Kellemen’s Christian The Best Of Guide

The Best of Multicultural Ministry and Intercultural Relationships: Part Two

Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide: Making your life easier by finding, summarizing, evaluating, and posting the best resources on a wide variety of topics from a Christian perspective. 

Note: Excerpted from African American History, Life, Christianity, and Ministry: An Annotated Resource Guide, by Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC. For information on the full version please visit our Store. 

Annotated Bibliography

Esterline, David, ed. Shaping Beloved Community: Multicultural Theological Education. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2006.

Many Christians talk about multicultural ministry. Esterline and his team outline how to teach, train, and equip ministers in a multicultural seminary setting. Personally, teaching in a seminary with no majority culture in the Washington, D. C. area, I found Esterline’s views practical, helpful, and realistic.

Gilbreath, Edward. Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2006.

Edward Gilbreath has written a powerful and priceless book on reconciliation in Evangelical circles—or the sad, disappointing lack thereof. Writing with openness and candor, Gilbreath shares his own experiences in Evangelicalism and the process and progress of his journey. He then narrates the wider Evangelical scene historically and today, especially in para-church and church life. His book combines hope and realism, human action and trust in God’s direction. The practical examples of churches that do it and barriers that hinder reconciliation are worth the price of the book.

Griffin, John. Black Like Me. Reprint Edition. New York: NAL Trade, 2003.

In 1959, John Howard Griffin temporarily abandoned his privileged life as a Southern White male, medically darkened his skin, and posed as a Black man in the deep South. Some rightly question whether a short period of immersion such as this can allow the pain of racism to etch onto and penetrate into one’s soul. Of course it cannot. It cannot allow for the decade after decade after decade build-up of racist attitudes and history. Nor can it allow for the day after day after day of soul-numbing hatred. Still, for its time, this book was revolutionary. And even for our time today, Black Like Me can at least provide Whites with some small slice of the horrors of racism.

June, Lee, Sabrina Black, and Willie Richardson. Counseling in African-American Communities: Biblical Perspectives on Tough Issues. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.

Counseling in African-American Communities presents a well-researched, practically-developed, biblical methodology for pastors, lay people, and counselors working from a Christian perspective and/or working with the Christian client. Though focused on African-Americans, the material can quite effectively be used cross-culturally.

The editors, June and Black, divide the book into four parts. Part I delves into various addictions, their nature, development, and treatment. Part II focuses upon family issues. Part III highlights mental health matters. Part IV is entitled, “Confronting Other Critical Issues,” and includes matters such as conflict, faith, demonology, unemployment, and research in clinical practice.

In each chapter within each section, the research is presented in easy-to-digest form, almost always with helpful charts. Interspersed within each chapter, the reader finds real-life vignettes that bring the material to life. The foundation of every chapter is the biblical counseling diagnosis and treatment plan. The authors use theological concepts as well as specific principles from pertinent passages to build a biblical approach to the topic. Finally, every chapter includes a brief, helpful bibliography for further research.

The book’s audience is clearly the helper—the professional counselor, pastor, or lay care-giver. The lay person himself/herself, struggling with a particular issue, could benefit through reading the pertinent chapter(s). However, the intent of the book is not primarily to be a “self-help” manual. Counseling in African-American Communities provides a comprehensive introduction to a biblical perspective on a wide-range of issues facing counselors, pastors, and spiritual friends.

Kellemen, Robert W. and Karole A. Edwards. Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007.

Beyond the Suffering is a one-of-a-kind African American narrative. It is not simply a history of America, not simply a history of African Americans, not simply a history of African American Christianity, but a narrative of how African American Christians ministered to one another. As the title suggests, the book tells how African American believers helped one another to move beyond their horrific suffering to a place of healing and hope.

The characters are the African American believers themselves. The plot is their real-life battles told in their empowering words. The authors are a co-authoring team, one an African American female, the other a Caucasian male. Together, they embrace the legacy of how African Americans sustained, healed, reconciled, and guided one another in the faith.

