Is Black History Month Still Necessary?

Is Black History Month Still Necessary?

As I speak around the country on Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, I’m frequently asked, “What do you think about Black History Month?” The question comes from my African American friends, many of whom are divided on the issue. Some think Black History Month is a net positive for African Americans, while others believe it is a net negative. The question also comes from my non-African American friends, who are equally split, and for various reasons. Having outlined The History of Black History Month now it’s time to discuss Is Black History Month Still Necessary?

Is Morgan Freeman Right?

Morgan Freeman, a long-time critic of the holiday, strongly believes that Black History Month is not just unnecessary but “ridiculous.” According to Freeman in a December 2005, 60 Minutes interview, Black history should not be relegated to a month. In fact, argues Freeman, Black history, after all, is American history.

Jessica McElrath asks it this way, “Has African American history now converged with American history, and, therefore, should the celebration be eliminated?”

Some believe that this is the case. According to Rochelle Riley, yes, the time has come to end Black History Month. Riley asserts that Black history is American history. So, suggests Riley, it’s time to stop celebrating, learning, and being American separately. It’s time to be an America where learning about Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians is part of school curriculums.

Jesse Washington, AP National Writer, asks the question with his title, “Time to End Black History Month?” He opens with the follow-up question, “Should Black History Month itself fade into history?”

Many people, both Whites and Blacks, argue that Black history should be incorporated into year-round education. Washington quotes Stephen Donovan, a 41-year-old lawyer, saying, “If Obama’s election means anything, it means that African American history IS American history and should be remembered and recognized every day of the year.”

Donovan believes that ending “paternalistic” observations like Black History Month would lead to not “only a reduction in racism, but Whites more ready, willing, and able to celebrate our differences and enjoy our traditions without feeling the strain of guilt that stifles frank dialogue and acceptance across cultures?”

What Does Our President Think?

Other portions of Washington’s article support another side of the story: the continued need for Black History Month. President Obama, like all his predecessors since the 1970s, believes Black History Month should continue. He lauded “National African American History Month” calling upon “public officials, educators, librarians, and all people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs that raise awareness and appreciation of African American history.”

Daryl Scott, Chairman of the history department at Howard University believes Black History Month is still needed to solidify and build upon America’s racial gains. “To know about the people who make up society is to make a better society. A multiracial, multiethnic society has to work at its relationships, just like you have to work at your marriage.”

“I don’t see it going away,” said Spencer Crew, a history professor at George Mason University, adding that a diverse year-round history curriculum can still be augmented in depth during Black History Month. “There’s a Women’s History Month,” Crew said. “No one would argue that we don’t need to be reminded of women who have done things that are important.”

Jessica McElrath surmises that most historians and African Americans believe that Black History Month remains necessary. According to McElrath, Black History Month is the only time of the year when Black history is recognized in many schools. She argues that schools often focus on White history year round, and, therefore, Black History Month is a necessary celebration.

Are We Fair and Balanced Yet?

Much of the discussion about whether Black History Month is still necessary relates to whether “main stream” history is accurately covering Black history year-round. My specialty is Black Church history, so I’ll speak to that. Evangelical Black Church history is not being fairly covered year round…not even close.

As Karole Edwards and I researched the history of African American soul care and spiritual direction, we found hundreds of primary sources for Black Church history from 1500-1900 (our time-frame). However, when we looked in secondary sources written today about American Church history, we found an embarrassing dearth of focus on women and minorities. Even in 2011, most general texts on American Church history continue to focus on dead White guys.

I’m not against the dead White guys. One day I will be one of them! I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on one of them: Martin Luther.

I’m simply of the conviction that fair and balanced history is still not being written. Just today I received the following testimonial to this fact.

“I hold an MA in biblical counseling from an Evangelical seminary. I also did coursework in ethics related to race relations. I ordered your book Beyond the Suffering and was deeply touched by it. It is a book that I longed for while in seminary as the majority of my textbooks were from an Anglo-American perspective.”

Others agree. As I present around the country on Heroes of the Black Church, participants are angry. In their Evangelical Bible colleges, Christian liberal arts colleges, and seminaries, they’re taking Church history courses and hearing nothing about Black Church history, especially Evangelical Black Church history. I’m being told that even Historically Black Colleges and Universities are not teaching about Evangelical Black Church history.

I always find it interesting when someone says, “Let’s just read about good people of all races and not focus on just one race!” I like to follow-up with the question, “So tell me the most recent book you’ve read, especially the most recent American Church history book that talked about anyone other than dead White guys…”

Or, I’ll ask, “So tell me some great heroes of the faith who are from a culture different from yours…”

Unfortunately, 99% of people can’t provide an answer. In theory, we say we want to read about all people of all cultures. In reality, most general studies books on American Church history are only about the dead White guys. And most of us read only about people who are like us.

What Does God’s Word Say?

We’ll celebrate unity in diversity in heaven for all eternity according to Revelation 7:9-10. God’s end game is not one homogenous group, but unity in diversity. Such unity in diversity reflects God. Our Trinitarian God is Three-in-One: unity in diversity.

Even if racism, prejudice, and imbalanced awareness were wiped from the face of the earth, the Bible still commands us to value diversity throughout eternity. The end of racism would not be the end of diversity. It would be the beginning of unity in diversity. There’s a world of difference.
While people may debate whether “race” is culturally-constructed, the Bible is clear that culture is God-constructed and approved. God does not want us to be “culture-blind.” He wants us to recognize, appreciate, and celebrate our differences in biblical unity.

What Should We Do Now?

Ideally, life could and should be both/and. We could have books that highlight the unique accomplishments of various cultural groups—celebrating their legacy. And, we could have books that integrate in a fair and balanced way the contributions of all cultural groups.

The same could be true of “history months.” We could have months celebrating specific cultural groups. And, we could and should, year-round, celebrate the contributions of all cultural groups.

