Mothers of the Church Fathers, Part III

Mothers of the Church Fathers,

Part 3

When discussing the great Church Fathers, names like the three Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) come to mind, as do John Chrysostom, and Augustine. However, in most cases, we truly have forgotten their mothers: Emmelia, who we just considered; Nonna, the mother of Gregory of Nazianzus; Anthusa, the mother of John Chrysostom; and Monica, the mother of Augustine. It is to this lost tradition that we now turn our attention.

Monica: Spiritual Friend and Spiritual Director

The name of Monica, mother of Augustine, is perhaps the best known of the Church Mothers whose voices we have heard thus far. What we know about Monica we learn almost entirely from her son’s autobiography Confessions.

Monica was born in North Africa near Carthage in what is now Tunisia, perhaps around 331 AD, of Christian parents, and was a committed believer her entire life. She married an unbelieving husband, Patricius, a man of a hot temper who was often unfaithful to her. It was her greatest joy to see both him and his mother ultimately receive the Gospel. Monica also spent years suffering over her son’s pagan lifestyle until his conversion and commitment to Christian ministry.

Reconciling Her Family

In the Confessions, which Augustine addressed to God, we hear of her reconciling witness to her wayward son. “In fact, as a boy I had heard about the eternal life that had been promised to us through the humility of the Lord our God’s lowering himself to our pride, and already I was stamped with the sign of the his cross, already seasoned with his salt from the womb of my mother, who put great hope in You. . . . My fleshly mother was disturbed, because she more lovingly brooded over my eternal salvation, with a pure heart in Your faith.”[i]

Coming to faith, Augustine described a scenario to which every believing mother with an unbelieving husband can relate. “Thus already I believed, as did my mother and all the household, my father alone excepted, who nonetheless did not drive out the authority of my mother’s piety so that I did not believe in Christ, inasmuch as he did not yet believe. For my mother busied herself in order that You might be my Father, my God, rather than he, and in this matter You helped her so that she might overcome her husband, to whom she was subject . . .”[ii]

Christian mothers need to hear Monica’s voice. She confidently spoke and personified the reality that a mother’s piety can drown out a father’s irreverence. She also reminds mothers that they do not have to be both mother and father. In the absence of a believing father, Monica pointed her son to his ultimate Father, rather than trying to be a surrogate father.

Of course, none of this implies that Monica was indifferent to her husband’s spiritual plight. “She concerned herself to win him for You, speaking of You through her behavior, by which You made her beautiful, respectfully lovable, and admirable to her husband. Moreover, she thus endured the wrongs to her bed, so that she never had any feuding with her husband on account of this matter. She waited for Your compassion to come upon him, so that believing in You, he might become chaste.”[iii]

Monica lived to see the fruit of the seeds of life that she planted. “At last she won for You even her own husband, now at the end of his earthly life. In him as a believer she did not now bewail that which she endured when he was not yet one of the faithful.”[iv]

A Ministry Beyond Her Home

Monica’s ministry extended beyond her home. Journeying to join Augustine in Milan, the faith that she exercised with her family strengthened her to comfort, console, and bring courage even to sailors in a storm. “Already my mother had come to me, strong in her piety, following me over land and sea, secure in You against all dangers. For during the hazards at sea she comforted the sailors themselves (to whom inexperienced travelers at sea customarily go for consolation when they become anxious), promising them a safe arrival, because You had promised her this in a vision.”[v]

Augustine reserved his final testimonial to his mother’s spiritual direction for her spiritual conversations with him in her dying days and hours. “Thus we were talking alone together very sweetly, forgetting past events and stretching out to those ahead of us. We were seeking between us in the presence of truth, which You are, to think how the future eternal life of the saints would be, the life ‘which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor had it entered the heart of man’ (Is. 64:4; 1 Cor. 2:9). We opened wide the mouth of our heart to the supernatural streams of Your fountain, the fountain of life, which is with You, so that being sprinkled from it according to our power of comprehension, w might in some way reflect on so great a thing.”[vi]

Picture it. Mother and son. Leaning on a window, viewing the garden of their house, talking of eternal hope, knowing that she would soon be leaving this world behind. Imagine the encouragement in the midst of sadness that Monica brought her son.

“And when our discussion arrived at the conclusion that the pleasure of the carnal senses, however great it may be, in however great corporeal light, seemed not comparable to the pleasantness of that life, indeed, not even worth speaking about, we raised ourselves by our more ardent passion toward Him, and we gradually traveled through all corporeal things and Heaven itself, whence sun and moon and stars shine above the earth. We were still ascending by our inner reflection and speech. We admired Your words. We came to our minds and transcended them, that we might reach the region of unfailing fruitfulness, where You feed Israel forever with the food of truth . . .”[vii] Nine days later, in the fifty-sixth year of her life, and in the thirty-third year of Augustine’s life, Monica passed from life to death to eternal life.

Augustine expressed his grief mingled with hope. “Then gradually did I call back my earlier feeling for Your handmaid, her devout conversation with You, her gentleness to and compliancy with us in holiness, of which suddenly I was destitute. It was pleasing to weep in Your sight for her and over her, for myself and over myself. And I released the tears which I had restrained, that they might flow as much as they wished, spreading them under my heart, which rested in them, since Your ears were there, not those of a man, who would interpret my weeping in a haughty spirit. And now, Lord, I will confess to You in writing. Let him read it who will, and let him interpret it as he will, and if he finds a sin in my weeping for my mother for a small part of an hour—a mother who was meanwhile dead to my eyes, who had wept over me for many years that I might live in Your eyes—let him not laugh, but rather, if he is a person of lofty charity, let him weep for my sins against You, the Father of all the brothers of Your Christ.”[viii]

Augustine wept. He lost his best spiritual friend. He lost the most important person in his life. He lost the earthly mother who led him to know his heavenly Father. Augustine grieved. But he grieved with hope because Monica had encouraged him with words of life.

[i]Clark, Women in the Early Church, pp. 246-247.
[ii] Ibid., p. 247.
[iii]Ibid., p. 252.
[iv]Ibid., p. 253.
[v]Ibid., p. 247.
[vi]Ibid., p. 254.
[vii]Ibid., pp. 254-255.
[viii]Ibid., pp. 257-258).