Written in an engaging style that allows African Americans to tell their own story, Beyond the Suffering reads like a novel. It empowers African Americans and all people of all races and nationalities to love like Christ loved even in the worst of circumstances. Readers not only are riveted by the powerful historical chronicles, but are also equipped to apply soul care and spiritual direction principles to their own lives and ministries.

McNeil, Brenda Salter. The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Societal Change. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004.

Brenda Salter McNeil has written a ground-breaking book on racial reconciliation. The subtitle alone speaks volumes about the core change needed: soul change. Only when the individual is changed by the infinite love of Christ can society then even begin to be changed. Writing with wit and wisdom, experience and truth, and speaking the truth in love, The Heart of Racial Justice offers a stirring, practical model for positive racial change and reconciliation.

Ortiz, Manuel. One New People: Models for Developing Multiethnic Churches. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

Manuel Ortiz has written a very practical “why and how to” book on developing multicultural congregations. He provides transcultural and time-tested models for moving a church (change management) culture from monolithic to multicultural. Though dated (and thus the demographics tend to be outdated), the principles and practices are timeless.

Sande, Ken. The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict. Third revised updated edition. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

Ken Sande has spent a lifetime studying, teaching, and applying biblical principles of conflict resolution. His credentials as a lawyer and student of the Bible combine to make him eminently qualify to write this work. Though the subtitle emphasizes the resolution of personal conflict, The Peacemaker and its principles can be used in corporate/church conflict resolution situations, also. With each principle, Sande presents the biblical foundation as well as practical applications.

Steele, Shelby. White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2006.

Shelby Steele writes about race in the style and substance of Bill Cosby. Both men speak as successful Black men who have lived their “up-by-the-boot-straps” philosophy. Both men also insist that African Americans must maintain personal responsibility for their present condition, while recognizing that White Americans were responsible for the horrors of the Black past.

Steele’s basic premise concludes that, yes, African Americans were horribly treated and that at the onset of the 60s Civil Rights movement, a “balancing act” was necessary to provide disenfranchised Blacks with a “fair start.” However, Steele affirms that along the way, something went wrong. This something, he calls “White Guilt.” Liberal Whites, in particular, attempted, in Steele’s view, to gain the moral high ground by punishing current White Americans for the past guilt of White America.

In the process, and as a result, Blacks who now, according to Steele, had a more or less level playing field, were re-classified as an entire race of people in need of a White hand up and a White hand out. Thus, liberal White guilt was still White racism: “We are better than you and you need our help to survive.” When African Americans accepted this Faustian bargain, they wandered off the path of meritocracy (you earn success) to mediocrity (you are given an easy way toward success), according to Steele. Being raised in Gary, Indiana in the 60s and 70s, and living in the 90s and early 00s in D.C., and now having returned to the Gary region, I have, as a White male, witnessed the eras of which Steele speaks. Much of what he says resonates with me. In fact, I would give him five stars for White Guilt except for a few issues.

First, I don’t see the end of racism of which he seems to speak. I still hear it and see it, albeit, in subtle ways, and even more subtle policy-making. Additionally, I’m not convinced that the playing field is always level. Certainly, I am convinced that African Americans have total equality of ability. I’m simply not sure that everywhere in America they have total equality of opportunity. One final point of departure: by his definition of White guilt, we may take away from the historical reality that there was true White guilt. False guilty feelings and faulty guilt-driven policies may mask the reality that there was (and is) true guilt. European Americans did indeed despicably mistreat and literally beat down African Americans. I would be saddened if Steele’s title caused anyone to minimize the suffering. In fact, it is in admitting and facing the suffering that we see the true resilience and character of individual and corporate African Americans who rose above and went beyond the suffering.

Walker, Clarence. Biblical Counseling with African Americans. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.

