MOUNT VERNON - Darin Moore was no more than 6 when his grandfather, William Pratt, started inviting him to sit with the church elders at Greater Centennial AME Zion Church. When Pratt died a few years later, the senior members kept young Darin with them. Maybe they knew something.
Lots of people refer to their house of worship as a second home. But for Moore, the old brick church on West 4th Street in Mount Vernon might as well be his primary address. After growing up in and around Greater Centennial, Moore returned 15 years ago as its pastor. "I was petrified," he remembered. The AME Zion Church, one of the nation's most important historically black denominations, generally does not assign ministers to their home church. Respect can be hard to earn from people who wiped your runny nose. But maybe the bishops knew something. Under Moore's leadership, membership at Greater Centennial has grown from 800 people to more than 5,000 - making it the largest of the more than 2,000 AME Zion churches in the country. The congregation recently held a week of special events celebrating their hometown pastor's anniversary. "I wake up every morning as positive and excited about pastoring Greater Centennial as the day I got here," Moore said. AME Zion pastors only receive one-year appointments, and most can expect to be transferred by their bishop every few years. But Moore's stay at Greater Centennial appears to be secure - until the denomination needs his services, said Bishop George E. Battle Jr., presiding bishop of the denomination's North Eastern Episcopal District, which includes New York state, New England and the Bahamas. "When he leaves Mount Vernon, I believe he will be a bishop," Battle said. "He has the business acumen, the political savvy, the spiritual savvy. He is a scholar par excellent, a churchman of the first magnitude, and a lover of people. He is a very unusual young man to have all the gifts God has given him and remain so humble. When he tells you something, you can depend on it. That's not always true of our brethren." Moore, 48, has slowly increased his profile outside church. He stepped down last year after nine years on the city's Board of Education. He recently became president of United Black Clergy, a group of more than 40 ministers from Mount Vernon and other communities. He served on a Westchester County panel that studied police-training regimens after the January shooting death of off-duty Mount Vernon Police Officer Christopher Ridley. And he just co-authored a book of spiritual and medical advice, "Body & Soul," with Dr. Merville Marshall, a White Plains physician. Greater Centennial is also certain to get notice when construction begins later this year on a 42,000-square-foot Family Life Center behind the church, which is to include a business incubation program, a health club, a youth church, a 24-hour prayer room and a large gym-worship space. "Church shouldn't be seen as a Sunday morning experience but as a lifestyle," Moore said. He grew up on 12th Avenue with his mother and three younger brothers until, when he was 14, they got first crack at a new apartment in Greater Centennial Homes, an affordable-housing complex developed by Moore's "father in ministry," the Rev. Belvie Jackson Jr., the former pastor. The boys were always at choir rehearsal or Bible study and understood that "you wouldn't dare run in church," as Moore said. His mother, Connie Moore, went to college while on public assistance and became a registered nurse. She emphasized church and school, and took her sons on bus rides up Route 22 to see how people lived beyond the south side of Mount Vernon. Her lessons took. "Darin was rather unique, an independent thinker," said Rodney Olden, Moore's Sunday school teacher back then and a member of the church's board of trustees for the past four decades. "He saw beyond the written words on the page. He had a different, deeper view. This hasn't changed. I pride myself in thinking that I know the Word, but he brings something new to this day. He searches for ways to reach people, and I just love it." Today, two of Moore's brothers are pastors, one of an AME Zion church in Mitchellville, Md., and the other of a nondenominational church in Charleston, S.C. The youngest brother manages gospel music groups in Charlotte, N.C. Their mother now lives in Greensboro, N.C., but spends much of her time shuttling among grandchildren. Moore served in Monroe, N.C., Greensboro and Indianapolis before being assigned to his home church. "I know initially, there was a sense of 'Oh, that's just Darin,' " he said. "Over time, a sense of pride developed that they helped nurture and shape my career." Seeing that Mount Vernon was suffering through a range of urban ills in 1993 - poverty, violence and broken families among them - Moore first set out to connect with and serve the larger community. He established a comprehensive after-school program and began planning for the James Varick Affordable Homes, which opened last year. Sunday attendance doubled to about 600 people during Moore's first year. Greater Centennial has three Sunday services now, a children's church, a Friday night hip-hop youth service and many programs that link faith with daily life. "Church growth happens when members are excited about what's happening and tell people about it," he said. "It's not all these gimmicks that are packaged and sold to people. Each member must feel they are growing spiritually and that it has an impact on their daily lives, so they're better husbands and wives, better fathers and mothers." Moore said he is proud to be a Methodist because of the tradition's focus on social action. And he laments that the "prosperity gospel," the idea that faith will bring prosperity, has been making inroads in black churches. The black church has to serve the same social role it always has, said Moore, who has been married to Devieta Moore for 24 years. They have three children, ages 22, 20 and 15. "At its core," he said, "the black church still must be a voice for the voiceless, to speak truth to power in a prophetic way, to not be an echo of the culture but to call the culture to stand for decency and morality."
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