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Subject: Volume 3, Number 6
SPARKS masthead 670px
Above All Things Ministry Volume 3, No. 6
June 29, 2007

Dear HJA,

The Sparks e-newsletter is the BRC's online communication tool. We hope that BRC members and friends will find this e-newsletter a great way to stay connected to the BRC family and promote your products, events and services within and beyond the Overground RR!!© community. Welcome aboard.

in this issue
  • SPARKS Interview with Gospel Artist James Bignon
  • BRC Celebrates the Life and Work of Founder Art Cummings
  • St. Mark's Lutheran to Bless New Sanctuary This Sunday
  • Sweet Auburn Presents Najuma This Friday at the Atrium
  • SPARKS Interview With BRC Member Joe Shorter
  • Blessed Events

  • BRC Celebrates the Life and Work of Founder Art Cummings
    Arthur Cummings Sr.

    Around the time of the mid-1960s urban insurrections of Watts, Detroit and Newark, Arthur Cummings began to reconsider his promising military career. After almost two decades in the military, Cummings was one of very few African Americans on the fast track to becoming a general. He got off that fast track a Lt. Colonel with degrees from Hampton, George Washington and the University of Maryland.

    Art Cummings looked around to see if there was a different train, one going where he thought he needed to go. When he saw no such train coming, Art Cummings devoted the rest of his professional life to laying the tracks, to designing and building the economic and social engine of black liberation. Art Cummings was one of the architects of the BRC's Overground RR!!©." His transition on June 18, 2007, leaves as legacy a lifetime of door-opening achievement and selfless struggle on behalf of our people.

    Cummings initially founded, then left a Boston-based management consulting practice to join the transition team of Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson. A specialist in urban planning and budgeting with long experience in tough and unforgiving bureaucratic environments, he is said to have asked the new mayor for the toughest job available. Maynard Jackson made Art Cummings the city's Director of Purchasing. When he was tasked with reforming how Atlanta purchased goods and services, African Americans were two thirds of the city's population but accounted for about 1% of city purchases and contracts.

    "Art didn't just imitate the good old boys, and award contracts to his friends or friends of the mayor, either. As the city's Director of Purchasing he was all about fairness, about making opportunities available to everybody. It was a guiding principle, something he and Mayor Jackson believed in very deeply. Art Cummings completely revamped and reformed the way the city purchased goods and services to ensure fairness on every level.

    "One of Maynard Jackson's chief objectives was to cut African Americans in on every level of the purchasing system, from the top to the bottom. Art co-conceived this policy and was its point man, the one more responsible than anybody else for executing it," according to his third wife Jeanette Foreman. "He was a master politician and a master budgeter, someone who knew where the bodies were buried and knew what to do about it."

    "He could have taken this knowledge of his over to the private side. He could have been a consultant to people who wanted contracts themselves and been an easy millionaire, but he didn't. Art wasn't about the money. He was about justice and fairness. He preferred to remain a consultant to the first wave of African American mayors who came into power in Newark, Chicago, and a dozen other cities. He was Ernie Barefield's mentor, when Ernie went to Chicago to become chief of staff in the Harold Washington administration. Art Cummings shared, he practically gave away his knowledge of how to design and implement the forerunners of contract set-asides and affirmative action in governmental contracting to hundreds of people he mentored, schooled and advised in dozens of cities."

    "If there are, as Rev. Jesse Jackson likes to say, two kinds of people, tree shakers and jellymakers, Art was a consummate tree shaker who made possible a whole generation of prosperous jellymakers," continued Foreman, a BRC board member herself. "It's hard to imagine anybody who did more than Art Cummings to elevate the cause of black businesses, and recirculating dollars - including municipal dollars, our tax dollars - something we often forget about, in our black communities. Art did all right for himself and his family, but he really wasn't about the money. He wanted to empower us as a people, to ensure that black destinies and the economies of our black communities were in black hands."

    Art Cummings' lifetime of service wasn't just limited to building the foundation for thousands of local black businesses. In the spirit of looking out for the least, the lost and the left behind. SPARKS caught up with Joyce Dorsey, the past CEO and board president of the Fulton Atlanta Community Action Authority.

    "Art was the founding board chair of the Fulton Atlanta Community Action Authority in 1991. he had a passion for helping people less fortunate than himself. He was the architect. He helped us set up the administrative foundation. It has operated successfully since then with successful audits and programs which have impacted hundreds of thousands of lives. He was on the board of directors up until last year when his health failed him. We use his model of leadership as a guide in everything we do.

    "It was through Art's leadership that we were able to create a community housing development organization which owns a set of apartments in the Cascade area. We've also built two subdivisions all under his leadership. People who knew Art knew that he could be quite a leader, quite demanding and forceful and meticulous nature, his insistence that all your statistics be squeaky clean and all your work can be verified. He was a stickler for detail who insisted on the highest moral integrity in everything that we did." concluded Joyce Dorsey. "He set the bar very high and demanded that we measure up every day."

