The Journey: Forty Days of PromiseCelebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity
Day Twenty-Two: Everybody Could Be a Somebody
Day Twenty-Two: Everybody Could Be a Somebody[1]
In the Invisible Institution everybody could be a somebody because they could participate as the Spirit moved them. Four main areas of mutual ministry included mentoring, testifying, exhorting, and preaching/pastoring.
Sharing the Word: Mentoring
In the Invisible Institution, there were numerous levels of ministry through which believers could share the Word with one another. At a mutual lay level, they shared one-to-one spiritual friendships and one-to-one mentoring before, during, and after gatherings.
Older males, often called “watchmen,” and older females, often called “mothers,” “spiritual mothers,” or dispensers of “mother wit,” were important spiritual guides in the Invisible Institution.
Jane Lee, or “Aunt Jane” served as Charlotte Brooks’ spiritual director. Aunt Jane first served the crucial role of witnessing concerning salvation. Brooks had no one to tell her anything about repentance until Aunt Jane talked to her.
“It was dark when I left Aunt Jane; but before I left her house she prayed and sang, and it made me feel glad to hear her pray and sing. It made me think of my old Virginia home and my mother. She sang, ‘Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land. . . .’ I finally got religion, and it was Aunt Jane’s praying and singing them old Virginia hymns that helped me so much.”
Sharing the Word: Testifying
Every believer had the opportunity, as led by the Spirit, to testify. In testifying, men and women told the stories of their encounters with God. In narrative fashion, they articulated common spiritual realities, provided proverbial wisdom for life’s journey, shared advice concerning the normal problems of life, offered consolation, and, when necessary, confronted the community.
Aunt Jane testified to and discipled Charlotte Brooks. “She would hold prayer-meeting in my house whenever she would come to see me. . . . She said people must give their hearts to God, to love him and keep his commandments; and we believed what she said.”
Sharing the Word: Exhorting
“Exhorting was the next “level” of speaking ministry. Exhorters ranged from unofficial prayer leaders on the plantation to lay people licensed to deliver short sermons, often traveling from one plantation to another.
James Smith shares about his exhorting ministry.
“Soon after I was converted I commenced holding meetings among the people, and it was not long before my fame began to spread as an exhorter. I was very zealous, so much so that I used to hold meetings all night, especially if there were any concerned about their immortal souls.”
Sharing the Word: Preaching/Pastoring
Of course, none of this suggests that it is Christ’s plan for His Church to be without called-out leaders—pastors, shepherds, soul physicians. The Invisible Institution maintained a remarkable equilibrium between lay and pastoral ministry.
W. E. B. Du Bois submits a compelling portrait of the African American plantation pastor.
“He early appeared on the plantation and found his function as the healer of the sick, the interpreter of the Unknown, the comforter of the sorrowing, the supernatural avenger of wrong, and the one who rudely but picturesquely expressed the longing, disappointment, and resentment of a stolen and oppressed people. Thus, as bard, physician, judge, and priest, within the narrow limits allowed by the slave system, rose the Negro preacher, and under him the first Afro-American institution, the Negro church.”
In sharing the Word, the Invisible Institution modeled for us a host of ways to engage every believer. No one came or left feeling like they were simply a spectator. Everyone came with anticipation, participated with meaning, and left encouraged that God had used them to encourage others.
Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses
1. Regarding sharing the Word, to what mentoring, testifying, exhorting, or preaching might God be calling you?
2. What steps could you take to more boldly and effectively share God’s Word?
[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.
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