ST. CHARLES — Cole County Sheriff Greg White, star on his chest and gun on his hip, avoided the microphone as he addressed about 120 people at Sts. Joachim and Ann Parish here last month .

White prefers to project his voice naturally, the way he does when he's preaching at Southridge Baptist Church in Jefferson City.

"The heart and soul of our community is our faith community," White, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, told the crowd. "We have to give people the physical and spiritual tools to survive in a disaster."

That is White's mission, and he's evangelical about it. So much so that he's now persuaded two governors — one a Republican and the other a Democrat — to follow his advice and organize religious groups in partnership with government to prepare for calamity.

In doing so, White has helped Missouri emerge as a model for states hoping to forge partnerships between church and government for disasters. He has done so despite long-standing concerns about the separation of church and state, especially when it comes to government funding.

Other states that regularly experience natural disasters — California, Texas and Florida, for example — have taken significant steps to help government and faith-based groups join forces. Federal officials say Missouri is also a leader in the effort.

"Missouri has a long history focusing on liaisons with faith-based and community organizations specifically dedicated to disaster," said David Myers, director of the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. It is one of 12 federal offices under the administration of President Barack Obama's Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships initiative.

"Missouri's footprint on this is visionary," Myers added.

In the same week he was in St. Charles, White attended another event in Cape Girardeau. He stood behind Gov. Jay Nixon as the governor signed an executive order establishing the Faith-Based and Community Service Partnership for Disaster Recovery.

Former Gov. Matt Blunt's version, launched last summer, was called the Faith-Based Missouri Disaster Relief Initiative.

The new partnership includes 16 state agencies, two federal agencies and 16 private, religious and charitable organizations.

The group is "tasked with working cooperatively to improve services provided to Missourians in the wake of a natural disaster or terrorist attack," according to a press release.

Nancy Kinney, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said that ever since the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, Republicans were not the only ones to see value in involving faith groups in disaster relief.

"A lot of Democratic candidates for public office are jumping on the bandwagon," Kinney said. "That points to the fact that faith-based groups are doing wonderful, impressive things, and (at the same time), there's disapproval and dismay over how badly the government's done" in disaster relief.

EDUCATING, NETWORKING

The group that gathered in St. Charles last month — made up of clergy, church staff, government workers and military and law enforcement officers — took part in one of five all-day sessions around the state convened by the State Emergency Management Agency.

The goal was to educate and network, a hands-on example of the government's organizing faith-based groups (in this case, all Christians — four of the meetings were held in churches, the other at a Salvation Army headquarters) to become the backbone for disaster response efforts.

During his opening address, White walked into the audience and took the hand of a man from Wentzville United Methodist Church. With his other hand, he reached out to a woman from Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.

"Look at that," White said in mock surprise. "Our hands didn't fall off, or melt. And I'm the government."

"I'm a pastor, an American and a sheriff," he added. "And I'm not the least bit conflicted."

Religious groups respond to disasters in a variety of ways — from wielding chain saws to housing and feeding those who have lost their homes. Gary Spring, who co-chairs Wentzville UMC's disaster response group and was at the meeting in St. Charles, said his church had been helping out during disasters since 2006 but only recently thought to organize as a government partner.

"It's a good idea," Springer said. The state "would never get enough people to volunteer in a major disaster, so anytime you can get more churches together to work with various government agencies, you get a lot more done."

In an interview, White said the idea of government and faith groups joining forces was nonpartisan.

"This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It's just a tool that allows active citizens to be in charge of their lives," he said. "It allays fears and gives people a personal sense of mission."

FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE

Partnerships between church and state received national attention in 2001, when President George W. Bush launched his faith-based initiative. After Obama's election, he retained his predecessor's concept of a faith-based office in the White House and satellite faith-based offices within federal agencies.

Bush's decision to funnel more federal dollars to religious institutions may have been controversial, but it proved prescient after Katrina destroyed much of the Gulf Coast. Religious groups were credited with getting things right in recovery and rebuilding efforts, just as the government was frequently blamed for getting it wrong.

The federal government reimbursed faith-based groups $66 million for their work in Katrina's aftermath. Some Missouri lawmakers have broached the idea of funding for faith-based relief groups before disasters happen, or at least guaranteeing them reimbursement after they act.

In an interview last week, Nixon said the Missouri plan did not call for reimbursing religious groups that helped with disaster relief.

Just as Obama retained Bush's basic faith-based infrastructure, Nixon has retained some of Blunt's concept of faith-based offices at state agencies. In the area of disaster relief, the governor has retained some of the same players from Blunt's era, such as White and Dante Gliniecki, SEMA's statewide volunteer coordinator.

Ed Martin, Blunt's former chief of staff — who announced his candidacy for Rep. Russ Carnahan's seat in Congress last week — spearheaded much of the former governor's faith-based effort. He called Nixon's continuation of it "really exciting," and said White was "the glue that held it together."

For Nixon, a practicing Methodist, the faith-based partnership for disaster relief services is personal. Just after he was inaugurated in January, a massive ice storm struck the Bootheel, leaving 125,000 homes and businesses without power. Four months later, a series of tornadoes devastated parts of southern Missouri. Nixon visited the affected areas and saw people of faith pitching in.

"Churches were leaning forward and leading in their communities, which allowed law enforcement to do their jobs," he said. "It was incredibly obvious that but for leaders of faith communities, there would have been hungry people, homeless people and a higher level of stress."

According to National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, its members — most of them religious organizations — contributed $200 million in direct disaster support nationally in 2008, and racked up 7 million volunteer hours, which translates to another $147 million.

In a July letter to tout the partnership, Nixon reminded Missouri's religious leaders that the state had experienced "nine presidential declared disasters in just the last 14 months."

Those who worry about the commingling of church and state are concerned that people of faith may proselytizing during disaster relief efforts. Missouri officials have cited a "gentleman's agreement" among area faith-based groups that partner with the state to refrain from proselytizing and let their work be their message.

But that's a difficult mandate for Christians whose natural inclination is to share the Gospel. At the meeting in St. Charles, Jackson County Emergency Management director Mike Curry made it clear that the government would not be particularly bothered if their efforts resulted in soft evangelization.

Curry told the church leaders about fluorescent orange door hangers that could be handed out to elderly people before a disaster strikes. People without the means to get to a safe facility in a disaster can put out the door hanger to signal for help from roving church volunteers.

"Send a youth group from your church out into the local community to hand out information about the door hanger," Curry said. "They'll appreciate it, and we're all interested in church growth."

Nixon is also a realist about the side benefits of disaster relief for churches. "On both fronts, I think you're helping your fellow man with your mind, body and spirit, and it's a good way to recruit others to your flock," he said.

"Natural disasters put you straight in the face of the power of the Almighty," the governor continued. "And the small steps we each take in response to those mighty acts bring us together."