Biblical Counseling with African Americans is an excellent contribution to multicultural counseling from a Christian perspective. Walker integrates biblical theology, research on African American culture, and his own extensive counseling practice to weave together a very practical and thorough book. Some books of this genre tend to be heavy on theory or on methodology. Walker nicely balances the two, linking understanding to practice. The book is now a little dated in terms of research works quoted (most coming from the 70s and 80s), but besides that it has withstood the test of time.

Wimberly, Edward. African American Pastoral Care. Nashville: Abingdon, 1991.

African American Pastoral Care is Wimberly’s 1991 “sequel” to his 1979 Pastoral Care in the Black Church. In his newer work, Wimberly continues his important focus on sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding, while highlighting a new emphasis: pastoral care through narrative. Narrative therapy has been a growing model for at least two decades. Wimberly nicely blends the historical African American use of oral tradition with the insights of post-modern narrative therapy.

In his introduction and first chapter, Wimberly concisely explains the nature of narrative story-telling in African American pastoral care. In each subsequent chapter, he demonstrates how this model can be used in various counseling issues such as addiction, bereavement, life stages, marriage, and family matters.

Important Stuff

*Your Guide: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, is the Founder and CEO of RPM Ministries (www.rpmministries.org) through which he writes, speaks, and consults to equip God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. He blogs daily at here.

*My Necessary Disclaimer: Of course, I don’t endorse everything in every article, book, or link that you’ll find in Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide. I report, you decide.

*Your Suggestions Are Welcomed: Feel free to post comments and/or send emails (rpm.ministries@gmail.com) about resources that you think deserve attention in various categories covered in Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide.

The Best of Books on Multicultural Ministry and Intercultural Relationships

Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide: Making your life easier by finding, summarizing, evaluating, and posting the best resources on a wide variety of topics from a Christian perspective.

The Best of Books on Multicultural Ministry and Intercultural Relationships: Part One

Note: Excerpted from African American History, Life, Christianity, and Ministry: An Annotated Resource Guide, by Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC. For information on the full version please visit our Store. 

Anderson, David. Gracism: The Art of Inclusion. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2007.

Pastor David Anderson builds a thoughtful, practical, balanced Christian approach to multiculturalism. He avoids the extremes of color-blindness and of affirmative action. Skillfully he explains the biblical injunction to care for the marginalized. Gracism is a must read for anyone who longs to build bridges leading to racial healing, harmony, and reconciliation. Its balance between theology, philosophy, and methodology makes it a uniquely practical manual.

Anderson, David. Multicultural Ministry: Finding Your Church’s Unique Rhythm. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.

Pastor David Anderson has “been there, done that.” As a seasoned pastor of a multi-cultural church in a multi-cultural community, Pastor Anderson writes both with biblical insight and personal experience. A well-written, practical, and hopeful book, Multicultural Ministry is a foundational book for everyone interested in racial harmony and mutual ministry.

Anderson, David, and Brent Zuercher. Letters Across the Divide: Two Friends Explore Racism, Friendship, and Faith. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001.

Pastor David Anderson and author Brent Zuercher have penned a groundbreaking and distinctive book. What happens when two friends of different races explore racism and faith? Letters across the Divide happens. For a firsthand account of what honest, open, bold, and loving multicultural relationships could look like, read this book.

Breckenridge, James, and Lillian Breckenridge. What Color Is Your God?: Multicultural Education in the Church. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995.

As the subtitle suggests, What Color Is Your God? educates pastors in foundational cultural understanding. Covering ethnic groups in America, this primer shows church leaders how to value cultural differences. It also highlights transcultural biblical principles and probes how various cultures apply or misapply these eternal principles in daily life.

Conde-Frazier, Elizabeth, Steve Kang, and Gary Parrett. A Many Colored Kingdom: Multicultural Dynamics for Spiritual Formation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

A Many Colored Kingdom provides ground breaking insight into the theology and methodology of spiritual formation from and in a multicultural perspective. The co-authors themselves live and breathe what they write, researching and writing with passion and precision. This book richly celebrates the diverse contributions to Christian spirituality necessary to fully engage and embrace the infinite, multifaceted beauty and glory of Christ.