Given the clearly documented lack of past and current historical balance (dead White guys getting all the press and other cultures and women given little honor), it is still necessary to highlight “minority cultures” and women in special months, books, etc. We can do this while also working toward integrating men and women, and people of all cultures, into year-round study and into overview books.

Join the Conversation

What do you think? Is Black History Month still necessary?

African American Women of Faith

A Voice for the Voiceless: African American Women of Faith
Part 2: Octavia Rogers Albert: Throbbing with Sympathy

Note: Taken from Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith. For more information on this book, please visit: http://bit.ly/YmaM1

Note: For part one of this blog mini-series, please visit: http://bit.ly/T7Zas

An Ear to Hear; a Mouthpiece to Speak

According to historian John Blassingame, Octavia Albert was one of the few well-trained and one of the most interesting interviewers in the country during the Reconstruction era. She combined academic excellence with sympathetic brilliance. That combination, important to researchers today, was vitally meaningful to the ex-slaves who shared their stories with her.

As the educated “First Lady” (pastor’s wife) of an African American church, she represented to them a figure of compassion, accomplishment, and status. So it is no surprise that when she moved to Louisiana her home became a gathering place for former slaves.

“There she offered them food, read them scriptures, taught them to read and write, and encouraged them to talk about themselves and their slave experiences.”

None But Jesus!

Her decision to offer them a listening ear and to be their mouthpiece surprised even her interviewees. Among those Octavia ministered to, Charlotte Brooks was preeminent. Octavia tells Charlotte that she has greatly enjoyed their conversations, has listened to every word of her “past unhappy life” in the cane fields of Louisiana, and that “I desire to write it in your own words.”

Charlotte bluntly expresses her shock that any human would identify with her.

“La, me, child! I never thought any body would care enough for me to tell of my trials and sorrows in this world! None but Jesus knows what I have passed through.”

And not just anyone—but the “First Lady” valued “Aunt Charlotte” by dispensing the sustaining grace of listening to her story of suffering. As “Jesus with skin on her,” Octavia’s ministry was life changing.

Listening to Her Sad Story

Octavia records her own perceptions of her soul care of Charlotte.

“It was in the fall of 1879 that I met Charlotte Brooks. She was brought from the State of Virginia and sold in the State of Louisiana many years before the war. I have spent hours with her listening to her telling of her sad life of bondage in the cane-fields of Louisiana.”

If one picture is worth 1,000 words, then this one example is worth 1,000 pages of training in sustaining. Spend hours listening to people tell their sad story of suffering. Our quick-fix, solution-focused, speak-first culture desperately needs to develop the relational competency of sustained listening.

The Rest of the Story

For the rest of the story, please return to this blog for part three . . .

Note: Readers can enjoy the empowering narratives of over two-dozen African American women (and scores of African American men) narrated in Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering. For more information, please visit: http://bit.ly/XvsTu

A Voice for the Voiceless

A Voice for the Voiceless: African American Women of Faith
Part 1: Octavia Rogers Albert:

Who Will Tell Our Story?

Note: Taken from Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith. For more information on this book, please visit: http://bit.ly/YmaM1

Octavia Rogers Albert: Who Will Tell Our Story?

She lived a mere thirty-seven years, yet in The House of Bondage Octavia Rogers Albert (1853-1890) chronicles two-hundred-fifty years of African American history. Like no one before her or since, male or female, she provides a voice for voiceless ex-enslaved African Americans.

Her writing offers the immediacy of first-person accounts mediated by her sensitive interviews and empathetic conversations. She recognizes the insufficiency of secondary sources.

“None but those who resided in the South during the time of slavery can realize the terrible punishments that were visited upon the slaves. . . . The half was never told concerning this race that was in bondage nearly two hundred and fifty years.”

Her Lifelong Mission

Octavia’s lifelong mission was to unpack the personal narratives of those whose “home” was the “house of bondage.” When Colonel Douglass Wilson derides himself for telling his experiences of enslavement and of military service in the Civil War, Octavia insists that he testify.

“I believe we should not only treasure these things, but should transmit them to our children’s children. That’s what the Lord commanded Israel to do in reference to their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and I verily believe that the same is his will concerning us and our bondage and deliverance in this country.”

Her resolve is steely. She writes to give God glory by giving African Americans a voice to answer the question, “Who shall return to tell Egypt the story?”

The hymn (Sound the Loud Timbrel O’er Egypt’s Dark Sea) that concludes her narrative of former slaves “summarizes her theme that abolition was the triumph of God’s will over evil and that those who have been delivered must return to tell the story.”

Firsthand Experience

Octavia does not write as an aloof observer. Born on December 24, 1853, in Oglethorpe, Georgia, of slave parentage, she faced firsthand the horrors and humiliation of enslavement. While still living in Oglethorpe she joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was led by the legendary Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, whose ministry grounded her in her lifelong Christian faith.

After Emancipation, she studied at Atlanta University. Her first teaching job was in Montezuma, Georgia, where, on October 21, 1874, at age twenty-one, she married another teacher at the school, the Rev. A. E. P. Albert, D.D., who later became an ordained minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Soon after their marriage, the Alberts moved to Houma, Louisiana, where Octavia began conducting her interviews with men and women once enslaved. She apparently suffered an untimely death, the circumstances of which are unknown. The preface to her book, authored by her husband and their only child, Laura, implies that she died in 1890.

The Rest of the Story

For the rest of the story, please return to this blog for part two . . .

Note: Readers can enjoy the empowering narratives of over two-dozen African American women (and scores of African American men) narrated in Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering. For more information, please visit: http://bit.ly/XvsTu

Why White Biblical Counselors Need the Black Church

Why Some Biblical Counseling Is Only Half Biblical!
Part Six:

Why White Biblical Counselors Need the Black Church

*Note: If you’re disappointed that I’m saying that some biblical counseling is only half biblical, then please read my comments at the end of my first post in this series: http://tinyurl.com/n8k799.

