King Solomon Baptist Church is on a mission to bring back the traditional family, and it’s taking its message to the public.

That message is based on the concept of the traditional marriage and how it can help all aspects of the community. It’s one the church delivers in person by members in the community and by radio programs, which reach Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.

“Our desire is to publicize the benefits of godly commitment and godly marriage,” said the Rev. R.D. Bernard, King Solomon’s pastor. “We devote a weekend to the wider community and expose the wider community to what God is doing here in the context of marriage and family.”

The church’s efforts toward the family go back to 2003, when Bernard began serving as pastor. A Jackson native, he said, “One of the first things that surprised me was even though this is only 37 miles from the capital city, demographically, we have more in common with the Mississippi Delta and the Louisiana Delta in terms of the level of poverty and the utter brokenness from a family perspective.

“So to really minister the gospel of Jesus Christ, one would have to address the brokenness that is sitting in the pews before us each Sunday.”

To address that situation, he said, “Is to allow the church to be the family. Jesus said, ‘Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ But the gates hell have prevailed against modern-day families, considering that three out of every four African-American children born into this nation are born out of wedlock.”

“Here, we offer a lifestyle where the church is central to an individual’s existence,” he said adding the congregation’s lives are centered around the church.

“We have something going on at the church literally every other day,” he said. “We really try to consciously offer a lifestyle where the church is central; the older men become substitute fathers, and the older women become substitute mothers. Together we walk through this journey of life where the church is central and help heal some of this brokenness.”

Deacon Thomas Sandle said that means church members helping each other, like picking up children with working parents from school and bringing them to the church where their parents can pick them up.

“It’s just a big family life together, and whatever needs to be done from cutting somebody’s grass to picking up somebody’s children to taking someone to VA, or the hospital. We all come together and provide services. We have young men who will help people move.”

Bernard said the church also holds classes to help people with their finances and budgets and make good lifestyle choices.

He said the church operates on a zero-based budget, where its funds are put back into its programs for church members and residents in the community. So far this year, he said, the church has spent $10,000 to $12,000 assisting others.

“But the money comes along with training,” Bernard, a former certified public accountant said. “We will help, but let us sit down with you and show where you got in trouble. We use that financial background to really help. We help people get first homes, first cars, first jobs; a lot of firsts in the life of the people who we have helped.”

One of the church’s well-known programs is the annual weekend devoted to the traditional marriage and family, which began in 2011.

“We started because the focus in the wider community didn’t seem to be on the covenant relationship with marriage. In areas where there’s extreme poverty and brokenness, cohabitation without the benefit of marriage has become the norm, and as people of faith we cannot accept that,” he said.

“Our desire is to publicize the benefits of godly commitment and godly marriage. We devote a weekend to the wider community and expose the wider community to what God is doing here in the context of marriage and family.”

Over the years, the weekend programs have included parades celebrating and extoling family, plays and dramatic presentations, workshops, picnics and gospel concerts promoting and encouraging the Biblical family, Bernard said.

He said the plays and dramatic programs are successful because they get people interested.

“The play is viewed as entertainment to most of them. They will come out to be entertained. The level of apathy and indifference in some quarters of this community is disheartening, so you have to do creative things.”

That includes banquets and other events like workshops and picnics aimed at different areas of the community.

“With the workshops and picnic and gospel concerts, you reach other sections of the community who may not really want to walk into your church, but they’ll come out to your 40 acres and ride a horse or ride a four-wheeler, or enjoy a slice of water melon with you or eat a plate of fish, but they will never dress up and come to church.”

The church also has walks through different areas of the community going door-to-door discussing marriage and family with residents and inviting them to church.

“We have radio broadcasts three days a week,” Bernard said. “We had an extensive electronic media presence. We are out at public events such as football games, where we’re evangelizing.

“When we come into contact with people, normally they don’t say, ‘this is my wife or this is my husband.’ They’ll say, ‘This is my old lady, or this is my old man,’ and so the notion of marriage seems to be foreign for most in the wider community, and we wanted to introduce them to the benefits and sanctity of marriage.”

Recently, he said 50 church members tailgated at the Jackson State/Grambling State University football game in Jackson, visiting other groups who were tailgating in preparation for the game.

“We cooked out, but we talked to each an every camper that was there, and we put some information in their hands — several thousand copies of sermons and different information we had printed. The information also included a CD on marriage.”

He said the response to the visit was very good.

“They were happy to see us. They’re happy that somebody cared enough to even be out there. Most are familiar with us because they hear us on the radio. They know who we are. We had some come to our tailgate location and say, ‘We hear you on the radio.’ We are received favorably.

“We’re going to another football game at the end of October and do it again, because we do understand that some people will never step into the church.”

Locally, the church periodically goes to Country Market on Clay Street to cook and hand out hamburgers and hot dogs.

Bernard said the church’s efforts are mixed.

“We understand not everybody’s going to agree with your point of view,” he said. “But you get some, and that’s what we’re looking for — to win the ones who want to be won. That’s what we’re looking for.”

He said the church also likes to involve political leaders, but understands officials have to be careful about their comments on certain issues.

“We can make all the waves we want to make, and we need to,” he said. “When you lay down at night, we want you to feel safe in your community. We want our kids to get a good education and not have discipline issues at school. We just want everybody to have the same chance.”