Cooper, Rodney. We Stand Together: Reconciling Men of Different Color. Chicago: Moody, 1995.

We Stand Together would be a five-star book if it were not now somewhat dated. Editor Rodney Cooper is a leading Black Evangelical educator. Active in the 90s in the Promise Keepers’ movement, he surrounded himself with men of diverse ethnic groups to edit this primer on how men of different races can understand, forgive, reconcile with one another, and minister together.

Emerson, Michael. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Please, don’t read this book without reading the “sequel” (see below): United by Faith.

Divided by Faith outlines the problem, as understood through a dissertation research project, of race relations in Evangelicalism in America in the 1990s. The results are troubling and at times could even produce hopelessness. However, facts are facts, and this sort of detailed quantitative and qualitative study is all-too-rare in Evangelical circles.

Emerson’s premise is that much of what White Evangelicals do to unite across racial lines end up being counter-productive. He does so by showing a concise history of Evangelical thought about racism from Colonial times to the Civil Rights movement. His core thesis is that most work done is too individualistic—one person trying alone to cross racial boundaries. His basic suggestion is the cross-cultural congregation. Unfortunately, until one reads United by Faith, how to accomplish this goal is left to the reader’s imagination—which may by now have been stunted by all the piles of statistics suggesting that Evangelical racial reconciliation is futile. However, the power of God, starting with one person’s commitment to cross-cultural relationships, can start a chain reaction—and lead to hope.

Emerson, Michael. United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Emerson has convened a multicultural team of co-authors to follow-up his earlier work Divided by Faith. In this work, Emerson argues that Evangelicals, when they have done anything at all to work toward racial reconciliation, have been to individualistic in their approach.

Emerson then argues that the biblical and effective approach is the multicultural congregation in which no one race makes up more than 80% of the congregation. The authors explain the biblical and social need for such congregations. They then follow with hope-giving success stories which provide the philosophy, principles, and practices necessary to obtain the biblical social vision of the multicultural people of God.

Implied, but not highlighted or extracted in detail, is the truth that such congregations can and should then do two things: 1.) Be a visible testimony exhorting the world to “go and do likewise.” 2.) Take a stand against societal racism and promote racial reconciliation and justice.

Kellemen, Robert W. and Karole A. Edwards. Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007.

Beyond the Suffering is a one-of-a-kind African American narrative. It is not simply a history of America, not simply a history of African Americans, not simply a history of African American Christianity, but a narrative of how African American Christians ministered to one another. As the title suggests, the book tells how African American believers helped one another to move beyond their horrific suffering to a place of healing and hope.

The characters are the African American believers themselves. The plot is their real-life battles told in their empowering words. The authors are a co-authoring team, one an African American female, the other a Caucasian male. Together, they embrace the legacy of how African Americans sustained, healed, reconciled, and guided one another in the faith.

Written in an engaging style that allows African Americans to tell their own story, Beyond the Suffering reads like a novel. It empowers African Americans and all people of all races and nationalities to love like Christ loved even in the worst of circumstances. Readers not only are riveted by the powerful historical chronicles, but are also equipped to apply soul care and spiritual direction principles to their own lives and ministries.

Important Stuff

*Your Guide: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, is the Founder and CEO of RPM Ministries (www.rpmministries.org) through which he writes, speaks, and consults to equip God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. He blogs daily here.

*My Necessary Disclaimer: Of course, I don’t endorse everything in every article, book, or link that you’ll find in Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide. I report, you decide.

*Your Suggestions Are Welcomed: Feel free to post comments and/or send emails (rpm.ministries@gmail.com) about resources that you think deserve attention in various categories covered in Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide.

In light of the ongoing controversy over the arrest of African American Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., many of you have asked to hear more about my views on intercultural (multicultural) ministry.

