Tags
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about my perspective on the Ferguson, MO situation and some things we could take away from it, especially being Christians. And my dear sweet husband sent me another blog that I personally found convicting and full of exhortation as well. His blog was entitled: 50 Shades of Christ: The Other Side of a Much Needed Dialogue, and truly, he did present another side of a dialogue that very much needs to happen. So, though this is a few weeks old, I do encourage you to check out his blog, and freely comment on your thoughts and views. The conversation can only be helped and fostered by your participation. Now, after reading that blog, I had some final thoughts that I wanted to share here one last thought on race and the church with this basic question: Has anything good come from Black people that has benefited the church, and can it be acknowledged?
Now, you can ask this question about any people group you want, but I can only write from my own perspective. I’ve long heard of the contributions of women to the church. I’ve heard extensively about the contributions of white Europeans and the Puritans. I’ve read sermons by Charles Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Jonathan Edwards. I’ve learned hymns by Toplady, Charles Wesley, Martin Luther, Fanny Crosby and so many other writers to the point that I’ve been able to recognize whether the tune to a hymn is familiar or not by looking at the footnotes. And I greatly appreciate all of the contributions that all of these people have made throughout the centuries, but I constantly wonder, where are the people that look like me?
And that is a familiar question to me. That’s the same question I had as I learned history throughout elementary, middle, and high school in Virginia. I always wondered: didn’t Black people do more things than become slaves? (And that slave history is well emphasized in Virginia history) Have we done anything? Contributed anything? I mean, beyond Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the usual list of the first Black people to hold various professions and careers, did we make a serious contribution to mankind?
So, as my Christian walk has deepened, I have the lingerings of that same question, but posed now to the Church. If we are all made in the image of God, and if we have all received gifts from the Holy Spirit, and if we are all necessary to the body of Christ and its functioning, then what gifts do we, as a Black people, possess that really are a benefit to the Church? Don’t get me wrong, I am deeply thankful for every Christian that has come before no matter their color for everything that they have contributed for me to be where I am in the Lord today. Not only that, their testimonies are still a wonderful encouragement for all of us to put our faith in the Lord and to continue to trust in Him. Truly, we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses” as the author of Hebrews stated.
I guess, I just wish that that cloud had a few people that looked a little like me. I don’t believe that when I get to heaven it’s going to have the same composition as our church in Colorado, our church in Louisiana, or our church here in Charleston. No, I’m pretty certain that there will be people there from every tribe, nation, race, and tongue. We will get a full picture of every member of the body of Christ, and it will be beautiful. Yet, in between time, I wish that we, as the church, could readily recognize all of the gifts of the body, not just the ones that we identify with most easily. I wish that we were more vocal about what the people in our congregations (and in the Church at large) contribute in general. I know that there will always be churches and people who are in error and need to be corrected (or even shut down if their spewing heresies), but to only recognize and condemn the worse things and say nothing else, tends to give the wrong impression. And to be honest, as a Black woman, the impression I’ve been given for the past two years is that outside of Andre Crouch, Black people haven’t contributed anything to the Church at large. We do not exist in the history of the Church, except in missionary expeditions to Africa. Now, that may be completely false, but it is the impression that I have received, unfortunately.
So, yes, this is my final thought on this topic of race and the church. I do pray that one day we would get to the place where we are one church, where we don’t divide over race every Sunday morning. But I also pray that we get to the place that all of the gifts to the body of Christ universal are recognized and appreciated, not just the gifts that come from one or two people groups.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:12-26 ESV)
Wife with Purpose 
Alicia,
Thank you again for your kind words. I have been very encouraged by you, and would thus like to encourage you in return…
In response to your question, I think it important that we keep a couple things in mind. First, the gospel started with the Jews and then extended out to all nations. Second, we know that the Lord has promised to tarry as long as there are elect from every nation that have not come to the faith.
Why are these two points important in finding the answer to your question? Regarding my first point, we must recognize that every ethnicity is an ethnicity that had to first be evangelized before it could then turn and evangelize the nations. There was a time when my ancestors were in the dark, without hope and without God in the world. Then God sent a man named Boniface to evangelize the barbarians in Saxony. Eventually, the church (Rome) came under the rule of Satan, and God rose up a man from among the Saxons (Martin Luther), who righted some of Rome’s wrongs. Along the way, God has used many Anglo-Saxons to redeem the world and right errors in His church. However, Satan has also sought to use the sin still present in many Anglo-Saxons to bring a reproach upon the gospel. In looking at the history of God’s work through Anglo-Saxons in church history, I have had to learn to chew the meat and spit out the bones.
The same is true for many African-Americans. Through American slavery, God brought many African-Americans to salvation. Now, we look at history and hope to see strongly Reformed examples of godly men among those first African-American Christians and pastors. They may be a bit harder to find, but that does not mean that they did not exist. However, just because there are few examples of those who would hold to what we might refer to as a robust Reformed theology, that does not mean that there weren’t great men and women used of God who may not have held strictly to Reformed theology. I don’t agree completely with any particular Anglo-Saxon theologian, and I think it would be expecting a bit too much to expect that we will find one in any ethnicity with whom we agree wholeheartedly. Thus, when we examine the history of God’s work among African-Americans, we must likewise be prepared to chew the meat and spit out the bones.