My Premise

Some modern biblical counseling considers the seriousness of sin—sinning, but spends much less time equipping people to minister to the gravity of grinding affliction—suffering. When we provide counseling for sin, but fail to provide counseling and counselor training for suffering, then such biblical counseling is only half biblical.

Why and How We Lost Our Way

So, why do I think biblical counseling lost its way? What historical, cultural, and personal realities help to explain why some modern biblical counseling is only half biblical?

E. Brooks Holifield, in his excellent study, A History of Pastoral Care in America (http://tinyurl.com/mo6ww8), demonstrates how pastoral ministry moved from a focus on salvation to a focus on self-realization. It moved from Christ to self, from Scripture to humanism.

In my own study of pastoral counseling in America, I’ve found that biblical counseling from the end of the Civil War (1865) to the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) moved from a focus on suffering and sin to a focus on self.

Interesting, isn’t it, that for these 100 years, framed by the Civil War and Civil Rights, we lost our way with Christian counseling and pastoral ministry.

In coming posts, I’ll share about the impact of liberalism and fundamentalism on pastoral ministry during this era. I’ll also describe how the modern biblical counseling movement pulled the pendulum back to a focus on sin, but not always to an equal focus on suffering.

Why White Biblical Counseling Needs the Black Church

Here’s my conviction about why pastoral ministry moved from suffering and sin to self, and why modern biblical counseling pulled the focus back to sin but not as much to suffering: church segregation.

From the end of the Civil War to the Civil Rights Act, and continuing to today, Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour in America. We lose so much by this church segregation.

White Evangelical biblical counselors lose the amazing, beautiful, biblical blending of suffering and sin that so characterizes the Black Evangelical Church from its inception in enslavement right up to our day.

In my book, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, readers enjoy 100s of lively narratives that consistently depict how the Evangelical Black Church never compartmentalized suffering and sin. Instead, the Black Church consistently integrated, mingled, blended, and kept united soul care for suffering and spiritual direction for sinning.

Samples and the Full Meal

If you want to read a free sample chapter on the Black Church’s personal ministry of the Word, go here: http://tinyurl.com/nykc3h.

If you want your own copy of the entire book in order to be equipped and empowered by African American biblical counselors, go here: http://tinyurl.com/cm96x6.

Conclusion

Because we White Evangelical biblical counselors pulled the pendulum back from a focus on self and because we did so in segregation from our Black brothers and sisters, we compartmentalized sin and suffering and ignored the development of biblical counseling approaches that help us to move beyond the suffering.

Where Do We Go From Here?

In my next post, I’ll share what White Evangelical male biblical counselors lost when we minimized the contribution of female soul care-givers and spiritual directors.

Not Just a Bunch of Dead White Guys

Not Just a Bunch of Dead White Guys

Book Review Of: The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors (Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Crossway Books, March 2, 2007)

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction: http://tinyurl.com/cm96x6

Pastor and author Thabiti M. Anyabwile understands that church history is not just about dead white males. In The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors, he gives us samplers, appetizers of the legacy of three powerful African American preachers and pastors. As John Piper notes in his Foreword, Anyabwile strikes a blow against chronological snobbery and ethnocentricity.

Anyabwile chronicles the life, ministry, and preaching of Lemuel Haynes, Bishop Daniel A. Payne, and Francis J. Grimke. After a succinct but full-orbed historical introduction, Anyabwile provides several primary source sermons for each African American preacher, preceding each by contextualizing the setting. The result is a captivating, eye-opening look at the historic legacy of African American preaching.

In the hands and from the words of these giants of the faith, we come to understand the great heritage of Evangelical Black Preaching. While historically only Lemeul Haynes was known as "the Black Puritan," all three preachers exhibit the honorable traits of Puritan/Reformed pastors and preachers.

For an introduction to the African American legacy of the pulpit ministry of the Word, The Faithful Preacher is a beautiful read. For an introduction to the African American legacy of the personal ministry of the Word (soul care and spiritual direction), readers may find Beyond the Suffering a compelling companion volume.

Beyond the Suffering: Celebrate the Legacy!

Guest Blog: Review of Beyond the Suffering by
Pastor Mark Tanious

Highly Recommended: An Extraordinary Account!

Few books have touched my heart as powerfully as Beyond the Suffering. This is no ordinary story. It is the extraordinary account of the history and legacy African Americans.

Using a biblical and historical modeling of soul care and spiritual direction, this book introduces many "heroes" of the faith. One thing is for sure, there is no sugar coating in this book! The personal accounts of slaves contained in this book will both challenge you with deep sorrow and encourage you with supernatural hope.

Great Hope for All People of All Races

But, I believe that is exactly the goal of Kellemen and Edwards. They understand that the history of African Americans is filled with terrible injustice and inequality. Yet, they demonstrate with great clarity that the history of African Americans is filled with much greater hope, healing, and forgiveness. As a person ministering in a multicultural setting, I have been able to use the stories in this book to help people understand that the principles they contain go beyond any single culture or race. These stories are filled with biblical insights I am sure will produce great fruit for the entire body of Christ.

Use It In Church Small Groups and Youth Groups

Kellemen and Edwards do a phenomenal job in articulating the value of the African American legacy for every one of us. This book should be used in Sunday School classes and small groups all around the country. I have already shared some of the book with my youth group, which has created healthy discussion and reflection. Finally, this book is written well. The authors navigate the issues with sensitivity, compassion, and humility. They realize that in many ways the personal accounts really speak for themselves.

And after navigating through such turbulent waters (the "suffering"), Kellemen and Edwards find a way to leave the reader with a profound sense of hope (the "beyond" the suffering). And that combination makes this a powerful and transformative resource.

Purchase Your Copy 40% Off for Just $9.99: http://tinyurl.com/cm96x6

The Journey: Day 41--Our Day of Reflection

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Our Day of Reflection

Thank you for joining me over the past forty-day journey. As promised at the outset, on our 41st day we pause to reflect.