Mothers of the Church Fathers, Part 2

When discussing the great Church Fathers, names like the three Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) come to mind, as do John Chrysostom, and Augustine. However, in most cases, we truly have forgotten their mothers: Emmelia, who we just considered; Nonna, the mother of Gregory of Nazianzus; Anthusa, the mother of John Chrysostom; and Monica, the mother of Augustine. It is to this lost tradition that we now turn our attention.

Anthusa: Lamenting Loss, Gripping Grace

Endeared as one of the four great doctors of the Church, John Chrysostom was born in 347 AD in Antioch, Syria and was prepared for a career in law under the renowned Libanius, who marveled at his pupil’s eloquence and foresaw a brilliant career for him as statesman and lawgiver. But John decided, after he had been baptized at the age of twenty-three, to abandon law in favour of service to Christ. In his renowned pulpit ministry, he emerged as “Golden Mouth,” a preacher whose oratorical excellence gained him a reputation throughout the Christian world.

Unfortunately, we know little about John’s upbringing and even less about his mother, Anthusa. What we do know should resonate with every woman who has ever been left bereft of a husband.

Anthusa repeated her story of widowhood to her son when he planned to leave home at age twenty to share a residence with his best friend, Basil. John recounts the scene.

“But the continual lamentations of my mother hindered me from granting him the favor, or rather from receiving this boon at his hands. For when she perceived that I was meditating this step, she took me into her own private chamber, and, sitting near me on the bed where she had given birth to me, she shed torrents of tears, to which she added words yet more pitiable than her weeping, in the following lamentable strain.”[i]

An Emotional EKG

Anthusa then shared and bared her soul.

“My child, it was not the will of Heaven that I should long enjoy the benefit of thy father’s virtue. For his death soon followed the pangs which I endured at thy birth, leaving thee an orphan and me a widow before my time to face all the horrors of widowhood, which only those who have experienced them can fairly understand. For no words are adequate to describe the tempest-tossed condition of a young woman who, having but lately left her paternal home . . . is suddenly racked by an overwhelming sorrow, and compelled to support a load of care too great for her age . . .”[ii]

Though distressing, in many ways hearing Anthusa’s candor is refreshing. Sometimes we have the false impression that the “saints of old” sailed through life’s sorrows without a single word of complaint or even a blip on their emotional EKG. Anthusa reminds us that this is fictitious. She also modeled for us the great Old Testament tradition of lamentation, which is so vital in the sustaining process.

Grace from Above

Anthusa offered insight into the healing process as she shared with her son how she survived and eventually thrived.

“None of these things, however, induced me to enter into a second marriage, or introduce a second husband into thy father’s house: but I held on as I was, in the midst of the storm and uproar, and did not shun the iron furnace of widowhood. My foremost help indeed was the grace from above."[iii]

In the midst of the storm and uproar, our foremost healing help is always grace from above.

[i]John Chrysostom, Treatise on the Priesthood, book 1, paragraph 5, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. IX.
[ii]Ibid.
[iii]Ibid., emphasis added.

Mothers of the Church Fathers, Part 1

Mothers of the Church Fathers, Part 1

When discussing the great Church Fathers, names like the three Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) come to mind, as do John Chrysostom, and Augustine. However, in most cases, we truly have forgotten their mothers: Emmelia, the mother of Gregory of Nyssa; Nonna, the mother of Gregory of Nazianzus; Anthusa, the mother of John Chrysostom; and Monica, the mother of Augustine. It is to this lost tradition that we now turn our attention.

Nonna: Stirring Up the Gift of God

The two brothers, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, along with their close friend and fellow theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus, are the principal formulators of the classic doctrine of the Trinity. Gregory of Nazianzus was the son of Gregory and Nonna. He became the Bishop of Constantinople and a preacher of orthodoxy who wrote extensively on both theological and devotional topics. After the victory of Nicene Orthodoxy at the Council of Constantinople I in 381, Gregory of Nazianzus retired as a bishop and led a monastic life.

Long before he became famous, his lesser-known mother guided his spiritual life and that of his father. Nonna was born around 300 AD and passed away on August 5, 374 AD. Gregory described in glowing terms her holiness of life and the beautiful conformity of her actions to the highest standards of Christian excellence.

To her example, aided by her prayers, he ascribed the conversion of his father from a strange medley of paganism and a heretical Christian sect. Unwilling to accept his status as an unbeliever, Nonna “fell before God night and day, entreating for the salvation of her head with many fastings and tears, and assiduously devoting herself to her husband, and influencing him in many ways, by means of reproaches, admonitions, attentions, estrangements, and above all by her own character with its fervour for piety, by which the soul is specially prevailed upon and softened, and willingly submits to virtuous pressure.”[i]

Strong Medicine

When so many Christian wives today struggle with how to relate to a beloved unbelieving husband, Nonna’s example provides hope and direction. She certainly was no “wallflower.” Her method of reconciling combined the strong medicine of reproaches and admonitions with continual doses of character and piety. We see in her example the power of persistent prayer and the plan of God to combine prayer and action in all our reconciling relationships.

Her ministry to her newly saved husband did not end at reconciling. Gregory went so far as to attribute his father’s spirituality and ministry success to Nonna. “But she who was given by God to my father became not only, as is less wonderful, his assistant, but even his leader, drawing him on by her influence in deed and word to the highest excellence; judging it best in all other respects to be overruled by her husband according to the law of marriage, but not being ashamed, in regard to piety, even to offer herself as his teacher.”[ii]

Shepherding the Shepherd

Her spiritual guidance was so extensive and intensive that when Gregory the Elder became a bishop, he learned how to shepherd from her example. At his sister’s funeral, Gregory of Nazianzus said of his father and mother, “This good shepherd was the result of his wife’s prayers and guidance, and it was from her that he learned his ideal of a good shepherd’s life.”[iii] Here we have a Christian wife guiding her husband. More than that, we find a wife teaching her husband how to shepherd. In Church history, women have not taken a back seat to anyone in providing reconciling and guiding.