Regarding my second point, as long as the Lord tarries, I am hopeful that He might still use a great many leaders from a great many ethnicities to accomplish His purposes among the nations. He is currently using great men like Thabiti Anyabwile, Conrad Mbewe, and Voddie Baucham to accomplish great things for His kingdom. We should also pray that He will use your own husband to accomplish great things for the kingdom. I am an Amillennialist, but I am a hopeful Amillennialist. The Lord may tarry for another 2,000 years, so we can expect that He will likely use a great many godly men and women from a vast array of ethnicities to accomplish great things for His kingdom. So be hopeful. Be encouraged. We serve a great God who does not distinguish between nations and cultures when it comes to usefulness for His kingdom.
Hey William, thank you for the encouragement. I truly appreciate it, and I will have to continue to keep it in mind. I guess it seems like it’s been long enough (in my very uninformed, finite mind perspective), but I know that whatever God does is good and however He does it is perfect. And yes, we are slowly building a little Black Reformed section in our home library….lol. I’m appreciative for my husband (The Road of Grace guy) because he always seems to have a well-reasoned perspective on all of these things (our pastor just called him the “resident theologian”….lol). Yet, I know that it is at times discouraging for us both. So thank you so much! And yes, we’re Amillennialists over here….so He can tarry, but I know He’s always accomplishing His purposes. I really appreciate the encouragement. 🙂
Reblogged this on CredoCovenant and commented:
CredoCovenant was mentioned in this post from Alicia over at Wife with Purpose.
So here is my true confession. I grew up in Tanzania and Kenya as a missionary kid (that’s not the confession part) and this has given me this attraction to black people that is a little embarrassing – because I think most people don’t want you to be attracted to them only because they are a particular color. So I don’t take my white body up to people and say, “Oh! You’re black! Will you be my best friend?” But I often think it. I have been mesmerized over the years by the division that exists – not only in the minds of whites, but also blacks. I have been confronted more than once with the indication that I can’t possibly know what it is like to be black in a way that implies I should just stop trying. Well, I imagine people find it hard to understand what it is like to be a white, third culture kid, with deep roots in the southwest, whose husband never gets out of the bed since his stroke. But isn’t there some kind of common ground? Can’t we agree to come together in Christ and learn to love each others’ differences? Our church is fairly diverse, and for the most part we have bridged a lot of gaps, but I know there are still some gaps to be bridged. So all that is to say, I am thankful for your openness, because dialog can be good. In terms of Blacks who have contributed to the church, I imagine there are thousands who have faithfully served their church and their savior in immeasurable ways that will only be revealed in heaven. I can think of two off the top of my head that have contributed in a much more public way: John Jasper who began his ministry as a slave and continued as a freeman and influenced both blacks and whites, common people and powerful men. His grave is somewhere near the Sixth Mount Zion Church in Richmond Virginia. Another is a contemporary; Conrad Mbewe, a pastor in Zambia. He came to our church not too many years ago and preached some sermons for a conference for pastors. I was blown away. Such a deep blessing to hear the Word of God preached with such sound theology by a man from my childhood home. He continues to contribute to the church on many continents.
I loved your comment and your honest too! And I definitely think you have a very unique experience and perspective on the topic of race and the church. So always share!
It’s funny though, I was talking to my husband tonight, and I’m starting to feel that there are less and less differences between the races than what I grew up believing. Now, I get my beliefs were generally shaped by my upbringing and all, but, I’m realizing that there are less and less differences. Now, there may be obvious differences in life experience, but in terms of being a person, a woman…..not that much of a difference. And I’m really thanking God for working on my own heart and mind in the matter. Granted, I would still love for everyone’s contributions to the church to be recognized (you wouldn’t believe how many times I think about what the other apostles did in their work after the ascension, and I find it bumming that I don’t know definite things about them), but this may too be one of those things where God should be receiving all of the glory, and not the servants. So, I’m trying to keep that in mind too. But yes, we love Conrad Mbewe over here! 🙂
Love this. Speaking of shared experience, sit down with a Southern white friend who loves food sometime and talk to her / him about the food you each grew up eating. I did this a couple times when I was in the Army. Basically, what we agreed upon was that what my friends called “soul food” I grew up calling “home cooking.” Granted, there were some nuaces that were different (greens, chitterlings, grits, etc.), but when I was exposed to greens as an adult I fell in love. But I digress. 🙂
LOL! Yes, I love those conversations about food! Being in Charleston, I realize people around here really love their pimento cheese and “fancier” versions of soul food. But yeah, I think food is truly a geographic difference. I mean, I didn’t know people ate avocados and green chilis until I visited my friend in Arizona. 🙂
I know what you mean, but it seems that public recognition is not what God has in store for most of his people. I wonder how many people we overlook in our own congregations will be rewarded greatly in heaven for their quiet, faithful, service.
Oh most definitely! My husband always reminds me that the usually ignored, service-like gifts in the church are the most indispensable gifts. Truly, that is the wisdom of God though….definitely not the way we would have things ourselves. 🙂