My Reflections

In the introduction to Beyond the Suffering, Karole and I noted that the book is a gift to African Americans and a gift from African Americans. As a gift to, it honors the tremendous contributions made by African American believers—contributions frequently neglected by most historians. As a gift from, it equips and empowers all people of all races as we learn life lessons from heroes of Black Church history.

It is my prayer that the past forty days have serve a similar purpose. That my longest-ever blog series has been a gift to and a gift from African Americans.

It never ceases to amaze me that so few people are aware of these great believers and their great life stories. I hope their treasure will now remain unburied.

Your Reflections

Reflecting on everything you’ve read during these forty days, what topics and themes stand out to you? Why? What will you do with these concepts?

How can we keep the gift going and growing?

How can we expand intercultural ministry and relationships?

Biblical Reflections from the Past and Into the Future

Finally, let’s leave with two biblical reflections.

*Reflection # 1: Hebrews 11:1-12:3

The great past cloud of witnesses, though dead, their lives yet speak. I’m thankful that our legacy outlives us. I’m thankful for the African American legacy. Their legacy encourages and empowers me to live beyond the suffering and to leave a loving legacy for future generations.

*Reflection # 2: Revelation 7:9

When the Apostle John peers into the future, he does not see a homogenized eternity. Instead, he sees a multi-cultural future throng gathered together for ever and ever in joint worship of the King of Kings. I’m thankful that diversity will outlive the old heaven and the old earth. I’m thankful that in the new heaven and the new earth our differences will be celebrated. I want to live today in light of that future intercultural day.

The Journey: Day Thirty-Seven--Your Maker/Your Husband

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Thirty-Seven: Your Maker Is Your Husband

Welcome to day thirty-seven of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Thirty-Seven: Your Maker Is Your Husband[1]

Julia Foote exemplifies in her life and teaching a common thread among female African American care givers—Jesus is the ultimate Spiritual Friend. These sisters of the Spirit understood that human spiritual friendship never replaces the Divine Spiritual Friend and that the human spiritual director must always direct others to the Divine Soul Physician.

Foote was born in 1823, in Schenectady, New York, the daughter of former slaves who purchased their freedom and espoused a strong Christian belief. From age ten-to-twelve, she studied diligently, especially the Bible. At fifteen, her parents moved to Albany where she was converted and joined the African Methodist Church.

At nineteen, she married George Foote, a sailor, and moved to Boston where she joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and began to grow deeply in her faith. Her deepening Christian experience caused a rift between her and George, and he threatened to send her back to her parents. Though they stayed together, they grew more alienated, especially when Foote began to hold evangelistic meetings in her home.

Biblical Sufferology

Speaking of why God might allow human suffering and the breakdown in human relationships, such as the one between her and her husband, Foote explains:

“God permits afflictions and persecutions to come upon his chosen people to answer various ends. Sometimes for the trial of their faith, and the exercise of their patience and resignation to his will, and sometimes to draw them off from all human dependence, and to teach them to trust in Him alone.”

For Foote, this was not some theoretical model stuck somewhere in her head. Bereft of the intimacy she longed for with her human husband, she turned more profoundly and passionately to her heavenly Groom.

Maker and Husband

When her husband left for six months at sea right after yet another argument over her faith, Foote writes:

“While under this apparent cloud, I took the Bible to my closet, asking Divine aid. As I opened the book, my eyes fell on these words: ‘For thy Maker is thine husband (Is. 54:5). I then read the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah over and over again. It seemed to me that I had never seen it before. I went forth glorifying God.”

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Julia Foote typified pointing others to Jesus as their ultimate Spiritual Friend. Why do you think this theme was so common among African American female soul physicians?

2. How could you apply this theme to your life and ministry?

[1]Excerpted from, 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.

The Journey: Day Thirty-Four--Sisters of the Spirit

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Thirty-Four: Sisters of the Spirit

Welcome to day thirty-four of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Thirty-Four: Sisters of the Spirit[1]

In the South, they faced slavery; in the North, prejudice. Everywhere they confronted double oppression—they were black and they were female.

Their remarkable stories must be told for the sake of all women, regardless of race. Their independence and strength, boldness and courage, ministry and sacrifice, care and concern, despite overwhelming obstacles, provide extraordinary models for women today.

The historical invisibility of African American Christian women is inexcusable. As the following pages attest, history is replete with countless black female exemplars of soul care and spiritual direction. Their obscurity is due to our willful blindness, not their lack of brilliance. Shining a light on their stories illuminates for all of us the visible, palpable ways in which they sustained, healed, reconciled, and guided, not only individuals, but an entire nation.

Mother Wit

Feminine African American spiritual directors followed the ancient model that Moses outlines in Deuteronomy 6:6-7. “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

With biological children and with “spiritual” children, with females and with males, older African American women shared their “mother wit”—their proverbial wisdom found in the Scriptures, cultivated in community, and applied to daily life. One former slave from Louisiana offers her picturesque description of mother wit. “I got Mother Wit instead of an education. Lots of colored people in offices and school don’t seem to know what Mother Wit is. Well, it’s like this: I got a wit to teach me what’s wrong. I got a wit to not make me a mischief-maker. I got a wit to keep people’s trusts. No one has to tell me not to tell what they say to me in confidence, for I respect what they say, and I never tell. I’m glad I had good raisin.’”

The mother wit schoolhouse was life, the textbook was the Bible. The lesson plan highlighted the generational passing of insights for living. The curriculum included reconciling (being taught “what’s wrong”), guiding (not being a “mischief-maker”), rapport building (“keep people’s trusts”), confidentiality (“I never tell”), respectful listening (“I respect what they say”), and so much more.

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. What impact could knowledge of African American sisters of the Spirit have upon Americans? African Americans? African American females?