Nonna’s ministry did not stop with her husband, but continued with her son. Like Hannah with Samuel (1 Samuel 1:1-28), Nonna committed her son to the Lord and His service even before Gregory’s birth. Reflecting on it years later, Gregory noted about his mother, “That which concerns myself is perhaps undeserving of mention, since I have proved unworthy of the hope cherished in regard to me: yet it was on her part a great undertaking to promise me to God before my birth, with no fear of the future, and to dedicate me immediately after I was born. Through God’s goodness has it been that she has not utterly failed in her prayer, and that the auspicious sacrifice was not rejected.”[iv]

What enabled Nonna to maintain such a relentless prayer life? “These were the objects of her prayers and hopes, in the fervour of faith rather than of youth. Indeed, none was as confident of things present as she of things hoped for, from her experience of the generosity of God.”[v] Nonna believed in a good God with a good heart. She knew that her God was a generous rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). In the ebb and flow of soul care and spiritual direction, Nonna embodied the truth that it is our certainty about God’s generosity that leads to our capacity to minister steadfastly.


[i]Gregory of Nazianzus, Catholic Encyclopedia, “Funeral Oration on His Father,” oration 18, paragraph 11, emphasis added.
[ii]Gregory of Nazianzus, Catholic Encyclopedia, “Funeral Oration on His Sister Gorgonia,” oration 8, paragraph 11, emphasis added.
[iii]Ibid., oration 8, paragraph 5.
[iv]Gregory of Nazianzus, Catholic Encyclopedia, “Funeral Oration on His Father,” oration 18, paragraph 11.
[v]Ibid., paragraph 12.

The Legacy of Macrina the Elder

The Legacy of Macrina the Elder

Macrina the Elder learned the Christian life in the school of suffering. She was born sometime before 270 AD in Neocaesarea in Pontus (Asia Minor). During the persecution of Diocletian, Macrina fled the city with her husband and they lived in hiding in a forest near Pontus for seven years, nearly starving several times.

The family of Macrina is a fitting place to study women soul care-givers and spiritual directors. They are unique in the history of Christianity. Her grandsons, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, both Church Fathers, are the most well known of her lineage. However, they are not the sole reason why posterity has long revered Macrina’s family. She nourished three generations of Christian leaders passing the torch of faith from herself to her daughter Emmelia, and then to Emmelia’s children Macrina the Younger, Peter, Basil, and Gregory, all of whom history has honored as saints. Most importantly, “what is pertinent here is the fact that the family recognized the women to be the guides directing them all to their spiritual ends.”[i]

Truth and Life

Her grandson, Basil wrote admiringly of his grandmother’s mentoring. “What clearer proof of our faith could there be than that we were brought up by our grandmother, a blessed woman. I am speaking of the illustrious Macrina, by whom we were taught the words of the most blessed Gregory (Thaumaturgus), which, having preserved until her time by uninterrupted tradition, she also guarded, and she formed and molded me, still a child, to the doctrines of piety.”[ii]

What a fascinating concluding phrase, “formed and molded me . . . to the doctrines of piety.” Macrina’s discipleship model focused not just on doctrine, not just on piety, but on both—truth and life. In this, she followed in the heritage of the Apostle Paul who passed on the faith to Timothy with these words: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them . . .” (1 Timothy 4:16a, emphasis added).

Like Macrina the Elder, her daughter Emmelia took an active role in the spiritual formation of her children, particularly her firstborn, Macrina the Younger. Gregory of Nyssa tells us in his vita of his sister: “The education of the child was her mother’s task; she did not, however, employ the usual worldly method of education . . . but such parts of inspired Scripture as you would think were incomprehensible to young children were the subject of the girl’s studies; in particular the Wisdom of Solomon, and those parts of it especially which have an ethical bearing. Nor was she ignorant of any part of the Psalter, but at stated times she recited every part of it.” Indeed, “When she rose from bed, or engaged in household duties, or rested, or partook of food, or retired from table, when she went to bed or rose in the night for prayer, the Psalter was her constant companion, like a good fellow-traveler that never deserted her.”[iii]

Like mother, like daughter. Emmelia’s guiding emphasized truth and life by inculcating the “ethical bearing” of Proverbs. She also followed the pedagogical insight and teaching methodology of Deuteronomy 6:7, “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lied down and when you get up.”

From Generation to Generation

Her life lessons stuck. Macrina the Younger discipled her younger brother, Peter. She “took him soon after birth from the nurse’s breast and reared him herself and educated him on a lofty system of training, practicing him from infancy in his holy studies” and eventually became “all things to the lad—father, teacher, tutor, mother, giver of all good advice.”[iv]

In turn, Peter applied well his sister’s life lessons. “Scorning to occupy his time with worldly studies, and having in nature a sufficient instructor in all good knowledge, and always looking to his sister as the model of all good, he advanced to such a height of virtue that in his subsequent life he seemed in no whit inferior to the great Basil. But at this time he was all in all to his sister and mother, co-operating with them in the pursuit of the angelic life.”[v] In later years, Peter and Macrina the Younger administered the double monastery at Annesi, discipling yet another generation of young believers.

Again, Macrina’s family followed the discipleship model of the Apostle Paul who exhorted Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). Macrina the Elder’s family mentored four generations and beyond. Macrina the Elder provided guidance to Emmelia; Emmelia provided spiritual direction to Macrina the Younger; Macrina the Younger discipled Peter; Peter mentored those at the double monastery; and those at the monasteries passed the torch of truth to still others.

[i]Ranft, p. 26.
[ii]Ibid.
[iii]Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Saint Macrina, paragraphs 962c-964a.
[iv]Ibid., paragraph 972c.
[v]Ibid., paragraph 972d.

Amazing Grace and Amazing Change

Amazing Grace the Movie and the Books and the Amazing Change Campaign

February 23, 2007 marked the release of a much-anticipated movie about William Wilberforce’s fight to end slavery in Britain. See the movie trailer for Amazing Grace at www.amazinggracemovie.com. Though some Christians have complained that the movie somewhat downplays the Christian faith that inspired the political protest (I don't agree), seeing the movie and reading either of the books outlined below, will provide the context to understand and motivate all of us to apply our Christian faith in the fight against abuse, racism, slavery, and all forms of social injustice in our day.

The Amazing Change Campaign

William Wilberforce's work is far from finished. There are still an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today. Modern-day slavery can come in many different forms. Entire families may work long days in rice-mills, brick kilns, or on plantations. Children may be abducted and forced to fight in a rebel's army. All of the people in these examples are slaves—they cannot come and go as they please and are often beaten or threatened with violence. They have no autonomy in their day-to-day lives and deserve the right to be free.

