By Alison McFerrin

The Selma Times-Journal

The New Beginnings Christian Center building has gotten a new beginning of its own — but it’s not the only place the church’s preacher has made an impact.

“It’s a milestone when you have been pastoring for 35 years,” Bishop Joseph Rembert Sr., said.

Rembert has seen numerous places and individuals throughout his tenure as a minister, but through it all, he has always seen potential.

“I was always an activist,” Rembert said. “Anything that I believed in, I’d fight for it.”

Of what is now New Beginnings Christian Center, Rembert was told, “‘That’s just a bunch of sticks over there. You’ll never be able to turn it into a church.’”

But turn it into a church is just what he and his membership have done. His congregation of about 35 has put the work in, Rembert said, to make the building what it is today.

Rembert first took interest in the building when he stopped to speak to its former pastor, who was standing in front of the shambles of the ruined structure.

“He was telling me somebody had stripped all of the air conditioners out of here, and he gave me the history of this church and everything,” Rembert said. “All you saw was just wood frame around here.”

The church was damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2005, and its former occupants, Praise Park Ministries Church of the Nazarene, decided to move to a new building. Rembert said he is appreciative of Praise Park bearing with him as he began to set up the new church here.

“This is something that I believe God wants me to do,” Rembert said.

Of course, working in the church is nothing new for Rembert.

He was ordained in Brown Chapel A.M.E. in 1976 and worked at St. Paul’s A.M.E. in Scottsboro before returning to preach at Brown Chapel in 1980.

“We just had some wonderful experiences in the church,” Rembert said.

After he left Brown Chapel in 1993, he had tenures at Jones Chapel A.M.E. in Fairfield from 1993 to 1996 and St. Paul’s A.M.E. in Montgomery from 1996 to 2007.

That was when he realized he needed to break from the Methodist church, after 31 years.

“Everything I got while I was in the church, I fought for,” Rembert said. Since he was raised Baptist, he was often referred to as ‘that guy from the Baptists’ by others in the Methodist hierarchy.

When he realized ministers he had ordained were being limited in their work because of their association with him, he realized it was time for something new.

“So we incorporated and started New Beginnings,” Rembert said.

The first New Beginnings church was in Montgomery, and ministers Rembert ordained have also started other churches in Montgomery and Tuskegee.

“We show them how to do their bylaws and stuff like that, but they have to do their organization congregationally,” Rembert said. The ministers do not answer to Rembert or the New Beginnings church in Selma, although Rembert did say the Selma New Beginnings Christian Center serves as something of a flagship.

The church on Summerfield Road in Selma saw its first service in November of 2008 — although back then, they were meeting in the only part of the building that was left intact, which they now use as a fellowship hall.

“All of this work that is being done in this church is being done by electricians, carpenters — people who just can’t find work,” Rembert said, who said he thinks 70 percent of the congregation is unemployed.

Rembert will not return to Selma Middle CHAT Academy, where he has taught for the past two years, so that he can focus on founding the Selma New Beginnings Christian Center. He wants this ministry to “ignite passion to look at our situation and improve it.”

“I just believe Selma is much better than we project Selma to be,” said Rembert, whose motto is ‘When I do all that I can do, God will do all that I cannot do.’

“I’m going to do all I can to help the least, the last and the lost.”

Once the church is well-grounded, he said he wants to help his son plant a church, and then work to publicize his book — which he is nearly finished writing— about his experiences over the past 35 years.

“I’m going to get my book printed and published, and then I’ll go around and peddle my book,” Rembert said. “Maybe they’ll let me come in, if I can still preach, and preach now and then.”

To honor Rembert’s 35 years of service, the church will be celebrating Sunday, beginning at 4 p.m., with sermons, praise dances and choir performances by the New Beginnings church and others. Rembert may even do a religious rap.

“They used to call me the Rappin’ Rev. Rembert,” he said. “I could draw a crowd when I did that.”

For Rembert, the 35 years of service have garnered wonderful results.

“When I look back over my ministry, I’ve taken into the church over 1200 people who had not been in the church … for a country preacher like me, that’s pretty good.”