2. Why do you think that the history of African American females like these is so infrequently highlighted? What could be done to reverse this pattern?

3. Who has offered you mother wit: biblical wisdom filtered through mature life experience applied to your specific life situation? How? What impact has it had on you?


[1]Excerpted from, 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.

The Journey: Day Thirty-Two--Empathizing with the Flock

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Thirty-Two: Empathizing with the Flock

Welcome to day thirty-two of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Thirty-Two: Empathizing with the Flock[1]

Allen’s experience with slavery and prejudice, along with his longing to minister in ways that met the specific needs of his African American brethren, equipped him in unique ways to empathize with his people. In an open letter of spiritual consolation entitled To the People of Colour, Allen models dynamic soul care.

“Feeling an engagement of mind for your welfare, I address you with an affectionate sympathy, having been a slave, and as desirous of freedom as any of you; yet the bands of bondage were so strong that no way appeared for my release; yet at times a hope arose in my heart that a way would open for it; and when my mind was mercifully visited with the feeling of the love of God, that he would make way for my enlargement; and then these hopes increased, and a confidence arose as a patient waiting was necessary, I was sometimes favored with it, at other times I was very impatient. Then the prospect of liberty almost vanquished away, and I was in darkness and perplexity.”

Lessons Learned

Consider Allen’s holistic empathy: emotional (“feeling”), rational (“an engagement of mind”), and relational (“an affectionate sympathy”). Notice also how Allen connects his story to their story by telling of his level one external suffering (“having been a slave”) and his level two internal suffering (“I was very impatient;” “I was in darkness and perplexity”). As a shrewd soul physician, Allen understands how to connect with people through story sharing.

He explains exactly why he shares his story. “I mention the experience to you, that your hearts may not sink at the discouraging prospects you may have, and that you may put your trust in God who sees your condition, and as a merciful father pitieth his children, so doth God pity them that love him . . .”

Here Allen skillfully intertwines sustaining consolation (“that your hearts may not sink at the discouraging prospects”) and healing consolidation (“put your trust in God who sees” and “pitieth”). His focus is on turning their focus back to God.
Allen next shifts to guiding by providing a current heroic narrative and a future freedom narrative.

“You will have the favor and love of God dwelling in your hearts which you will value more than any thing else, which will be a consolation in the worst condition you can be in and no master can deprive you of it; and as life is short and uncertain, and the chief end of our having a being in this world is to be prepared for a better (the current heroic narrative), I wish you to think of this more than any thing else; then you will have a view of that freedom which the sons of God enjoy; and if the troubles of your condition end with your lives, you will be admitted to the freedom which God hath prepared for those of all colors that love him. Here the power of the most cruel master ends, and all sorrow and tears are wiped away” (the future freedom narrative).

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Richard Allen modeled spiritual consolation through story sharing, holistic empathy, and providing a current heroic narrative as well as a future freedom narrative. Which of these affectionate sympathy skills would you like to add to your repertoire of spiritual friendship?

2. How will you go about this?

[1]Excerpted from, 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.

The Journey: Day Thirty-One--The Founding

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Thirty-One: The Founding

Welcome to day thirty-one of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Excerpted from, 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.

Day Thirty-One: The Founding

Richard Allen was one of the foremost founding fathers of the African American independent churches. Born a slave in 1760, to Benjamin Crew of Philadelphia, Allen came to salvation in Christ around age twenty. He then traveled extensively, preaching the Gospel in Delaware and Pennsylvania. In February, 1786, he preached at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Thinking that he would be there one or two weeks, ministry needs led Allen to a settled place of service in Philadelphia.

Concerned for the wellbeing of African Americans in this parish, he explained that:

“I established prayer meetings; I raised a society in 1786 of forty-two members. I saw the necessity of erecting a place of worship for the coloured people.” However, only three brethren united with him, including the equally-important African American founding father, the Reverend Absalom Jones. Their little band met great opposition, including “very degrading and insulting language to us, to try and prevent us from going on.”

Notwithstanding, the Lord blessed their endeavors, as they established prayer meetings and meetings of exhortation, with many coming to Christ. Their growing congregation, still without a building, often attended services at St. George’s Church. When the black worshippers became more numerous, the white leaders “moved us from the seats we usually sat on, and placed us around the wall.”

The Founding of the First Independent African American Church

It was at this juncture that one of the most noteworthy events in African American Church history occurred. Taking seats that they thought were appropriate, prayer began.

“We had not long been upon our knees before I heard considerable scuffling and low talking. I raised my head up and saw one of the trustees, H— M—, having hold of the Rev. Absalom Jones, pulling him up off of his knees, and saying, ‘You must get up—you must not kneel here.’ Mr. Jones replied, ‘Wait until prayer is over.’ Mr. H— M— said ‘no, you must get up now, or I will call for aid and I force you away.’ Mr. Jones said, ‘Wait until prayer is over, and I will get up and trouble you no more.’”

By the time the second usher arrived, prayer was over, and “We all went out of the church in a body, and they were no more plagued with us in the church. This raised a great excitement and inquiry among the citizens, in so much that I believe they were ashamed of their conduct.”

As a result, they birthed the first independent Black Church in the North when they hired a store room and held worship by themselves. Facing excommunication from the “mother church,” they remained united and strong. “Here we were pursued with threats of being disowned, and read publicly out of meeting if we did continue to worship in the place we had hired; but we believed the Lord would be our friend. . . . Here was the beginning and rise of the first African church in America.”

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. What can you learn from Revs. Allen and Jones’ example?

2. How similar or different are race relations today among Christians than in the day of Revs. Allen and Jones?

The Journey: Day Thirty--The Black Puritan

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Thirty: The Black Puritan

Welcome to day thirty of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Thirty: The Black Puritan[1]

Lemuel Haynes affords another exemplar of African American ministerial modeling. Born at West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1753, of a white mother and a black father, Haynes lived his entire eighty years in Congregationalist New England. He completed his indenture in time to serve in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

Privately tutored, Haynes became the first African American to be ordained by any religious denomination. Upon ordination, Haynes then served white congregations for more than thirty years.