In conjunction with the release of the film Amazing Grace, the Amazing Change Campaign has been launched to abolish modern day slavery and allow children and adults around the world to live in freedom. This campaign seeks to motivate students and communities to make their mark on history by speaking out against modern day slavery.

At theamazingchange.com, you'll learn about the "two great objects" that were central to William Wilberforce's Life: the abolition of slavery and the reformation of society.

Visit www.theamazingchange.com and learn more about what efforts you can take to make these two great objects a part of your life. Educate yourself by reading stories about modern day slavery, learn how to start your own Clapham Circle, and sign the petition to end modern day slavery. Here you will find all the tools you need to take action against social injustice. Here you can also sign the following petition.

We, the undersigned, affirm the inherent dignity and worth of all people and the right of every child and adult to live free from slavery and involuntary servitude. We call upon world leaders to commit themselves to the abolition of slavery around the world. Let our signatures demonstrate our desire to see the emancipation of slaves and accountability for slave masters and others who benefit from the enslavement of people.

Amazing Grace the Movie

Amazing Grace the movie is based on the life of antislavery pioneer William Wilberforce, played by Ioan Gruffudd. Gruffudd plays Wilberforce, who, as a Member of Parliament, navigated the world of 18th Century backroom politics to end the slave trade in the British Empire. Albert Finney plays John Newton, a confidante of Wilberforce who inspires him to pursue a life of service to humanity. Benedict Cumberbatch is William Pitt the Younger, England's youngest ever Prime Minister at the age of 24, who encourages his friend Wilberforce to take up the fight to outlaw slavery and supports him in his struggles in Parliament.

Elected to the House of Commons at the age of 21, and on his way to a successful political career, Wilberforce, over the course of two decades, took on the English establishment and persuaded those in power to end the inhumane trade of slavery. Romola Garai plays Barbara Spooner, a beautiful and headstrong young woman who shares Wilberforce's passion for reform, and who becomes his wife after a whirlwind courtship.

Youssou N'Dour is Olaudah Equiano. Born in Africa and sent as a slave to the Colonies, Equiano bought his freedom and made his home in London, where he wrote a best-selling account of his life and became a leading figure in the fight to end the slavery of his fellow countrymen.

Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce by John Piper

Just in time for the debut of the movie by the same title, Amazing Grace is John Piper's snapshot of the life, faith, and practice of William Wilberforce. Piper, a leading Evangelical pastor and author, succinctly (75 pages) outlines the spiritual forces that motivated Wilberforce's lifelong battle to end slavery in the British Kingdom.

Unlike the flurry of other books recently released on Wilberforce, here readers will find the theology behind the man. Further, readers will be engaged to ponder how theology should impact practice today, especially in the area of how a lay person relates biblical truth to social action in today's world.

Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas

Eric Metaxas provides the story behind the movie Amazing Grace. Metaxes' book clearly hightlights Wilberforce's faith in Christ as the primary motivator for his campaign to end slavery in Britain.

Metaxas vividly portrays the real and raw experiences that Wilberforce endured including intense opposition. Readers see in Wilberforce, as the subtitle suggests, a heroic and resilient Christian whose faith impacted not only his life, but the lives of millions. It was Wilberforce's freedom from the slavery of sin that led him to fight for freedom from the sin of slavery. Read Amazing Grace and learn the rest of the story.

Generational Repentance and Reconciliation

Generational Repentance and Reconciliation

By now I'm sure that you have read the news. The state of Virginia officially apologized for their role in legalizing and supporting slavery, and they also apologized for their mistreatment of Native Americans. Though the vote was unanimous, it was not without some contention, as one particular lawmaker stated, "Just get over it!"

Another related item in the news was the proposal out of the US House of Representatives that urged Japan to officially apologize for their role in the Korean "Comfort Women" tragedy of WW II. "Comfort Women" were the 100s of thousands of Korean women who were raped by Japanese soldiers.

What is a biblical view of repentance and reconciliation? Do descendents of people of one generation have a biblical responsibility for how their ancestors treated other people?

Corporate Generational Identity

In our individualistic Western society we are quick to shout, "No!" However, most cultures for most of human history, including Jewish culture in the Old Testament, had a much more collective, corporate view of personhood, personality, and responsibility.

While it is true that salvation is an individual decision that a person makes before the God of the universe, it is false to assert that God never views people groups and nations corporately. God not only treated nations corporately in the Old Testament, He viewed them generationally. God held entire past generations of past nations accountable for their past mistreatment of God's (corporate) people.

Clearly it is not an unbiblical concept to say, "For what my ancestors did to your ancestors I am deeply sorry." Nor is it an unbiblical concept for a descendent of a majority race to recognize the lasting imprint that enslavement and abuse has left generationally on a minority race. Such humble repentance and responsibility-taking can lead to present reconciliation and relational restoration.

Though my ancestors were in Romania being persecuted and abused during the time of American enslavement, I still accept a sense of responsibility for the harm that White Americans brought upon Black Americans. I also understand something of the lingering impact of that horrible mistreatment.

Recognizing responsibility and impact does not mean that I think a current member of a past harmed group "needs" my "help" in order to "make it." However, all human beings need understanding, empathy, and reconciliation. They don't need to be told, "Just get over it!"

Thus, I applaud the people of Virginia and the members of the US House of Representatives on their recent movements toward generational repentance and reconciliation. May God honor their efforts and produce the fruit of peace.

The Voice of the Martyrs, Part 2

The Voice of the Martyrs, Part 2

Rewinding the Tape (Review from Part 1)

Vibia Perpetua lived in Carthage in North Africa during the persecution of Christians under Septimius Severus. At the time of her arrest in 202 AD, she was a twenty-year-old mother of an infant son. Born into a wealthy, prominent, but unbelieving family, she was a recent convert with a father who continually attempted to weaken her faith and a husband who was, for reasons unknown to us, out of the picture. Nothing in Perpetua’s situation or background prepared her for the titanic spiritual struggle God called her to face.

