The community leaders of Elkhart are unified, explained Carmen Rickel, female pastor and organizer of the partnership between the church leaders of the community.

Despite differences in church denomination, race, gender, and political differences the town of Elkhart has created a unique alliance that has served them well as the community affronted the pandemic and debates surrounding how to stand against racial injustice.

The community alliance began when female pastor Carmen Rickel began to meet with a few local pastors and mentioned the idea of meeting with pastors throughout the area regardless of denomination. Her idea was quickly accepted and before the group knew it, Baptist and Methodist preachers alike were all meeting up for lunches, which led to the formation of both a friendship and an alliance.

Shannon Martin, Director of Communications of the Texas Annual Conference United Methodist Church explained that the coordination between the pastors was very uncommon.

“In all small town, they posed the question of how can we ban together as pastors and leaders in this community in missions and outreach,” said Martin. “She (Rickel) got all these pastors together regardless of everything; denomination, color etc. and formed a group.”

Martin explained the alliance of pastors started out collaborating for community events including Christmas caroling and holding events.

“Small town churches do not collaborate, they see each other as competition,” she said. “For this to be happening, all the churches cooperating, is really cool. That’s what the body of Christ should be doing, they are being an example as pastors and an example to the community.”

That unity became direly needed as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and tensions regarding racial injustice began to increase on a national level.

According to Rickel, the original group organizer, the group together has utilized and combined their resources to benefit the community.

The group started out hosting a mobile soup kitchen which has been upgraded to be served out of an actual building.

They then helped each other to learn how to virtually stream each church’s services to the community electronically. For many of the churches, it was their first time doing e-services, she explained.

The group additionally hosted a large, socially distanced drive-thru service at the high school parking lot.

“Everyone is excited to make it a tradition,” said Rickel.

Dr. Lamont Smith, Superintendent of Elkhart ISD and pastor of trinity Baptist Church explained that when racial tensions arose, the group kept doing what they always do:

“We were already united so it created an avenue to display it even further,” he said. “For the last two years, going on our third, we came in with the mindset of lets work together. We were already connected with one another. I can walk in or they can walk in and say lets collaborate. During this season we’ve decided to visit more frequently so we can keep each other and the community informed on what’s going on and to demonstrate we are together.”

Above all Smith hopes that other communities can learn from Elkhart’s example and addressed the importance of working together, as one individual cannot solve such complex issues alone.

“I believe it’s important to realize that we are in this together and that each person in the community can have peace of mind when they realize they are working together. One individual doesn’t have the solution to a challenge. Collaboration is extremely important. Listen, learn, and lead.”