Among other accomplishments, he achieved notoriety for a sermon entitled Universal Salvation that defended orthodox Christianity against the threat of Universalism. For this work, he happily accepted the title “Black Puritan,” indicating his depth of Reformation theology. Middlebury College awarded him the master’s degree in 1804, another first for an African American.

At age sixty-five, Haynes left his Rutland, Vermont, parish due to political friction that essentially forced him to choose to resign. His farewell sermon of 1818 emphasized, among other topics, his devotion to the work of the ministry and to the people of his congregation.

Following Paul’s Model

Alluding to the words of the Apostle Paul, Haynes notes that, “He that provided the motto of our discourse could say on his farewell, I have coveted no man’s silver or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessity.”

Like Liele with his black congregation, it was important to Haynes with his white parishioners that they recognized his Christlike diligence. Few could legitimately question his work ethic given that he had preached 5,500 sermons, officiated at over 400 funerals, and solemnized more than 100 marriages.

Godly Motivation

It was also vital to him that they understood his godly motivations. “The flower of my life has been devoted to your service:—while I lament a thousand imperfections which have attended my ministry; yet I am not deceived, it has been my hearty desire to do something for the salvation of your souls.”

Haynes acknowledged and wanted his people to realize that the ultimate Judge of his motivations was Christ. “I must give an account concerning the motives which influenced me to come among you, and how I have conducted during my thirty years residence in this place: the doctrines I have inculcated: whether I have designedly kept back any thing that might be profitable to you, or have, through fear of man, or any other criminal cause, shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. Also, as to the manner of my preaching, whether I have delivered my discourses in a cold, formal manner, and of my external deportment.”

His Personal Epitaph

Haynes personal epitaph tells much about where he placed his focus.

“Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner, who ventured into eternity trusting wholly on the merits of Christ for salvation. In the full belief of the great doctrines he preached while on earth, he invites his children and all who read this, to trust their eternal interest on the same foundation” (Epitaph written for himself by Reverend Lemuel Haynes, the “Black Puritan”).

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Lemuel Haynes modeled spiritual connecting through vulnerability, openness, intimacy, and grace. What godly leaders have modeled these traits for you? How?

2. How could you more effectively model these traits in your life and ministry?

[1]Excerpted from, 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.

The Journey: Day Twenty-Nine--Modeling Ministry

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Twenty-Nine: Modeling Ministry Commitment

[1]Excerpted from, 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.

Welcome to day twenty-nine of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Twenty-Nine: Modeling Ministry Commitment[1]

African American founding fathers emphasized in their messages and modeled in their ministries a Black Protestant work ethic. The oft-imagined, but quite-mistaken view of African American male slaves as lazy and slothful was crushed by both slave and free African American pastors.

Some slaves in the South were able to establish independent churches during the Revolutionary era. Perhaps the earliest to do so was George Liele. Born in Virginia, in 1742, he moved with his master, Henry Sharpe, to Burke County, Georgia, a few years before the Revolutionary War. Liele was converted under the preaching of Baptist Matthew Moore at his master’s church. In 1777, Liele founded a Black Baptist congregation at Yama Craw, outside Savannah.

Eyewitness accounts applauded his commitment to ministry, even while still a lay person. “He began to discover his love to other negroes, on the same plantation with himself, by reading hymns among them, encouraging them to sing, and sometimes by explaining the most striking parts of them.”

Liele’s own account equally expresses his passion for serving God and God’s people. “Desiring to prove the sense I had of my obligations to God, I endeavoured to instruct the people of my own color in the Word of God: the white brethren seeing my endeavours, and that the word of the Lord seemed to be blessed, gave me a call at a quarterly meeting to preach before the congregation.”

Instant in Season and Out

Later licensed (by whites) as a minister, Liele served in Yama Craw and in Kingston, Jamaica. As a pastor, he preached twice on Sunday, and twice during the week. “I receive nothing for my services; I preach, baptize, administer the Lord’s supper, and travel from place to place to publish the gospel, and to settle church affairs, all freely.”

Like the Apostle Paul, Liele supported himself through his own industry. “My occupation is a farmer, but as the seasons in this part of the country, are uncertain, I also keep a team of horses, and wagons for the carrying goods from one place to another; which I attend to myself, with the assistance of my sons; and by this way of life have gained the good will of the public, who recommends me to business, and to some very principal work for government.” Like countless other African American founding fathers, Liele’s industry became a benchmark urging other African American males towards responsibility and productivity.

Liele’s model stuck. One of his converts and disciples, Andrew Bryan, accepted the baton of pastoral leadership at Yama Craw. Like his mentor, Bryan personified sacrificial ministry. White citizens, worried about slave rebellion, had him arrested and whipped twice for holding “illegal” meetings. According to an early Baptist historian, Andrew “told his persecutors that he rejoiced not only to be whipped, but would freely suffer death for the cause of Jesus Christ.”

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. What impact could knowledge of an African American leader like George Liele have upon Americans? African Americans? African American males?

2. How could you apply Liele’s ministry commitment to your life?

The Journey: Day Twenty-Eight--Founding Fathers of the Black Church

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Twenty-Eight: Founding Fathers of the Black Church

Welcome to day twenty-eight of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Twenty-Eight: Founding Fathers of the Black Church[1]

Historians of American history frequently emphasize our “founding fathers.” Politically speaking, they highlight white males like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and James Madison. Spiritually speaking, they feature white males such as Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, John Winthrop, Jonathan Edwards, and Isaac Backus.

Sadly, they have often left African American founding fathers missing in action. In particular, the spiritual founding fathers of independent African American church life have been neglected, relegated to the back seat of the historical bus. We now seek to recover something of the lost legacy of loving leadership bequeathed to us by African American spiritual forefathers.