Perpetua, her brother, her slave (Felicitas), and two other new converts were discipled by Saturus. We learn from Perpetua of the arrest of all these faithful followers of Christ. “At this time we were baptized and the Spirit instructed me not to request anything from the baptismal waters except endurance of physical suffering. A few days later we were imprisoned.”[i]

The Road to Hope

Felicitas was in her eighth month of pregnancy. As the day of the contest approached, she became very distressed that her martyrdom might be delayed, since the law forbade the execution of a pregnant woman. An eyewitness to their eventual death shared his account of their journey together. “Her friends in martyrdom were equally sad at the thought of abandoning such a good friend to travel alone on the same road to hope. And so, two days before the contest, united in grief they prayed to the Lord.”[ii] Immediately after their prayers, her labor pains began and Felicitas gave birth to a girl whom one of her sisters reared as her own.

This eyewitness recorded their witness for Christ to the very end. “On the day before the public games, as they were eating the last meal commonly called the free meal, they tried as much as possible to make it instead an agape. In the same spirit they were exhorting the people, warning them to be witnesses of the prisoners’ joy in suffering, and ridiculing the curiosity of the crowd. . . . Then they all left the prison amazed, and many of them began to believe.”[iii]

Perpetual Persistence

To the very end, Perpetua maintained her perpetual persistence. “The day of their victory dawned, and with joyful countenances they marched from the prison to the arena as though on their way to heaven. If there was any trembling, it was from joy, not fear. Perpetua followed with a quick step as a true spouse of Christ, the darling of God, her brightly flashing eyes quelling the gaze of the crowd.”[iv]

As they were led through the gates, they were ordered to put on different clothes; the men, those of the priests of Saturn, the women, those of the priestesses of Ceres. “But that noble woman stubbornly resisted even to the end. She said, ‘We’ve come this far voluntarily in order to protect our rights, and we’ve pledged our lives not to recapitulate on any such matter as this. We made this agreement with you.’ Injustice bowed to justice and the guard conceded that they could enter the arena in their ordinary dress. Perpetua was singing victory psalms as if already crushing the head of the Egyptian.”[v]

What a marvelous example not only of persistence, but also of biblical confrontation. What a testimony to Christ’s power at work in the inner life of a Christian woman whose spirit could never be overpowered.

[i]Ibid., p. 20.
[ii]Ibid., pp. 26-27, emphasis added.
[iii]Ibid., p. 27.
[iv]Ibid., p. 28.
[v]Ibid., emphasis added.

The Voice of the Martyrs, Part 1

The Voice of the Martyrs, Part 1

When we think of early Church history, our minds naturally turn to the Church Fathers. Sadly, we normally fail to even consider the Church Mothers. Yet, these godly women heroically waged spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Their loses and their victories, their pain and their joy, their walk with Christ and their journey with one another are all an inheritance from which each of us are eligible to draw. There is a mighty company of gallant women believers from whom we can all learn.

From Victim to Victor

Vibia Perpetua heads that company. The early Church preserved her manuscript (The Martyrdom of Perpetua) as a martyr’s relic because it is one of the oldest and most descriptive accounts of martyrdom. It is also the earliest known document written by a Christian woman.

Anyone who has ever suffered for the faith or been oppressed by the powerful can carry on a conversation and feel a bond with Perpetua. In fact, in the introduction to her story, we read that it was “written expressly for God’s honor and humans’ encouragement” to testify to the grace of God and to edify God’s grace-bought people.[i]

Of course, even reading the word “martyrdom” likely causes us to imagine that Perpetua was a spiritual super woman whose life and ministry we could not possibly emulate. The story of her life, however, demonstrates just the opposite.

Perpetua lived in Carthage in North Africa during the persecution of Christians under Septimius Severus. At the time of her arrest in 202 AD, she was a twenty-year-old mother of an infant son. Born into a wealthy, prominent, but unbelieving family, she was a recent convert with a father who continually attempted to weaken her faith and a husband who was, for reasons unknown to us, out of the picture. Nothing in Perpetua’s situation or background prepared her for the titanic spiritual struggle God called her to face.

Perpetua, her brother, her slave (Felicitas), and two other new converts were discipled by Saturus. We learn from Perpetua of the arrest of all these faithful followers of Christ. “At this time we were baptized and the Spirit instructed me not to request anything from the baptismal waters except endurance of physical suffering. A few days later we were imprisoned.”[ii]

A Light in the Darkness

Perpetua candidly faced her fears and expressed her internal and external suffering. “I was terrified because never before had I experienced such darkness. What a terrible day! Because of crowded conditions and rough treatment by the soldiers the heat was unbearable. My condition was aggravated by my anxiety for my baby.”[iii]

This very human woman exuded superhuman strength. In the midst of her agony, she empathized with and consoled others. Her father, completely exhausted from his anxiety, came from the city to beg Perpetua to recant and offer sacrifice to the emperor. “I was very upset because of my father’s condition. He was the only member of my family who would find no reason for joy in my suffering. I tried to comfort him saying, ‘Whatever God wants at this tribunal will happen, for remember that our power comes not from ourselves but from God.’ But utterly dejected, my father left me.”[iv]

On the day of her final hearing, the guards rushed Perpetua to the prisoners’ platform. Her father appeared with her infant son, guilting her and imploring her to “have pity on your son!” He caused such an uproar, that Governor Hilarion “ordered him thrown out, and he was beaten with a rod. My father’s injury hurt me as much as if I myself had been beaten. And I grieved because of his pathetic old age.”[v]

Perpetua provides a classic portrait of biblical empathy. Her as if experience of her father’s pain is the essence of sustaining soul care.

She not only found in Christ the strength to empathize with her father, she also summoned Christ’s power to console and encourage her family and her fellow martyrs. “In my anxiety for the infant I spoke to my mother about him, tried to console my brother and asked that they care for my son. I suffered intensely because I sensed their agony on my account. These were the trials I had to endure for many days.”[vi] Incredibly, Perpetua’s greatest pain was her ache for others who hurt for her!

A few days passed after the hearing and before the battle in the arena commenced. During this interval, Perpetua witnessed to her persecutors and ministered to other detainees. “Pudens, the official in charge of the prison (the official who had gradually come to admire us for our persistence), admitted many prisoners to our cell so that we might mutually encourage each other.”[vii]

[i]Perpetua, “The Martyrdom of Perpetua,” in A Lost Tradition, p. 19.
[ii]Ibid., p. 20.
[iii]Ibid.
[iv]Ibid., p. 22.
[v]Ibid.
[vi]Ibid., p. 20.
[vii]Ibid., p. 23.