Goals of a Christ-Centered TEAM Approach



The primary goal of Cultivating Christlike Intercultural Relational Competency: A Christ-Centered TEAM Approach is to equip people to develop four championship TEAM skills that empower them to function effectively in our culturally diverse society. People can learn how to relate harmoniously by building bridges of understanding across diverse cultures.

The TEAM approach is based upon the biblical conviction that God in Christ is moving all of history toward an eternity where “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language” will stand before the Lamb in united worship (Revelation 7:9-10). Thus the eternal goal is to equip people to relate interculturally now in light of their eternal future so that God is glorified and others are attracted to Christ by their love.



Learning Outcomes of A Christ-Centered TEAM Approach



After successful participation in Cultivating Christlike Intercultural Relational Competency: A Christ-Centered TEAM Approach, people will be able to implement the TEAM intercultural relational competencies of:

T: Taking another person’s earthly perspective through empathy and culturally-informed listening.

This is the ability to empathize with someone whose patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling developed out of a diverse culture. It is the ability to walk in the shoes of another person from another culture. It requires culturally-informed listening, among many other “skills.”



E: Engaging in bridge-building spiritual conversations through focusing on God’s eternal perspective.

This is the ability to encourage another person to assess their own individual, cultural, and universal experience through the lens of God’s eternal Person, perspective, purposes, and plans. It includes the both/and “skill” of listening to the earthly story while jointly weaving in God’s eternal, heavenly story.

A: Abolishing barriers through forgiveness and reconciliation.

This is the ability to apply Christ’s forgiveness of us to our intercultural relationships. It highlights the fact that “racism” is not a skin issue but a sin issue. It recognizes that integration alone is a legislative/law issue, while reconciliation is a heart issue, a spiritual issue. This includes the “skill” of being an ambassador of intercultural reconciliation.

M: Making intercultural peace through spiritual renewal.

This is the ability to move beyond the absence of hostility to the presence of biblical unity in diversity. It highlights biblical shalom which only comes from Christ’s supernatural resurrection power among His redeemed people. It includes the “skill” or relational competency of applying personal spiritual renewal to individual and group interpersonal relationships.

Just How Biblical Is Intercultural Ministry?

Consider just a few examples of how central intercultural ministry is to the eternal plan of God.

1. Intercultural Ministry Is a God Thing: James 2:1-13; Romans 2:4-11. For God so loved the world. God is no respecter of persons. He is calling people from all nations to His forever family. He calls us to godly living that shows no favoritism.

2. Intercultural Ministry Is a Christ Thing: Matthew 28:19-20; John 4:1-42. Christ calls us to make disciples of all nations. Christ models intercultural ministry in breaking social barriers to witness to the Samaritan women, resulting in the people proclaiming that He is indeed the Savior of the world.

3. Intercultural Ministry Is a Spirit Thing: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks. The Spirit purposefully combined the diverse members into one Body so that there would be no division.

4. Intercultural Ministry Is a Salvation Thing: Ephesians 2:11-22; Revelation 5:9. Christ’s salvation purpose is to reconcile, make peace, and create in Himself one new people who have full and equal access to the Father by the Spirit, making us all fellow citizens and joint members of God’s household. The Lamb purchased for God people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

5. Intercultural Ministry Is a Church Thing: Acts 2:14-47; Acts 10:1-48. The first Church and the Church throughout Acts integrated believers from diverse cultures.

6. Intercultural Ministry Is a Sanctification Thing: Colossians 3:1-11. As we put off the old and put on the new person in Christ we are renewed not only individually, but also corporately where there is no Greek or Jew, barbarian or Scythian, but Christ is all and is in all.

7. Intercultural Ministry Is an Eternal Thing: Revelation 7:9-10. As John peers into eternity, he witnesses a great multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people, and language worshipping God together forever.

