The Flood Church
Similar churches often offer music styles like contemporary, traditional hymns, and gospel choir. Programs like children's ministry, community service, youth group, missions, and adult education are also typical.
I ran into Pastor Carlton Lee at last night's protest. During Monday night's rioting, someone set his church on fire..
This is important for two reasons. First, Michael Brown, Sr. is a member of Lee's church. And given that the church was more than a mile away from the rest of the fires, the arson suggests the possibility that there might have been more than one brand of provocateur at work in Monday night's mayhem.
Over the last few months, I've interviewed Lee and run into him many times, mostly at churches but also at the protests and riots. He's a young man, just 31, with an even younger face. On cold nights, he wears one of those Tibetan hats with earflaps with the strings hanging down.
He goes to support the protestors – when he was sixteen and bought his first car, he was stopped by police so often he started leaving for school fifteen minutes early – and to bring what he calls "a faith perspective."
But earlier, I had gotten lost trying to find my way to the riot zone of West Florissant. At around six p.m., weaving through the back roads to get a look, I suddenly found myself at the site on Canfield Road where Brown was killed. At the teddy bear memorial, a line of young men blocked the road.
