore or her congregation from doing what they can to be the light in this community.

“It doesn’t matter where I go or who I’m with. I know what I have been placed on this earth to do and it is to be one of those people that can provide that safe place for those in need. I am that shoulder to lean on or even just the pastor that you can always count on,” says Moore.

Seeing the fight in this church family shows people that they truly care. There will be a day when that church building finally goes up and they can really have the necessary tools to continue being the heart of their community.