Toward a Description of Intercultural Ministry/Relating



In the old game show, Name That Tune, contestants would say, “I can name that tune in ____ notes” (the lower the number of notes, the better). Well, I canNOT name the “tune” of intercultural (or multicultural or cross-cultural) ministry/relating in just a few notes. In fact, one specialist in this area lists more than a dozen different names for the concept related to intercultural/multiculturalism. That’s a dozen names—each with its own set of scores of definitions.

Still, we can at least suggest some beginning descriptions.

What Is Culture?

Let’s start with a supposedly simple word like “culture.” This word itself has a myriad of definitions. My working definition of culture is based upon a biblical theology/psychology of how God designed us.

Here are two similar ways I would word my description of culture:

*Culture is the shared relational, rational, volitional, and emotional patterns for living that people use in social interactions and learn through social interactions.

*Culture is the system of shared patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling that members of society use to relate to one another and to others, and that are learned through social interactions.

What Is Intercultural Relational Competency?

First, I use intercultural relational competency interchangeably with multicultural skillfulness. Here are a few ways I describe these terms:

*Intercultural relational competency is the ability to relate like Christ with people from other cultures.

*Intercultural relational competency is the ability to relate like Christ when interacting with people whose patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling are culturally different (diverse) from yours.

Speaking



I have spoken on this topic across the country in diverse settings. My presentation includes a five-page outline, a 60-slide PowerPoint presentation, and an engaging, interactive lecture/discussion. If you are interested in having me speak to your group, feel free to contact me: rpm.ministries@gmail.com.

Resources

My book Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction offers insights for all people into the great contributions to ministry made by our African American brothers and sisters. For more information on Beyond the Suffering visit: http://tinyurl.com/d7bwnv.

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

Day Nineteen: Cross-Cultural Ministry

Welcome to day nineteen 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 Nineteen: Cross-Cultural Ministry[1]

Long before multi-culturalism became fashionable, we find evidence of mutual worship and fellowship among blacks and whites. Though not the norm, we glean cultural competencies from these historical occurrences in which African American believers met their need for spiritual nurture with Caucasian believers.

Pulpit Ministry: Expounding the Scriptures Relevantly

Previously we met Solomon Northup—born free in Rhode Island, then kidnapped and enslaved in Louisiana from age thirty-three to forty-five. Though recognizing the inconsistency of his master, William Ford, a slave-owning Baptist preacher, Northup still notes:

“. . . it is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford.”

Northup details Ford’s pastoral ministry to his slaves. “We usually spent our Sabbaths at the opening, on which days our master would gather all his slaves about him, and read and expound the Scriptures. He sought to inculcate in our minds feelings of kindness towards each other, of dependence upon God—setting forth the rewards promised unto those who lead an upright and prayerful life. He spoke of the loving kindness of the Creator, and of the life that is to come.”

Pastor Ford related truth to life cross-culturally. Emphasizing the two great commandments, he taught Christians how to love one another and how to love God. Ford highlighted the character of God and the hope of heaven. Northup even recounts how Ford’s preaching led to the conviction and salvation of another slave, Sam.

Personal Ministry: Encouraging the Saints Relationally

Ford coupled his pulpit ministry with his personal ministry. Speaking of his time with Pastor Ford, Northup notes, “That little paradise in the Great Pine Woods was the oasis in the desert, towards which my heart turned lovingly, during many years of bondage.” Perhaps hard to imagine, but even in enslavement, even through ministry offered by a Baptist slave-owner, Northup experienced the ark of safety that is the “old ship of Zion.”

What was it about Ford’s life and ministry that so impacted Northup? During an extended trip by horseback and on foot to the Bayou, Ford “said many kind and cheering things to me on the way . . .” Ford knew how to speak life-giving words (Proverbs 18:21).

In exemplary fashion, Ford also used probing soul questions and spiritual conversations as he ministered to Northup. “He interacted with me in regard to the various fears and emotions I had experienced during the day and night, and if I had felt, at any time, a desire to pray. I felt forsaken of the whole world, I answered him, and was praying mentally all the while.”