Capax Dei

Capax Dei

Hunger is the best sauce.

Hunger is the best sauce in our thirst for God. The Bible teaches that the human personality has a capax Dei: capacity for God. We are at our core, spiritual beings. This capacity soars above, beyond, and deeper than all our other desires, surpassing them in a marvelous and terrifying way.

In the face of this bursting forth of longing for God, everything else suddenly retreats. What is most vital about us is our vitality for God. God designed us with an insatiable longing for Him.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament repeatedly emphasize the God-shaped and God-sized vacuum in our soul. King David pens: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2).

The Apostle Paul concurs. “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19).

How's your capax Dei? What are you, what am I, doing to grasp how wide, log, high, and deep our thirst is for the love of Christ? What are we doing to stir up the thirst and hunger for God in the lives of others?

Super Bowl, Super Faith

Super Bowl, Super Faith

There he was, the whole world watching. Tony Dungy did not disappoint.

Asked during the trophy presentation about the cultural significance of being the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl, Dungy told over 100 million viewers, “I’m proud to be the first African American coach to win this. But again, more than anything, Lovie Smith and I are not only African-American but also Christian coaches, showing you can do it the Lord’s way. We’re more proud of that.”

When Dungy said “again,” he meant it. For he and Bears head coach, Lovie Smith, were the page-one story throughout Super Bowl week, discussing daily the Christian faith they share, the personal relationship they maintain, their groundbreaking success, and their motivational coaching style.

Facing the Storm with Faith

Dungy’s faith impacted how he coached his team Sunday. Speaking of their early deficit due to a Bear kick-off return for a touchdown, Dungy stated, “We took the hit early with Devin Hester. We talked about it. It’s going to be a storm. Sometimes you have to work for it. The Lord doesn’t always take you in a straight line. He tests you sometimes.”

In fact, Dungy and Smith’s faith impacts everything about their coaching. Coaching great, Bill Walsh, head coach of three Super Bowl championship teams and mentor to Dungy, noted, “Tony and Lovie are professionals, and I think that’s what players want. There are some coaches who are screamers in the NFL, but not as many as there used to be. The players just can’t see the real value of the coach if he’s continually harping at them and harping at the media and harping at everybody else. The coaches who continue to be so animated that they distract everybody are usually coaches without a lot of confidence. The confident coach can plot out what he needs, how his staff should function and people respect that.”

Walsh continued, “Tony and Lovie take a more civilized approach to it and they can reach more players that way. But I think in both of their cases they’re pretty darn firm when necessary, but they don’t go public with those things. Both are very knowledgeable about the game of football and how to deal with people. I hope this style is what survives rather than the coaches who run amok whenever they’re tested on the sideline, and the players see that they may have a madman on their hands and they may have to overcome it.”

Leonard Moore runs the African-American studies program at Louisiana State University, and he considers sport part of the curriculum. He has spent time studying coaches, including Dungy and Smith. “By them being African American men, I think Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith understand the culture of the hip hop generation,” Moore said. “They know that Bobby Knight stuff isn’t going to work in 2007, that yelling and trying to be that strict dictator. I think you’re dealing with a different generation of ballplayers that aren’t going to tolerate that stuff. “I don’t think they are trying to be players’ coaches at all. I think it’s, ‘I’m going to treat you like a man and in return I expect you to treat me like a man.’ I think Dungy and Smith see their role not only as coach but as mentor, father figure and friend. Kids of this generation don’t want to be yelled at. I think you lead by example. In the black community, we’re big on this thing: ‘I don’t care what you say. I’m going to model what you do.’ So I think by Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith being very calm, cool and collected, players realize, ‘Maybe I don’t have to be loud and go off the handle. Maybe I can have some control over my anger and my emotions.’ That's what I see from Dungy and Smith.”

Bill Cole had a strong rooting interest in this year’s Super Bowl. Regardless of the outcome, he was guaranteed to win. He’s a fan of calm coaches. Cole, a sports psychology consultant in California who works with coaches and athletes, pointed out that Dungy and Smith are both devout Christians who stress that faith and families take priority over football. “Here’s the real paradox. They’re in the Super Bowl and football is not the biggest thing in their world. They have publicly stated that. Sure, it’s important, but it’s not the end-all and they have perspective. I think when you get life perspective as an athlete or as a coach, it calms you down more.”

Calm in the storm. That’s what Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy bring to football and to life.

African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction: Super Bowl Style

African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction:

Super Bowl Style

The more direct quotes I read from the two Super Bowl coaches, Lovie Smith (Chicago Bears) and Tony Dungy (Indianapolis Colts), the more amazed I am by their coaching styles. And, the more I become convinced that their way of relating to their players follows directly in the lineage and heritage of the history of African American soul care and spiritual direction.

In “Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction,” my co-author (Karole Edwards) and I highlight the myriad ways that past African Americans sustained and healed one another. In dynamic case after case, African Americans “climbed in one another’s casket” of despair, identifying with each other’s pain. They then, on the basis of their Christian hope in Christ, brought hope to one another by “celebrating the empty tomb” and thus experiencing Christ’s resurrection power.

Coaching: Mentoring Men as Iron Sharpens Iron

Just a few current examples from the coaching lives of Smith and Dungy will suffice to demonstrate that these two African American coaches understand how to mentor others with biblical soul care and spiritual direction. Chicago Tribune writer, David Haugh, in his January 28, 2007, story entitled “The Lovie Connection” emphasizes how with Smith, “like mentor Dungy, being his player’s friend and counselor comes easily.”

When Bear’s player Tank Johnson lost his best friend, Willie B. Posey, in a nightclub shooting, more than anything, Johnson needed to know that he wasn’t alone. As Haugh says, “That’s when Lovie Smith picked up the phone to pick up his defensive tackle’s spirits.”

These two men of quiet strength, bonded by five years together on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ staff and by similar Christian convictions, hope that the necessary focus on their skin color doesn’t overlook a shared coaching style evident in Smith’s phone call to a troubled Johnson.

“He’s a Coach Who Listens a Lot”

As Johnson records of Smith, “He called me and said, ‘Hey, Big Guy, how are you doing? I’m going to call you every day through this process to make sure you’re OK,’” Johnson recalled. “That means a lot when you’re on pins and needles about a lot of things in your life. But it’s that kind of thing that makes Lovie different. He’s a coach who listens a lot.”

