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As director of the
state’s Partners for Hope program, Frederick Nettles plays a key role
in disbursing taxpayer money to faith-based groups. As pastor of Living Word Fellowship Ministries in
Springfield, Nettles heads a faith-based group. What some people may see as a conflict, Nettles sees
as an advantage. Nettles says he’s able to understand the
subtleties — and boundaries — of the relationship between
church and state. He’s been doing the state job at the Department
of Human Services for more than six years now, coinciding with a major
shift in federal policy that’s seen more government money flow to
religious groups. The federal Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
program, the Bush administration boasts, is responsible for steering more
than $2 billion a year to religious groups. The money supports such work as mentoring the
children of prisoners, helping the homeless, and fighting malaria overseas.
Illinois is the second-biggest beneficiary, behind
New York. The initiative is controversial, to say the least.
Many Americans believe that church and state should
remain separate in the United States — and there have been legal
challenges. But Nettles sees logic to steering money to
faith-based groups, as long as the money isn’t used for
proselytizing. “Every community has a church,” he says,
“but not every community has a government office.”
Although he does not apply for funds for his own
church (as a means of avoiding conflict-of-interest issues), Nettles would
like to see greater use of the program in smaller communities. “Illinois is one of the largest recipients of
grant money through the faith-based initiative,” he says, “but
most of the money is being given to established charities that have been
around for a very long time and already receive major dollars from both the
state and federal government. I think rural churches are missing out on an
opportunity.”
Nettles’ job is to be a facilitator.
“It’s basically a capacity-building position,” he says,
“[helping] churches interface with state and federal foundations so
they can compete for grant monies or whatever is available.”
What he knows could be of great value to any church
or faith-based community organization wishing support to provide services
beyond those related to proselytizing. Tony Pierce, co-pastor of Heaven’s View
Christian Fellowship in Peoria, is familiar with the initiative. “We
did a program with the local housing authority. They would tear down
existing housing and put up new. The program required self-sufficiency
training for the homes’ residents. We received funding [to
participate in] that.”
Churches shouldn’t rush into the program
unawares, Pierce says.
“I would encourage anyone looking into this to
become familiar with the charitable-choice laws and faith-based initiative
laws,” he says. Applicants would also be wise to familiarize
themselves with the grant-writing process, Nettles says. One unfortunate
aspect of the initiative is its appeal to con artists who are aware that
many church leaders are intimidated by the unfamiliar application process.
Nettles receives many calls from churches that have been scammed by people
who overcharge for the relatively simple process or take money in return
for promises they can’t deliver on. “From a national standpoint,” Nettles
says, “the faith-based initiative created desire. Lots of pastors out
there are hiring grant writers; scam artists are taking advantage, left and
right — so what I try to do is let pastors know the general
guidelines to follow if you want to hire help.”
Nettles was raised in Harvey by his mother, Gloria
Paul-Nettles. A devout Catholic, she placed a high value on education and
sent young Fred to a parochial high school in Chicago Heights, even though
the school was mostly white and it took him three buses and an hour and a
half each day to get there. “There might have been maybe 10 blacks in
a freshman class of 400 or 500,” Nettles says. A standout football player, Nettles hoped to play
professionally, but that dream ended during his senior year. “During
high school, sports was a driving motivation, and when I hurt my knee in a
scrimmage and that came crashing down, I started seeking the Lord and being
mad at him all at once. It was a pivotal point in my life.” At that
time, he started to pull away from the Catholic Church. It was Wanda, his future wife, who brought him back
to Christ and started him on the road to ministry.
“I met her playing basketball in my
neighborhood, visiting from Gary, Ind. We were playing basketball, and she
was sticking to me a bit too tight. I left, and she followed me home on her
bike, and we started dating.” Nettles was 16 at the time. “My wife,” the pastor recalls, “had
a tremendous mother — Mary Helen Williams. She would talk about Jesus
all the time. I would literally sit listening to her for hours. It was her
connection that drew me into the kingdom of God, drew me in to accept Jesus
as Lord and savior.”
Nettles realized that he wanted to marry Wanda just
after high school. “It was at a church service where she was doing a
speech. She had a glow about her, and the Lord told me, ‘That’s
going to be your wife.’ A year later we were married, as soon as I
was in a position to support her.”
That support came from the Air Force, the military
branch in which his father had served. “In the Air Force, I worked in
the personnel office — a two-man area responsible for 1,500 people
with access to nukes. Our job was to monitor unfavorable info and flag a
person’s PRP [Personnel Reliability Program] if they got into
trouble. For example, if they took medicine that could make them drowsy, we
had to pull — or suspend — the PRP. I worked 12 hours shifts
for a year and a half, often more than five days a week.”
