About a dozen members of the Pleasant Grove Baptist choir arrived in small groups and took the stage for their regular Wednesday night rehearsal at the West Oakland church.

Ron Rosson, the associate pastor and music minister, played a few notes on an electronic keyboard while the drummer and pianist took their places.

Soon enough, the choir lifted its collective voice into song — and it was sweet music. Outside, the sound-measuring app on my phone clocked it at 70 to 75 decibels, or roughly as much noise as that produced by the cars driving by on Adeline Street.

It’s hard to see the passionately religious singers as a disruptive force, but that was the message they got from an anonymous, disgruntled neighbor and city bureaucrats.

The neighbor’s excessive-noise complaint generated a city letter threatening the 65-year-old church with steep fines. It did not go unnoticed. In fact, it motivated Pastor Thomas Harris to deliver a passionate hellfire-and-brimstone response from the pulpit.

“Pleasant Grove is in the news this week,” he told about 50 congregants and guests at a recent Sunday service. “If makin’ a joyful noise is a problem, then we’re going to keep right on makin’ noise!

“When a football team scores a TD, you can hear the people scream. Well, when the Lord makes a TD, we’re just cheerin’ for that, amen?”

“Amen!” the crowd responded.

The problem started in August, when Oakland’s nuisance abatement division got a letter from someone complaining about nuisance noise coming from weekly choir rehearsals — organ, drums and amplified vocals. The complainant said that sometimes the racket went on until 2 a.m.

This month, the city fired off a letter to the church threatening it with a $3,529 initial fine and penalties of $500 a day unless it put a cork in it. The city now says that it was all a misunderstanding and that there will be no fines, but it got the church’s attention.

Claims disputed

While no one in the small congregation resorted to name-calling, it’s fair to say Pastor Harris and his flock don’t consider the complaint to be God’s work. To a person, they reject the claim that any of the church’s three choirs has ever practiced until 2 a.m. Rehearsal ends by 9 p.m., they say, just as it did Wednesday night.

Although it’s unknown who made the complaint — the person was self-described only as an 11-year West Oakland resident — people at Pleasant Grove Baptist say there’s been a growing clash between tradition and modernity in the neighborhood where the city’s African American community began.

Back to Gallery Joyful noise Oakland church won’t be fined, and it... 7 1 of 7 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 2 of 7 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 3 of 7 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 4 of 7 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 5 of 7 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 6 of 7 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 7 of 7 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle













Pleasant Grove is one of four primarily African American churches along Adeline between 10th and 14th streets. Harris said two other churches across the street had also received noise complaints from neighbors in the last six months. An official at one of them, nearby Beth-Eden Baptist Church, confirmed receiving complaints from two neighborhood residents.

Neighborhoods’ foundation

It’s not like Adeline Street has gone hipster, but West Oakland is changing. Some of the recent arrivals — maybe even the ones who moved in 11 years ago — may not grasp the extent to which churches have been the glue that has long held the black neighborhoods of West and East Oakland together.

They provide food, clothing and shelter to downtrodden citizens — and complaining about gospel music is considered heresy in these parts.

“I’m born and raised in West Oakland,” said Joe Scott, 50, a health care worker who lives next door to Pleasant Grove Baptist. “Why do people want to change us? What would we have in this community without our churches? They help the community.”

Even though officials now say it was never the intention to levy fines — a city statement described the original letter to Pleasant Grove as “poorly worded” — other churches are mobilizing. On Nov. 7, pastors from four West Oakland churches plan to rally with congregants and community members outside Pleasant Grove to promote housing, jobs, voter registration and sound health.

Community rallies

But that’s not all it’s about. It’s a show of force from a community that feels the need to flex its muscles, make its presence known and reclaim ownership of a neighborhood that many longtime residents feel is slipping from their control.

For those who may not understand neighborhood traditions, like the sound of gospel music wafting through the air on Sunday mornings — and on some weeknights, too — why not embrace it?

That’s exactly what Pleasant Grove neighbors Dave and Elaine Kim did. After word got out about the noise complaint, they did something they’d never done — they showed up at Sunday services. It sent a message of goodwill that everyone understood and appreciated. It was neighborly.

“We believe in a strong sense of community, and goodwill and camaraderie help create that,” Dave Kim said after the service. “We just came to show our support for the church.”

Other neighbors have rallied behind the church as well.

“I love it when they’re singing, and I love hearing them,” said Sophie Maher, who has lived two blocks from Pleasant Grove Baptist for a dozen years. “I’d be sad if I didn’t hear them singing.

“There are a lot of ills in the world, but this is not one of them.”

Amen to that.

Chip Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His column runs on Tuesday and Friday. E-mail: chjohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @chjohnson

See the video of the Pleasant Grove Baptist choir

https://vimeo.com/144064014