Wow! This is classic soul care. An empathic concern for how another human being is doing in the midst of a struggle. A consistency of follow-up (not just there in a crisis, but there day after day). Listening a lot.

Unfortunately, the two most negative sports writers in Chicago, Jay Mariotti of the Sun Times and Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune, just never got it (and they rarely do). When Smith and the Bears stood behind Tank (not for his unwise choices or foolish behavior, but behind the person, the man), they tried to tank Smith. Morrissey falsely and foolishly accused Smith of having “no concept of right and wrong.” It is Morrissey and Mariotti who have absolutely no concept of sustaining and healing, no concept of humble empathy for another human being’s plight and pain. No concept of biblical, historical soul care and spiritual direction.

Lovie’s Love

But enough about them. Back to Lovie’s love.

When Bears’ rookie safety Danieal Manning started feeling a little lost in the big city and the bigger world of an NFL starter, Smith related his own small-town Texas upbringing to the Corsicana native and helped pull him through. “Coach Lovie understood me,” Manning said. “He understands us.”Whenever Rex Grossman sought reassurance during a very trying season, Smith invited him into an office that doesn’t require appointments.“One of the first things Lovie said to me when I got here last year was he wanted to be involved with the players’ lives and wanted to know how they’re doing so he has an open-door policy,” wide receiver Rashied Davis said. “Some coaches, it’s us against the coaches. You just don’ feel that here.”

Another “Wow!” Pastors and counselors have much to learn from Lovie’s love. Understanding. An open door policy (as John Piper would say to pastors, “Brothers, we are not professionals, meaning, drop the CEO office concept and be a caring human being). Equality. Universality (we’re all in the same boat). Humility.

The Mentor of the Mentor

In Indianapolis, Colts’ players who have described similar experiences with Dungy this week feel the same way. And from whom do you think Smith adopted his mentoring style?

On January 26, 2007, another Chicago Tribune sports’ writer focused on Tony Dungy in an article entitled “Indianapolis: Strength in Sorrow.” Terry Bannon’s subtitle says it all: “Colts Band together When a Teammate Suffers Family Tragedy.”

Colts’ player Reggie Wayne lost his brother in a car accident on September 24, 2006. Who was there for Reggie? Tony Dungy, of course.

“The thing about coach Dungy is his office is always open if I ever need him,” Wayne said. “He’s never too busy for us. I always knew if I had a problem, I could go to him.” Sound familiar?

“How You Get through Problems”

“Football is lifelike, but just because our guys are on television they’re not bigger than life,” Dungy said. “They go through all the things that everyone else does, all of us do. You’re not immune to it.”

“That’s one of the things that has helped me be there and counsel our guys when they do have problems. I believe God has me here for a purpose. I have a strong Christian inner faith. That’s what drives me and I use that to help those guys.”Dungy is known as a coach who treats his players as people first, which shapes his approach to their personal lives. “I tell guys all the time they’re not immune to it, they’re going to have problems,” Dungy said. “It’s how you get through them that’s important. That’s how I was raised, and I’m glad I was raised that way.”

A third “Wow!” Always available. Human. Honest. Christian counseling. Inner faith. Driven to help others. Treating people as people. Facing problems and finding hope.

Passing the Baton of Soul Care

You read what Dungy said about where he learned his “soul care.” He was raised that way. Smith got it from Dungy, Dungy got it from his parents. His parents got their soul care philosophy and practice not from school, but from the school of hard knocks. They got it from the beautiful and powerful heritage of African American soul care.

How does one learn to help others to move “beyond the suffering?” By facing one’s own life suffering, as African Americans have, and then by living face-to-face with Christ in order to move beyond suffering to healing hope.

In the Bigger Picture of Life: Super Bowl, Race, and Faith

In the Bigger Picture of Life: Super Bowl, Race, and Faith

All the buzz in Chicago is about “Da Bears!” The Chicago Bears are headed to the Super Bowl headed by Coach Lovie Smith. There are so many intriguing story lines in this match-up of the Bears and the Colts.

One of the most intriguing is the solid relationship that Smith shares with the Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy. Best friends, they are now pitted against each other: the Windy City versus the Indy City.

Making History in Black History Month: “It Means a Lot”

As many have noted, with both men being African American, history will be made in Black History month in February. And historic it is. In the bigger picture of life, Smith and Dungy form a social triumph of major proportion.

''It means quite a bit for me being the coach of the Chicago Bears and being able to lead our team to another Super Bowl,'' Smith said. ''But being the first black coach to lead his team to the Super Bowl, of course our players knew about it and they wanted to help us make history today. So I feel blessed to be in that position.”

''It means a lot,'' Dungy said after the Colts' 38-34 victory. ''I'm very proud to represent African American coaches, but more than that, it's about the Indianapolis Colts.''

The Bigger Picture of Life: Christian Faith

What has been conspicuously missing in the national media attention is the main element in each man’s life. In fact, in their own words, it is ultimately what makes them who they are—their Christian faith.

At a Chicago news conference on Monday, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama noted that Smith and Dungy present "a good lesson for all of us. To see two African-American coaches go to the Super Bowl when it has been historically difficult for black coaches to break into the NFL is terrific," Obama said. "But what makes it even better is that they are both men of humility, they are both men of God. They never trash talk. They are not yellers and screamers on the sidelines. They are a couple of class individuals."

Indeed, they are both men of God, men of Christ.

Dungy recalls one of his first interviews for a head coaching position. "One guy did ask me, 'If you get this job, is this going to be the most important thing in your life? Are you going to treat my team as the most important thing?' "No, I'm not," Dungy said. "I didn't think I was going to get that job and I didn't. But for faith to be more important than your job, for family to be more important, we all know that's the way it should be, but we're all afraid to say that sometimes. Lovie isn't afraid to say it, and I'm not afraid to say it."

"I know the type of person Lovie is," Dungy said. "He has the same Christian convictions I have. He runs his team the same way. I know how those guys are treated in Chicago and how they play—tough, disciplined football without a lot of profanity from coaches or a win-at-all-costs atmosphere."

Dungy told an audience of more than 1,200 at the Convention Center last year that his Christian walk is even more important than sports. "That is really the main element in my life. Athletics is important, but without the Christian part it is kind of empty," the famed coach said.