    According to those who knew him best, Art Cummings led a great life of service, and enjoyed his many friends and family. He was married three times, had six children and was father figure and mentor to many more. He was never happier than those times he was surrounded by those he knew and loved, and who loved him, as all of us at BRC did. As his wife Jeanette told us, Art Cummings shouldn't be mourned. He should be celebrated.


    St. Mark's Lutheran to Bless New Sanctuary This Sunday
    Rev. Torrey O. Johnson

    On Sunday, July 1 at 11 AM, St. Mark's Lutheran Church will march into its newly rebuilt home at 4137 Washington Road in East Point. "It will be a solemn and a joyous homecoming, our procession into the building, and our first service in the new sanctuary," according to Pastor Torry O. Johnson. 'We will have a more formal consecration of the new facility at a date in August or September. We'll be sure to let SPARKS know about that one.

    "St. Marks has been in this community for all of 24 years and a little more now, and offers a full suite of ministries to address the needs of our church, its children, its families, and its elders. We are especially uplifted by the response to our youth basketball project, the Pure Grace Youth League which serves youngsters in the immediate area in which our church is located. Participation in the Pure Grace Youth League for the current cycle is closed, as we're full up. That proves there's definitely a need for what we're doing.

    "There's also a crying need for us to support the best of our black businesses. Along with our churches and community organizations, they are the pillars of our community. St. Marks utilized a local African American general contractor, Accou-Wall Interiors of East Point, to construct our new sanctuary. He did a tremendous job for us, bringing in the project on schedule and well under budget. They're so good, C.L. Moody hired them to do his place. If Accou-Wall is not a BRC member yet, I strongly endorse him to the BRC, and the BRC to him. It's time for more of us to get on board."


    Sweet Auburn Presents Najuma This Friday at the Atrium
    Sweet Auburn June 29 2007

    This Friday, June 29 the Atrium on Sweet Auburn presents its 5th Friday Cabaret, featuring Najuma. A native of Chicago, now residing in Morrow GA, she defines her musical style as "the conscience of R&B" with a sensuous touch of jazz. Her music touches the mind, moves the body and enriches the soul. An accomplished stuent of West African dance, Najuma and her husband Barake have excited audiences with their unique fusion of R&B, jazz and African rhythms. BRC members and friends are urgued to come out Friday night and experience Najuma, the Voice of Love.

    Tickets are $15 for individuals, and $25 for couples, which includes setup & hors' dourves.. Art for your viewing pleasure by Devi McDonald. Old school dancing sounds by Barake. BYOB. For more info contact S. Jill Fields at 404-524-7921.


    SPARKS Interview With BRC Member Joe Shorter
    Joe Shorter

    BRC member Joe Shorter is a former Deputy Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Louisiana. A native New Orleanean, he is a former head of that city's Office of Manpower and Training, and also served as Louisiana's Director of Minority Business Development. He's been in the insurance industry a long while, 15 years as a regulator, and four years as a consultant.

    "I came to Georgia as a national VP with Primerica, assisting agents in getting certified and working with regulators. I'm now a representative for AFLAC, the largest supplemental insurance company in the country.

    "As the term indicates, it supplements your primary insurance policies. Your supplemental carrier pays funds directly to you in the event of an accident or injury. You decide where to apply them whether to your co-payments or to your other living expenses like rent or mortgage, food or transportation.

    "AFLAC policies are typically very affordable, with premiums running as little as $6 a week, and payouts can be very lucrative. AFLAC coverage is also portable. If you join while working from Business X and get a better offer to go to work for Business Y whether they have AFLAC or not, not only you can take that coverage with you, its cost stays at the same rate. If you sign in 2007 you keep it at the same rate in 2010 or ad infinitum until you reach your maximum age, unless you change the type of coverage.

    "The greatest thing about this job, is that I get paid for helping people. I walk into small businesses all the time and ask if they offer benefits to their people. It's not that they don't want to, it's not that they don't care, it's that the margins are very tough. Here's the thing about AFLAC - it doesn't cost the employers anything. And in any workplace where three or more employees come in, we offer a deeply discounted group rate.

    So we are helping black businesses be more competitive with other, larger firms by enabling employee access to benefit packages which would otherwise be unavailable.

    "All that said, AFLAC is not a substitute for major medical insurance. It's a shame that our country has not had the political will to provide medical insurance to everybody. But in the situation as it exists now, we are striving to make complete benefit packages more possible in situations where it would otherwise be beyond reach.

    "Black Americans, if you look at us as an economic power would be among the top dozen on the planet. How much better off would we be if that wealth were deployed and recirculated within our communities? True, we don't have some of the basic advantages - there are no black owned supermarket chains I know of, so we are reliant on the Krogers and the Publix and others, but there are still things we can do.

    "So the work of the Atlanta Black Agenda and the Business Resource Center is so vitally important. The BRC provides some of the necessary tools for cooperation between our churches, our businesses and our community organizations. It's a place where we can be mutually supportive of each other, and work for the advancement of all our communities. That's why I stand with the BRC, and why if you're in business, you should to. It's time to get on board."