Walking the Talk: Modeling Christian Manliness

Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne was an early leader in and the official historian of the AMEC. Payne experienced numerous opportunities to live out his Christian manhood. His manliness remaining strong in the twilight years of his life. When he was in his seventies, Payne refused to stay on a train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the white authorities on the train, he said to them:

“Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”

After Payne left the train, “the guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.” Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep South. Payne literally walked the talk.

Dare to Be a Daniel

How did such Christian manhood develop? Payne credits his father who started him on his purposeful life.

“I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.”

Imagine the sense of self, the sense of biblical masculinity that Payne’s father passed to his son.

He did so not only by naming, but also by modeling. Of his father, Payne testifies:

“He was an earnest Christian and a class leader, having two classes under him—what used to be called the Seekers’ Class and the Members’ Class. He was a faithful observer of family worship; and often his morning prayers and hymns aroused me, breaking my infant sleep and slumbers.”

Learning Together From Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. What impact could knowledge of an African American leader like Daniel Alexander Payne have upon Americans? African Americans? African American males?

2. Why do you think that the history of African American leaders like Payne is so infrequently highlighted? What could be done to reverse this pattern?

[1]Excerpted from, 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.

Black History Month: Day Fourteen--God's End Game

*Note: For The Journey: Day Twenty-Seven see my earlier post today.

Black History Month: The History and the Controversy

Day Fourteen: God’s End Game

The controversy is clear, yet complex: is Black History Month necessary? A net positive? Is it fair to have one month designated for one cultural group? Does it actually minimize African American contributions by relegating them to only one month? Wouldn’t it be better to integrate all cultures year-round in all our historical studies?

On and on the questions go. Sometimes they cause more cultural tension rather than building intercultural harmony.

Here’s my take; my Readers’ Digest version.

1. God’s End Game: Culture Is Everlasting

According to the Bible (Rev. 7:9-10, among many other passages), cultural, ethnic differences will be celebrated for all eternity. God’s end game is not one homogenous group, but unity in diversity. Such unity in diversity reflects God. Our Trinitarian God is Three-in-One: unity in diversity.

So, while people may debate whether “race” is culturally-constructed, the Bible is clear that culture is God-constructed. God does not want us to be “culture-blind.” He wants us to recognize, appreciate, and celebrate our differences in biblical unity.

2. Our Game Plan: Celebrate Unity in Diversity

Ideally, life could and should be both/and. We could have books that highlight the unique accomplishments of various cultural groups—celebrating their legacy. And, we could have books that integrate in a fair and balanced way the contributions of all cultural groups.

The same could be true of “history months.” We could have months celebrating specific cultural groups. And, we could and should, year-round, celebrate the contributions of all cultural groups.

3. Our Current Game Strategy: Bring Balance to Historical Imbalance

Given the clearly documented lack of past historical balance (dead white guys getting all the press and other cultures and women given little honor), it still makes sense to me to highlight “minority cultures” and women in special months, books, etc. We can do this while also working toward integrating men and women, and people of all cultures, into year-round study and into overview books in fair and balanced ways.

My Final Summary: One Man's Convictions

Here’s another way to summarize my convictions.

*When history becomes truly integrated, then we can enjoy special recognition (special books, special months) and fair and balanced recognition (survey books, year-round study) simply out of the joy of unity in diversity.

*Today, we still need special recognition (special books, special months) and fair and balanced recognition (survey books, year-round study) to make up for the past and current lack of balanced treatment.

Black History Month: Day Twelve--Fair and Balanced?

*Note: For The Journey: Day Twenty-Five see my earlier post today.

Black History Month: The History and the Controversy

Day Twelve: Fair and Balanced?

Though we are not nearing the end of Black History Month, we are nearing the end of my ministry series on the history and mystery of Black History Month. What started as a day or two, has become half the month! I’ll focus the rest of the month on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

So What Do I Think?

I’ve been inviting conversation rather than stating my opinion about whether Black History Month is still necessary. Much of the discussion about whether it is necessary has related to whether “main stream” history is accurately covering Black History year-round.

My specialty is Black Church History, so I will speak to that anecdotally. As you will see, I don’t think Evangelical Black Church History is being fairly covered year round…not close!

Anecdote # 1: Research for Beyond the Suffering

As Karole Edwards and I researched the history of African American soul care and spiritual direction, we found plenty of primary sources for Black Church History from 1500-1900 (our time-frame).

However, when we looked in secondary sources written today about American Church history, we found an embarrassing dearth of focus on women and minorities. Even in 2009, most general texts on American Church history continue to focus on dead White guys!

Anecdote # 2: Response from Participants of Heroes of the Black Church Seminars

As I present around the country on Heroes of the Black Church, participants are angry! Fortunately, they are not angry at me. They are angry because in their Evangelical Bible colleges, Christian liberal arts colleges, and seminaries, they are taking Church history courses and hearing nothing about Blacks, especially Evangelical Blacks. And even in their HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) they were not taught about Black Church history, especially not Evangelical African American Christianity.

Stay tuned tomorrow for additional anecdotes demonstrating that Black Church History still lacks year-round fair and balanced coverage…and the implications of that fact.

The Journey: Day Twenty-Two--Everybody Could Be a Somebody

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Twenty-Two: Everybody Could Be a Somebody

Welcome to day twenty-two of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

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.

The Journey: Day Twenty-One--Future Memory

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Twenty-One: Future Memory

Welcome to the half-way marker on our journey: day twenty-one of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Twenty-One: Future Memory[1]

Pastor Peter Randolph elaborates on the inner condition and the interpersonal consolation as African American Christians part from their services during the Invisible Institution.

“The slave forgets all his suffering, except to remind others of the trials during the past week, exclaiming, ‘Thank God, I shall not live here always!’ Then they pass from one to another, shaking hands, bidding each other farewell, promising, should they meet no more on earth, to strive to meet in heaven, where all is joy, happiness and liberty. As they separate, they sing a parting hymn of praise.”

