The Rev. Gregory K. Moss Sr. has had a busy year so far.

As first vice president of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention, he flew to Haiti in March to help plan church-based relief efforts. He returned to Charlotte with a new perspective, he said.

This week, his congregation, St. Paul Baptist, is host church for the 104th session of the National Baptist Congress, which is holding its annual meeting at the Charlotte Convention Center. The six-day gathering ends Friday.

I caught up with Moss at the Convention Center Wednesday, where he preached an evening sermon (photo above). We talked about the convention, his trip to Haiti and the future of the Christian church. Below are some excerpts.

ON THE CONVENTION:
An estimated 7,000 registered delegates are attending this year’s convention, Moss said. An additional 3,000 may be attending unregistered.

“It has a nice little economic impact for the area,” he said. “They’re staying in hotels, they’re eating here, shopping here. It’s a good little bone this time of year for Charlotte.”

The convention was first held in Charlotte five years ago, and organizers were so impressed with the city – and its people—Moss said, that they voted to bring it back.

“It’s really been a boon to my congregation," he said, "because it involves so many people to help pull it off.”

On Tuesday night, St. Paul members made up the bulk of a 370-voice choir that performed before an estimated 800 to 900 people. Members of local churches – including St. Paul – also are volunteering their vehicles to serve as courtesy cars to chauffer convention-goers from place to place.

On Friday night, Moss said, the convention will host a large demonstration of Christian drill teams, mimes and liturgical dance troupes.

“Some of these groups travel 140 strong,” he said. “It’s a wonderful thing to see the discipline, the precision and structure. It’s a beautiful sight. It’s probably the strength of this conference, that and the classes.”

The performance is open to the public.

Also open to the public: Two worship services are scheduled for Thursday evening – one starting around 7:30 and another starting between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Then, on Friday, the Rev. Al Sharpton is scheduled to address the convention.

ON HAITI
Moss said the time he spent in Haiti was transformational.

“It did something to me,” he said.

As an officer of Lott Carey, Moss was part of a leadership team developing a 90-day plan for relief efforts there. Those efforts, he said, are focused on housing, economic stimulus and nutrition.

“Our job was to listen and learn, to pray with them and evaluate what was being done and then to establish the next 90 days,” he said.

Using money donated by member churches, he said, Lott Carey is feeding a high school one nutritious meal each day. The group also gave a little less than $700 each to more than 200 Haitian households.

He said more than 200 churches are still providing relief in the earthquake-ravaged nation.

Moss said he was encouraged to see that, unlike the big relief organizations, Lott Carey’s work was “among the actual people.”

He said about 1.5 million people remain homeless in Haiti.

“I saw people taking baths in water running down the curb,” he said. “…Can you imagine if an earthquake hit here and all of the buildings in downtown Charlotte were totally demolished – bodies still under some of the debris?

“As much as we complain in this country,” he added, “it just brought it back home to me how blessed we are. I wish I could take every kid in my church, in my neighborhood… put them on a plane and take them to Port-au-Prince and let them walk the streets for a day then put them back on the plane and bring them home. I think they would never be the same. To smell the mass graves. You could smell the coppery smell of decaying bodies.

“The thing that really got to me,” he said, “was the resilience of the people.”

ON THE CHURCH
Moss said one of the biggest problems in the church – and the community as a whole -- is a dearth of quality leaders. Too many preachers, he said, are like “30,000-feet bombers “ – they are flying high but are not connecting with the people on the ground, those they are supposed to serve.

“We have pastors who have no social justice background, or desire or drive,” he said. “And it’s hurting us. It’s almost like we have 10,000 Rev. Ikes – send me $100 and I’ll send this prayer cloth, kinda thing. Perks. Preachers are more concerned with that than they are with the plight of the average person.”

Moss predicts that in another 10 to 15 years, much of the Sunday worship that occurs in church sanctuaries will be happening on the Internet. (He has refused to open a Facebook account.)

Despite the problems and changes, Moss said, he does not despair.

“The church will always survive,” he said. “God’s word is going to always survive. But the church right now is in a metamorphosis, and I don’t think we know it; I don’t think we recognize it."

And as for the Internet's predicted impact on the church?

“That’s just the way of the world – you know, technology,” he said. “It troubles me in that I am a relational person. I want to shake your hand. I want to look you in the eye. But I understand that we are evolving into a different world, so we have to evolve with it to survive.”