Lovie Smith is a Christian and has made no attempt to hide his beliefs. Smith says that he relies on his Christian faith, which was cultivated in him during his childhood. "Everything that I am is based on my faith. It has been a big part of me," he says. "At a young age, I called on God to help me, and He was there as a comfort for me. That is something that I have leaned on ever since."

Faith Active in Life: "Staying with It Through the Storms"

In an era when many often ridicule men of faith as weak and incapable of making it successfully in the “real world,” it is empowering to understand how Smith and Dungy have been energized and guided by their faith. Their Christianity impacts everything they do as coaches and has enabled them to treat their players with a respect that has produced loyalty and productivity.

For years Dungy couldn't get a coaching job, not only because there were so few blacks in the NFL but also because conventional football wisdom considered him too nice, too polite, too "laid-back" to be successful in a cutthroat, demanding business.

Dungy said he shares more similarities than differences with Smith, adding, "Lovie's probably a little smarter than I am."

Said Smith: "I would not use 'laid-back.' I think our styles are similar. We try to treat our players as men and we expect them to behave that way. We have certain standards."

"As you look at young coaches coming through the ranks, a lot of them have a mental picture of how a coach is supposed to act, and I think what Tony Dungy showed me was that you didn't have to act that way. Be yourself and just believe in what you know and stay with that through the storms and you can get the job accomplished."

Super Bowl Champions: Winners in the Game of Life

As a “Chicago kid,” I have to root for the Bears in this one. But as a “Christian man,” I’m rooting for both Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy. They have what it takes to be winners in the game of life. They have Christ, and He has them.

One will come away a Super Bowl Champion. However, both will come away winners in the game of life.

Here's the Thing

Here's the Thing

I just returned from the wonderful experience of engaging two-dozen graduate students in a week-long course on the history of soul care. One-third of that course focused on the history of African American soul care.

Here's the thing . . . (as "Mr Monk" from the TV show "Monk" would say): These well-educated men and women, many of them African Americans, kept saying, "In high school and college we read books and had courses on African American history. But we NEVER heard about their Christian faith."

What's up with that?

Having read more than 500 primary sources in the research and writing of "Beyond the Suffering," I am floored by the amount of biased editing that has to occur in order to obscure and down-right leave out the tremendous Christian faith perspective of a multitude of enslaved African Americans.

Here's the thing . . . as my students communicated, "Now, armed with hundreds of power quotes and true stories, we can go back into our churches, our counseling offices, our youth group, and our homes and tell young Black men and women: 'You have a great faith legacy!'"

Indeed. Everywhere in African American history we learn of movement beyond suffering to healing hope on the basis of faith in Christ. That's the thing!

When suffering hits home, embrace it, face it, but always learn how to grow through it and to find God in it. That's the legacy left to us by African American believers. It is their gift to all Americans.

Founding Fathers, Part II

Founding Fathers, Part II[1]

Over 100 years before the historic I Have a Dream speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., African Americans were preaching Dream messages. Reverend Absalom Jones’ Thanksgiving Sermon, is a tremendous example.

Rev. Jones chose as his text, Exodus 3:7-8. Jones starts by briefly highlighting God’s sustaining care and healing comfort for Israel. He then relates the historical Exodus narrative to current African American life on the basis of God’s unchanging nature.

“The history of the world shows us, that the deliverance of the children of Israel from their bondage, is not the only instance, in which it has pleased God to appear in behalf of oppressed and distressed nations, as the deliverer of the innocent, and of those who call upon his name. He is as unchangeable in his nature and character, as he is in his wisdom and power. The great and blessed event, which we have this day met to celebrate, is a striking proof, that the God of heaven and earth is the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.[2]”

He Has Seen: Paying Attention to the Earthly Story of Suffering

In classic sustaining style, Rev. Jones next shows that God has been watching every event of their earthly story. “He has seen the affliction of our countrymen, with an eye of pity.”[3] To emphasize how important it is to pay attention to the earthly story, Jones presents an outline of African American history hauntingly similar to ours in Beyond the Suffering: capture, middle passage, auction block sale, enslavement, separation from family, work from sunup to sundown, deprivation of food, clothing, and shelter, torture of the body, and withholding of religion from the soul.

Jones prefaces each point with the repeated phrase concerning God, “He has seen.” Thirteen times. Can you hear it? Feel it? Imagine it? Place yourself in the congregation.

“He has seen.” “Oh, yeah!” “He has seen.” “Preach it!” “He has seen.” “Come on!” “He has seen.” “Glory!” “He has seen.” “Yes, he has!” “He has seen.” Clapping. “He has seen.” Standing. “He has seen.” Swaying. “He has seen.” Hands raised. “He has seen.” Shouting. “He has seen.” “Amen!” “He has seen.” Tears streaming. “He has seen.” Kneeling.

He has not only seen; he has also heard. Jones preaches, “Inhuman wretches! though You have been deaf to their cries and shrieks, they have been heard in Heaven. The ears of Jehovah have been constantly open to them. He has heard the prayers that have ascended from the hearts of his people; and he has, as in the case of his ancient and chosen people the Jews, come down to deliver our suffering countrymen from the hands of the oppressors.”[4] The suffering Jews and the suffering African Americans are one people of God.

Four times Pastor Jones repeats the phrase, “He came down.” Healing hope. God sustains and he saves. He climbs in the casket and he rolls the stone away leaving an empty tomb. He sees, and he comes down.

What worship response is appropriate? Celebrate the empty tomb! “O! let us give thanks unto the Lord: let us call upon his name, and make known his deeds among the people. Let us sing psalms unto him and talk of all his wondrous works.[5]

What ministry response is appropriate? Work to extend justice and freedom. “Let us unite, with our thanksgiving, prayer to Almighty God, for the completion of his begun goodness to our brethren in Africa.”[6] True to the African American soul care and spiritual direction tradition, sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding are societal as well as individual. Liberation starts with spiritual freedom from sin through Christ. It continues with personal freedom from slavery. However, it is never finished until there is universal freedom from the slavery of sin and the sin of slavery.

[1]Excerpted from, Kellemen, Beyond the Suffering, Baker Books, 2007.
[2] Warner, p. 540.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., p. 541.
[5] Ibid., p. 542.
[6] Ibid.

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.