Money and Management Raise Questions at Shiloh

Pastor Defends Taking Full-Time Job in Pa. As Seminary President

Shiloh Baptist Church has been a spiritual monument in the Shaw community since a group of freed slaves migrated to the District from Virginia after the Civil War with the desire of creating a church for Baptist freedmen in the nation's capital.

At its peak, Shiloh served more than 3,500 families, but today fewer than 1,000 people assemble at Ninth and P streets NW each week, and the church's pastor, the Rev. Wallace Charles Smith, is at the helm of a ship in the middle of a storm.

"Shiloh is a wonderful church," said Smith, who has led the church for 16 years. "We don't always agree, but we still try to work together and find common ground."

But finding common ground is a challenge when membership is dwindling, the neighborhood has gentrified, the city has condemned some church properties, and some members are unhappy with Smith.

"This is God's house. This is our church -- this is not his fiefdom," said Sammie Ellis, a longtime member. "He has not been truthful to the church and this community."

One thing that has angered Ellis and other critics of Smith is that Smith became president of Palmer Theological Seminary in the Philadelphia area without telling the church that he was even a candidate for the full-time job.

In response, Johnny M. Howard, former chairman of the deacon board, wrote in a letter to Smith: "Our church is a financial mess and can ill afford to function in the way you have led us. Our church cannot withstand the division that you are fostering."

Howard urged Smith to establish a plan for spiritual development, to refrain from blocking an outside assessment of the church's operations and to stop trying to change the church's constitution. In terms of spirituality, he concluded, "the church is bankrupt."

The Rev. Henry Gregory, Smith's predecessor, died in April 1990. Smith was hired the next year. Five months after he arrived, a fire gutted the main sanctuary. Smith said this changed the church's budget priorities: "We had an unexpected fire that caused us to go into an unexpected drive to build a new church, and we didn't have adequate time to prepare for this, and it depleted our resources."

Veshann Scales, a church member and contractor for the $8 million renovation of the sanctuary, said none of the church's property would have been condemned had Smith used money donated by deceased church members as they intended. "The problem is they are selling off properties to take care of the church's operation expenses instead of making needed improvements to the properties," he said.

Scales said he is troubled by how Smith handled a bequest of about $1 million, including four properties, left by Cirtie Mae Turner, who wanted the church to build a center for senior citizens.

"I have invested 30 years of my life in this church and more than $1 million, and we don't want to see the church go broke," Scales said. "Smith's management style is completely contrary to God's principle. If you disagree with him, he doesn't want any part of you."

But Smith has powerful supporters to remain on the job. The board of trustees, which supports him, includes the head of the Greater Washington Urban League, former White House officials and top aides to members of Congress.

Christine Clark, 80, chairman of the trustee board, is confident that Smith will survive and succeed.

"All ministers have their critics, and the majority of the church members hold Reverend Smith in high esteem," Clark said. "Since he has been the pastor, we have had clean audits, and after he accepted the presidency of Palmer, he brought it to the church and the church accepted it because many people look at this as an honor."

Smith said he is the first African American president of Palmer Theological Seminary, founded in 1925. "There has never been anything in my relationship with the church that could have prevented me from taking the position at Palmer," he said.

Neither Smith nor his critics plan to leave the church. Smith said he is putting his faith in God. "You have to trust God. You can't fight these battles on your own," he said.