The Forty-Day Journey of Promise

Day Twenty-One: Thank God I Shall Not Live Here Always!

Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.

Future Memory

Pastor Peter Randolph describes how enslaved African Americans consoled each other as they parted at the end of each secret worship service.

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

What an interesting phrase. How can people simultaneously forget their suffering and remind others of their trials?

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

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

A Slack Grip; A Taut Grip

Their grip on this world was slack. “Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Here today. Gone tomorrow. Like a vapor. Like a fading flower and withering grass.”

Their grip on the next world was taut. “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Maranatha.”

The result? They are deeply connected with one another—passing from one another, shaking hands, bidding farewell, promising to meet again, some day, somewhere.

They are genuinely content within their own souls—knowing joy, happiness, and liberty, though outwardly experiencing the opposites. They are profoundly communing with Christ—singing a parting hymn of praise, certainly not for their circumstances, definitely in spite of their situations, but preeminently because of who God is.

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

Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

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

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

The Forty-Day Journey of Promise

Day Twenty: The Invisible Institution

Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.

Congregational Gatherings: Slipping In and Stealing Away

Historians investigating African American religious history have labeled the secretive slave worship services the “Invisible Institution” because much of it was invisible to the eyes of their masters.

“In their cabins, woods, thickets, hollows, and brush arbors (shelter of cut branches also called ‘hush harbors’) throughout the South, slaves held their own religious meetings where they interpreted Christianity according to their experience, applying the stories and symbols of the Bible to make sense out of their lives.”

In order to worship freely, Christian slaves would either slip into a home or steal away to the woods. What actually occurred during these covert meetings to make them so fruitful? Pastor Peter Randolph provides the details we seek.

“Not being allowed to hold meetings on the plantation, the slaves assemble in the swamps, out of reach of the patrols. They have an understanding among themselves as to the time and place of getting together. This is often done by the first one arriving breaking boughs from the trees, and bending them in the direction of the selected spot.”

For them, worship and fellowship was worth any risk and was approached with tremendous expectancy. Does our commitment to and preparation for gathering together hold a candle to theirs?

Mutual Ministry: First Century Christianity in Nineteenth-Century America

Once there, then what?

“Arrangements are then made for conducting the exercises. They first ask each other how they feel, the state of their minds, etc. The male members then select a certain space, in separate groups, for their division of the meeting. Preaching in order by the brethren; then praying and singing all around, until they generally feel quite happy. The speaker usually commences by calling himself unworthy, and talks very slowly, until feeling the spirit, he grows excited, and in a short time, there fall to the ground twenty or thirty men and women under its influence.”

Sound familiar? Their experience sounds like Acts 2:42-47a.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. . . . All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”

In Randolph’s gathering, they organized the organism (“made arrangements for conducting the exercises”). That is, though valuing spontaneity and the leading of the Spirit, they also treasured purposeful planning.

They sustained and healed (“ask each other how they feel, the state of their minds”). Given the hardships and hard times, we might imagine quite the lengthy spiritual conversations. Much different than our typical Sunday morning greetings. “Hello. How are you?” Without waiting for a response, we move on to our next target. Imagine, instead, if we really asked how others feel—exploring one another’s emotional life—on Sunday morning, in church! Imagine, also, if we truly probed one another’s state of mind—dealing with each another’s thought life and mental wellbeing—on Sunday morning, in church!

They enjoyed small group fellowship (“then select a certain space, in separate groups, for their division of the meeting”).

They were edified by the preached Word (“preaching in order by the brethren”). Later we’ll see that they would enjoy testifying by many members, exhorting by some members, and preaching by one primary, called-out leader.

They engaged in hearing from God and talking to God (“then praying and singing all around”). They prayed and praised; listened and spoke.

Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

1. Concerning worship preparation and sacrifice, how would you compare your preparations for worship to the preparations made by African American believers in the Invisible Institution? How would you compare the sacrifices that you make in order to worship with the sacrifices that they made?

2. Reflect back on Randolph’s description of Acts 2:42-47 Christianity. In what ways are you already enjoying Acts 2:42-47 Christianity? How could you experience even more Acts 2:42-47 Christianity?

Peter Randolph's Peculiar Institution

The Forty-Day Journey of Promise

Day Eighteen: More Than Just Sunday Meetings

Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.

Everybody’s Heart in Tune

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

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

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

The Old Ship of Zion

Another African American Christian described it like this.

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

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

Life Lessons for Today

Because we all too easily abandon meeting together, we have much to learn from the high priority that African American believers placed upon communal worship and fellowship. One Black Church History scholar summarizes it well:

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

Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

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

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