Northup testifies to Ford’s relational competence. “So did that benignant man speak to me of this life and of the life hereafter; of the goodness and power of God, and of the vanity of earthly things, as we journeyed along the solitary road towards Bayou Boeuf.”

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Pastor William Ford demonstrated cross-cultural competency in his pulpit. What specific aspects of his ministry could you emulate today?

2. Pastor William Ford demonstrated cross-cultural competency in his personal ministry. What specific aspects of his ministry could you emulate today?

[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

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

Day Sixteen: Leaping to My Feet

Welcome to day sixteen 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 Sixteen: Leaping to My Feet[1]

African American conversion accounts splendidly assimilate the “two sides” of reconciliation. First, God’s Spirit hooks in the heart—he loads the conscience with guilt, bringing the sinner to the point of saying, “It’s horrible to sin.”

But the Spirit never leaves us there. He causes sinners to leap to their feet—he lightens the conscience with grace, bringing the sinner to the place of saying, “It’s wonderful to be forgiven!”

Jarena Lee

Jarena Lee’s conversion narrative displays the potency of these twin Gospel themes. Born on February 11, 1783, in Cape May, New Jersey, Lee grew up with parents ignorant of the Gospel. At age 24, she was converted under the preaching ministry of a Presbyterian missionary and of Reverend Richard Allen.

The year is 1804, and Lee undergoes deep conviction as she hears the Presbyterian minister preach from the Psalms. “Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin, born unholy and unclean. Sprung from man, whose guilty fall corrupts the race, and taints us all.”

In response, she writes, “This description of my condition struck me to the heart, and made me feel in some measure, the weight of my sins, and sinful nature. But not knowing how to run immediately to the Lord for help, I was driven of Satan, in the course of a few days, and tempted to destroy myself.”

In fact, Lee senses Satan suggesting to her that she drown herself in a brook near her home, in which there was a deep hole where the waters whirled about among the rocks. Resisting this temptation, her mind reminds tortured. Continuing to search for peace, she finds only doubt.

Grace for Our Disgrace

Experienced soul physicians recognize her symptoms as the result of preaching guilt without grace. Guilt minus grace always equals Satan’s condemning narrative of despair.

The Apostle Paul prescribes his antidote. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). Competent ambassadors of reconciliation know that grace is God’s prescription for our disgrace.

An Expert Soul Physician

Reverend Richard Allen was such a man. Attending an afternoon service in which Allen was preaching, Lee perceives in the center of her heart the sin of malice, and she receives the forgiveness of God.

“That instant, it appeared to me as if a garment, which had entirely enveloped my whole person, even to my fingers’ end, split at the crown of my head, and was stripped away from me, passing like a shadow from my sight—when the glory of God seemed to cover me instead.”

Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, God covers Lee’s shameful nakedness with garments purchased in and cleansed by blood. Immediately, she celebrates the wonders of forgiving grace.

“That moment, though hundreds were present, I did leap to my feet and declare that God, for Christ’s sake, had pardoned the sins of my soul. Great was the ecstasy of my mind, for I felt that not only the sin of malice, but all other sins were swept away together.”

Lee and a multitude of other African Americans depicted conversion using the biblical metaphor of rebirth. The result of being born again by forgiving grace was twofold: a new nurture—having a new relationship to God as beloved sons and daughters, and a new nature—having a new identity in Christ as cleansed saints.

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. African American soul physicians understood salvation to be more than a quick praying of a “canned” prayer. What do you think of their view of salvation?

2. African American soul physicians taught that grace super abounds over guilt. In our Gospel presentations today, do we tend to highlight only guilt, only grace, or a “splendid assimilation” of both?

[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

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

Day Fourteen: Identifying with a Suffering Savior

Welcome to day fourteen 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 Fourteen: Identifying with a Suffering Savior[1]

It is important to ponder why African Americans turned to Christianity given the hypocritical religious culture of many of the Christian slave owners. In the midst of suffering through the ordeal of the sin of slavery, how did God save enslaved people from the slavery of sin?