Remember the Past/Remember the Future

What an interesting phrase. How can people simultaneously forget their suffering and remind others of their trials? Actually, it’s quite brilliant. We can’t truly forget the evils we have suffered. Nor should we try. Instead, we should remind ourselves and others of our trials, but we must remember the past while remembering the future. “Thank God, I shall not live here always!”

What perfect “balance.” Don’t deny the past. Do dialogue and trialogue (you, your friend, and God in a three-way spiritual conversation) about the past in light of the future—eternity, heaven.

The Result

The result? They are deeply connected with one another—passing from one another, shaking hands, bidding farewell, promising to meet again, some day, somewhere. They are genuinely content within their own souls—knowing joy, happiness, and liberty, though outwardly experiencing the opposites. They are profoundly communing with Christ—singing a parting hymn of praise, certainly not for their circumstances, definitely in spite of their situations, but preeminently because of who God is.

How amazing it would be to leave every worship and fellowship service like enslaved African American believers did. If they could, given their lot in life, why not us?

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. What might it look like in your life to remember the past (hurts) while remembering the future (hope)?

2. How would our congregations be different if we did this with one another regularly?

[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.

The Journey: Day Eighteen--Everybody's Heart in Tune

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Eighteen: Everybody’s Heart in Tune

Welcome to day eighteen of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Eighteen: Everybody’s Heart in Tune[1]

How did newly converted African American slaves grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? How did they connect to one another in the Body of Christ?

A preacher we know only as the “Preacher from a God-fearing Plantation” offers us a glimpse.

“Meetings back there meant more than they do now. Then everybody’s heart was in tune, and when they called on God they made heaven ring. It was more than just Sunday meeting and then no more godliness for a week. They would steal off to the fields and in the thickets and there, with heads together around a kettle to deaden the sound, they called on God out of heavy hearts.”

The Old Ship of Zion

Another African American Christian described it like this.

“We used to steal off to de woods and have church, like de Spirit moved us—sing and pray to our own liking and soul satisfaction—and we sure did have good meetings, honey—baptize in de river, like God said. . . . We was quiet ‘nuf so de white folks didn’t know we was dere, and what a glorious time we did have in de Lord.”

“The church was a ‘Noah’s Ark’ that shielded one’s life from the rain. It was the ‘old ship of Zion’ fully capable of sailing the seas of life.”

Life Lessons for Today

Because we all too easily abandon meeting together, we have much to learn from the high priority that African American believers placed upon communal worship and fellowship.

“Their needs for guidance and comfort were immense. The awesome importance of this spiritual and emotional support can be seen by the fact that the time to engage in worship was taken from the already too-brief free times away from field work. Work time already ran from sun-up to sundown. Time for worship was taken from the brief period left for the personal needs of sanitation, sleep, food, and child rearing. This spiritual nurture must have been highly treasured indeed to motivate the sacrifice of such limited and precious free time.”

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. “Meetings back there meant more than they do now. Then everybody’s heart was in tune, and when they called on God they made heaven ring.” In what ways does your worship experience already mirror theirs?

2. What could make this statement truer in your worship experience today?

[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.

The Journey: Day Fifteen--Hooked in the Heart

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Fifteen: Hooked in the Heart

Welcome to day fifteen of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Fifteen: Hooked in the Heart[1]

How did African Americans become aware of the horrors of their sin, repent, see the wonders of Christ’s forgiving grace, and believe? One unnamed ex-enslaved person interviewed between 1927-1929 by Andrew Watson, explains it brilliantly.

“Before God can use a man, that man must be hooked in the heart. By this I mean that he has to feel converted. And once God stirs up a man’s pure mind and makes him see the folly of his ways, he is wishing for God to take him and use him.”

God is the Author of conversion, or better, the Fisherman of conversion fishing for men and women. The hook God casts enlightens the eyes, enabling converts to see the foolishness of their sinfulness.

Spiritually Blind: Unaware of My Spiritual Sickness

An African American minister from Tennessee known as Reverend H. offers an unflinching vision of spiritual blindness.

“A sinner is dead, but we who are born of God are live children. No dead child can understand the works of a live one, because he hasn’t had his eyes opened. This nobody can do but God. If God doesn’t open your blinded eyes, cut loose your stammering tongue, unstop your deaf ears, and deliver your soul from death and hell, you are dead and can’t understand the things we do. You got to be dug up, rooted and grounded, and buried in him.”

Reverend H. understands that apart from God’s spiritual laser surgery, sinners fail to perceive the cancer of sin spreading in their hearts.

New Spiritual Eyes

Pastor Peter Randolph, looking back on his conversion experience, further enhances our image of spiritual sightlessness and spiritual eyes.

“The eyes of my mind were open, and I saw things as I never did before. With my mind’s eye, I could see my Redeemer hanging upon the cross for me. I wanted all the other slaves to see him thus, and feel as happy as I did. I used to talk to others, and tell them of the friend they would have in Jesus, and show them by my experience how I was brought to Christ, and felt his love within my heart—and love it was, in God’s adapting himself to my capacity.”

Soul Physicians

In an age when we face the temptation to “water down” the Gospel to make it more “palatable” to “seekers,” we could learn much from Reverend H. and Pastor Randolph. As skillful soul physicians, their diagnosis was insightful and clear. They told themselves and their patients the truth about their spiritual condition. With their diagnosis came their sight-giving prescription. They opened blind eyes to see the Redeemer.

Cataracts removed, sinners saw what a Friend they had in Jesus. They understood that until we admit that we are sinners, we force away the Friend of sinners, for he came to call sinners, not the righteous to repentance. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:31).

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. African American soul physicians taught that sinners were spiritually blind and dead. How can we help seekers to become aware of their spiritual sickness?

2. How can we help seekers to see that they are unable to cure their spiritual sickness?

[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.