    Blessed Events

    Providence Missionary Baptist Church will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the pastorate of Rev.Dr. Gerald E. Durley at the Sheraton Gateway Saturday August 18. Tickets are $50. For more information call 404-752-6869

    Woods Memorial Baptist Church holds its Summer Revival Wednesday July 11, through Friday July 13 at 5865 Old National Highway in College Park GA 30349. Featured speaker is the powerful pastor of Jackson Memorial Baptist, Rev. Gregory Sutton. All are welcome.

    Elizabeth Baptist Church humbly invites all to its Family & Friends Days, Saturday and Sunday July 28 and 29. Saturday services are at 6PM, and Sundays at 7:30, 9:30 and 12 noon. Bring 3 unsaved or unchurched friends or family members to share and worship. Casual attire, of course.


    Are you a BRC member yet?
    Board the Overground RR!! and find out how you can practice "KTAA" Kitchen Table Affirmative Action. Visit online at www.brcatl.com or call our office today at 404-346-0808 to find out how you can become a member.


    SPARKS Interview with Gospel Artist James Bignon
    James Bignon

    SPARKS: Tell us a little about your calling and what it means.

    JB: I'm a recording artist and also a workshop clinician... and I'm very excited about the ministry that I do. I write, I sing, I direct and I train. I do seminars focusing on skill development with church choirs, with groups and with soloists, all under the umbrella of Gospel Music.

    The music ministry is an exciting field to be in. It transforms lives. It brings people closer to Christ... It's powerful in that it captivates the minds and hearts of... people who under normal circumstances would not be captivated by it. You find people coming out of darkness, out of the lack of understanding of Christ through the ministry of music. Music has helped revive a lot of ministries...

    SPARKS: Can you tell us how you were first called to this ministry?

    JB: I was a musician first. As a young teenage musician... I started out trying to build my name. I wanted the limelight. It was about me until one evening, I went to a program in Augusta with my mother. I was about nine years old.

    This young girl began to praise the Lord as a result of the song I was leading with the choir. It was shocking to me, this genuine response of hers to something I was doing out of practice, something that for me was simply technical. That pricked my interest, and started me on a long, long evolution... . Through the years God told me "you're singing about Me, you.re playing about Me, but you don't know Me.

    My transformation took years, it was an evolution. It took me going through some things so I could understand the lyrics... "Though many dangers toils and snares I've already come toward grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me on."

    I came to understand... that it was not about me. It was about Him... That... empowered me to be able to play with a lot more definition... when I sing I sing with a lot more conviction because now ... I know Him whom I serve and whom I'm singing about.

    SPARKS: What are you doing locally? You're on the radio, aren't you?

    JB: Our latest recording, God Is Great has been received wonderfully... We have several recordings -- I'm speaking of the Deliverance Mass Choir under the direction of Sam Sanders...

    Locally in the Atlanta Area I'm on Praise 97.5 from 7 to 10 AM once a month. Our next broadcast will be Friday, June 30 with Rhodell Lewis. Me, I'm with the Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church up in Marietta located at 566 Whitlock Avenue, Marietta Georgia, where the pastor is the Rev. Benjamin Lockhart Jr. I'm the minister of music up there, and we're having an awesome time at 7:45AM and 11 AM each and every Sunday that God gives us. I can be reached at the church office, 678-715-5775, or by email at jamesbignon@aol.com, and my web site is www.jamesbignon.com.

    We will be doing a lot of Q & A on the radio show, answering questions regarding workshops and development. I have a heart and a passion for reaching out to a lot of the churches in the area, who might not believe I'd actually come out to do a workshop. But I will. It's about the ministry. I am sincere about helping develop the skills and broaden the awareness of the music ministry.

    SPARKS: What can you tell people who might want to get involved in the music ministry themselves?

    JB: First you must know what it is you have to do. You have to understand your calling. You have to ask God what he wants to do with your life. You need to find a skilled instructor. You can check the local listings for the Gospel Music Workshop, James Cleveland's organization, that's one of many choices, one that I've been affiliated with for many years now, founded by Rev. James Cleveland. You can find them on the internet...

    (Secondly) ...you have to study to show yourself approved... You have to practice and rehearse.

    (Finally) ... As you grow you have to be careful of your attitude, your mentality. People love being around those whose skills have deveoped to such a level of effectiveness that it moves them... But if you're talented and arrogant you undermine your ministry... Folks will say he or she is real talented, but that they can't stand to be around you... You don't want to infect the ministry with your own personal agenda. You have to keep it pure so that God gets the glory and people are encouraged and inspired.

    SPARKS: Can you say a word or three about the BRC?

    JB: I can. It's vitally important that we strive to pull our community together socially, and also in terms of finance. We have to generate dollars and recirculate those dollars in our community, and that's what BRC is about. It's a concept we are all going to have to get with, a hopeful and practical message we will all to have to learn to carry and to deliver.



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