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--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.

Founding Fathers, Part I

Founding Fathers, Part I[i]

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.

Walking the Talk: Modeling Christian Manliness

Throughout church history, developing and displaying the character of a soul physician was the absolute prerequisite before focusing upon competence in soul care and spiritual direction. This has certainly been the case with African American founding fathers as they strove to practice what they preached. In particular, we learn from them that we sustain, heal, reconcile, and guide as much by our actions (our model) as by our interactions (our message). People listened to their words of counsel because they witnessed them heeding their own counsel.

E. Franklin Frazier contends that the historic Black Church was somewhat passive due to its other-worldly focus.[ii] However, firsthand accounts draw a different portrait altogether. Traditionally, manhood has been a central theme in the independent Black Church.[iii] Bishop B. W. Arnett described the organizing conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) in 1816 as “the Convention of the friends of Manhood Christianity.”[iv]

Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne, an early leader in and the official historian of the AMEC, believed that the separation of the AME from the white Methodist Episcopal Church was “beneficial to the man of color” in two ways. “First: it has thrown us upon our own resources and made us tax our own mental powers both for government and support.” Secondly, it gave the black man “an independence of character which he could neither hope for nor attain unto, if he had remained as the ecclesiastical vassal of his white brethren.” It produced “independent thought,” “independent action,” and an “independent hierarchy,” and the latter “has made us feel and recognize our individuality and our heaven-created manhood.”[v]

Personally, Payne experienced numerous opportunities to live out his Christian manhood. Payne was devastated when a new law forced him to stop teaching his fellow African Americans. Wavering on the precipice of doubt, he girds up the loins of his mind with the solemn words, “‘With God one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Trust in him, and he will bring slavery and all its outrages to an end.’ These words from the spirit world acted on my troubled soul like water on a burning fire, and my aching heart was soothed from its burden of woes.”[vi] Payne engages in a spiritual conversation with himself in which he exhorted himself to see life from God’s eternal perspective.

Payne then pens a lengthy poem expressing both his feelings and theological reflections. Of this spiritual exercise, he concludes, “The writing of this poem was the safety-valve which let out the superabundant grief that would otherwise have broken my heart and sent me headlong to an untimely grave.”[vii] Some males decry poetry or journaling as less-than-masculine. However, Payne, like King David before him, understands the manly value of candid “psalming.”

Other males disparage depending on others during times of spiritual despondency. Not Payne. In response to his internal battle with his external situation, he received letters of spiritual consolation from the poetess, Miss Mary S. Palmer, and her sister Miss Jane Keith Palmer. He reflects in response to these letters, “At a time when my heart seemed ready to burst with grief and my lips ready to deny the existence of God, or to blaspheme his holy name for permitting one race to grind another to powder, such white friends were exceedingly dear and precious to me. I looked on them then, and regard them now, as God’s angels sent to strengthen me when the powers of darkness seemed to be let loose against me and against the race which I was so earnestly serving. I can never cease to remember them without emotions of gratitude and love.”[viii]

Given Payne’s circumstances and the culture of the day, we find here triple humility. He models the humility to dependently receive help, to gladly receive help from females, and to non-judgmentally and non-defensively receive help from whites.

[i]Excerpted from Kellemen, Beyond the Suffering, Baker Books, 2007.
[ii] Frazier, The Negro Church in America.
[iii] Becker, “The Black Church,” in Fulop, African-American Religion, p. 180.
[iv] Arnett, Proceedings of the Quarto-Centennial Conference of the A.M.E Church, p. 384.
[v] Payne, A History of the A.M.E. Church, I, pp. 9-12.
[vi] Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years, p. 28.
[vii] Ibid., p. 34.
[viii] Ibid., p. 39.