Like any starving person, African Americans searched for sustenance. However, they often initially resisted Christian conversion because of the apparent contradiction between slave owners’ professed beliefs and their brutal treatment of their slaves.

Daniel Alexander Payne explains the inner battle that resulted from such hypocrisy. Born to free parents in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1811, during his ordination in 1839, he describes the testing of faith caused by Christian duplicity.

“The slaves are sensible of the oppression exercised by their masters; and they see these masters on the Lord’s day worshiping in His holy Sanctuary. They hear their masters professing Christianity; they see their masters preaching the Gospel; they hear these masters praying in their families, and they know that oppression and slavery are inconsistent with the Christian religion; therefore they scoff at religion itself—mock their masters, and distrust both the goodness and justice of God. Yes, I have known them even to question His existence.”

Religious Reconciliation

If spiritually famished African Americans were going to convert to Christianity, then they had to convert on the basis of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as revealed in the Bible, not on the basis of Christianity revealed in the lifestyles of the Christians they knew. Ironically, to find redemption in Christ, African Americans had to redeem Christianity as they saw it practiced.

Howard Thurman put it this way. “By some amazing but vastly creative spiritual insight the slave undertook the redemption of a religion that the master had profaned in his midst.”

Christ’s suffering for humanity’s sin was the key that unlocked their hearts and enlightened their eyes. “Jesus quickly became the ardent personification of the slaves’ own suffering.” Their suffering at the hands of Christians caused them to identify with a suffering Savior who suffered at the hands of religious leaders.

Salvation from Sin, Not from Suffering

At the same time, African American Christians clearly recognized and constantly emphasized the difference between Christ’s sinlessness and their personal need for forgiveness from sin. The recurring theme of the conversion narratives was salvation from sin, not from suffering. Yes, Christ shared with them the experience of unjust suffering. But more importantly, they shared in Christ’s suffering for their sins.

Pastor James W. C. Pennington, reflecting on his conversion, seamlessly expresses his understanding of suffering and of sin. Without minimizing for a moment the evils of slavery, he maximizes for all eternity the horrors of his own enslavement to sin and Satan.

“I was a lost sinner and a slave to Satan; and soon I saw that I must make another escape from another tyrant. I did not by any means forget my fellow-bondmen, of whom I had been sorrowing so deeply, and travailing in spirit so earnestly; but I now saw that while man had been injuring me, I had been offending God; and that unless I ceased to offend him, I could not expect to have his sympathy in my wrongs; and moreover, that I could not be instrumental in eliciting his powerful aid in behalf of those for whom I mourned so deeply.”

Rejecting the “slaveholding gospel” of the institutional Church of that era, the enslaved African Americans gave birth to a regenerated Christianity that reflected fundamental Christian doctrine. It created the new narrative of present resilience made possible by a Savior who suffered with them because they were sinned against. It also created the new narrative of future hope made possible by a Savior who suffered for them because they were sinners.

Their focus offers an indispensable caution for all soul physicians. While we are called to sustain and heal people in their suffering, if we neglect to address their sinning, if we fail to offer reconciling, then we may enable people to become more self-sufficient sinners. Such one-sided ministry attempts to empower people to live this life more successfully while giving them little incentive to turn to Christ’s resurrection power for eternal life later and abundant life now. We should shudder at the thought.

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Hypocritical Christians were a common threat to African American acceptance of Christianity. Of what hypocritical behaviors, attitudes, and styles of relating do Christians in our day need to repent?

2. African American converts understood that they needed Jesus because they were sinners, not simply because they were sufferers. As we present the Gospel today, do we present Jesus primarily as the healer of our hurts, or as the Savior of our sins?

3. Specifically, what can we learn from our African American forebears about biblically presenting Christ’s Gospel?

[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.