PRP is a psychological-evaluation program instituted
during the Cold War by the Department of Defense. Its intention is to see
that only the most trustworthy individuals have access to nuclear weapons. That job taught Nettles the cost of not paying
attention to detail: “I only had two stripes, but I saw grown
colonels break down and cry when they got called to go before the generals
because they broke some PRP thing.”
Nettles won numerous awards, including distinguished
airman of the year, while in the Air Force. Nettles and his wife joined an on-base church. He had
decided not to return to Catholicism. “A lot of people who leave the
Catholic Church, they’re hostile to it for a lot of reasons, but it
was my Catholic upbringing that helped me with my moral upbringing,”
he says. “We were taught higher standards. So I embrace my Catholic
upbringing as something the Lord used to keep me on the straight and
narrow. If that hadn’t been there, I’d have been a different
person.”
In 1985, the Nettles had their daughter, LaTrice.
Because she needed surgery immediately after birth, the family was flown to
an Army hospital in Denver. In 1992, after 10 years of service, Nettles, then a
staff sergeant, left the Air Force. He took advantage of service-related
benefits to get an education. By 1997, he had a master’s degree in
public administration. He joined DHS, and Wanda found work with the
Department of Transportation.
As good as Nettles feels
about his work, and the potential for good embodied in faith-based and
community initiatives, his true passion lies outside his state job. Along
with his wife, he has a heart for the kids. Although LaTrice, a student at
the University of Illinois at Springfield, is their only biological child,
they’ve raised several children. “We adopted family members that stayed with us
and that we raised,” Nettles says. “We have six kids that we
raised, five that stayed with us and we adopted. We helped them get through
school, and they kind of call us Mom and Dad.”
The kids belong to relatives. “We inherited a
lot of kids due to doing a good job the first time,” the pastor
jokes. “Tim — he was the middle of 11 kids. His mother, my
wife’s sister, contacted us and asked if we could help. When we got
him, he couldn’t read or write. Our daughter worked to teach him, and
after that year he went from an F as a sophomore to being a B and C
student. When my wife’s mother saw that, she said, ‘Let’s
see what you can do with Javae. . . . ’ ”
Living Word Fellowship Ministries reflects this
concern for young people. Although there are churches closer to
Springfield’s college campuses, Living Word draws many students. “There’s a great need for the college
kids,” Nettles says. “So many of them are away from home. They
live in the cafeteria. They have issues that come up. Some of the
influences on college campuses are adverse to family values. We’ve
become the reminder of what their parents have taught them and not to get
away from that.
“There’s a statistic I saw, that of
freshmen in college, 70 percent lose their Christianity after the first
year. Having a church actively facilitating and supporting college kids
helps them stay on track and not get caught up in things going on on
campus.”
Wanda is a big part of the couple’s college
ministry. She went from IDOT to a strong career as a
women’s-basketball coach, including stints at Lincoln Land Community
College and the University of Illinois at Springfield. “They moved
her out,” Nettles says, “and last year she was assistant coach
at Harris-Stowe [in St. Louis]. They went to the NAIA Division I nationals
tournament.”
Mrs. Nettles says, “We have a good outreach to
college kids. We’re kind of college-oriented — bringing out
their talents, abilities, and spiritual gifts.”
Shaun Von De Bur, 24, graduated from Robert Morris
College in 2001. He’s just finishing his master’s in business
administration online and has started his own management and booking
company for Christian and gospel artists. “God just led me
here,” he says. “I was going through tough times, didn’t
have a job.”
Von De Bur speculates about why Nettles’ church
appeals to the college crowd: “I think what’s drawn a lot of
students here is just the freedom. You’re free to worship God. I grew
up in a religious type of church, everything structured. I’ve always
known God could do more for me.”
Nettles is satisfied with this emphasis in his
church. “We’ve started Deeper Bible Study with students from
the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on Thursday evenings during the
summer, a service that’s student-led. Student leaders come in; they
guide praise and worship, testimonies. . . . We’ve had over 40, 50
kids during the summer come here.”
“I really feel God is going to raise up the
young people in this city,” he continues. “If we neglect them,
we’re going to miss out on a big opportunity. God is going to work on
them, and that will expand into the overall church community.”
Another interesting aspect of Living Word is its
racial mix. Nettles says, “I lived in an all-black community and went
to an all-white school. I got the bulk of both worlds. That showed me the
church needs to reflect a diverse cultural and racial mix, instead of being
one-dimensional.
“In other words, we should look like
heaven.”
For information on the state’s Partners for
Hope program, contact Nettles at 217-782-1268 or go to
www.dhs.state.il.us/dco/PFH/.
Freelance writer Larry Crossett’s profile of
Brigit Dyer-Reynolds appeared in the April 26 edition.
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2007.
