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Lutherans in Black ministry celebrate`Crossing Over`

By Paula Schlueter Ross

SELMA, Ala. -- “Crossing Over” -- from bondage to freedom, from sin to salvation, from death to everlasting life -- was the theme as some 1,000 peopl convo march e gathered for the 19th Black Ministry Family Convocation, held here July 19-23.

In an emotional illustration of that theme, some 75 convocation attendees marched across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge -- just as civil-rights protesters had done in 1965 -- to celebrate and honor the determination of those early Black leaders.

The march was the “fulfillment of a dream” for Dr. Phillip Campbell, executive director of the Synod's Board for Black Ministry Services, which sponsored the convocation. Campbell described it as “very emotional.”

“I had heard so much about it when I was in school … and here I am, actually in this [historic] place,” he said.

“After the walk, there was a policeman standing there -- a great big guy -- and I walked up and shook his convo wiggins hand,” Campbell said. “And I thought [in 1965] police beat up on the marchers. And this time we were shaking hands, so I thought that was rather symbolic.”

The convocation, held every two years, brings together Lutherans involved in Black ministry Synod wide for worship, business sessions, sharing, training, and fellowship.

Worship -- including rousing performances by Black-ministry choirs and soloists -- is a regular part of every convocation, according to Campbell, and this year's gathering featured a total of seven worship services.

“Worship services are always a highlight,” Campbell said. “And we have some great preachers, outstanding preachers, and I just love it. It gives us a chance to showcase some of our best preachers.”

Preaching at the convocation's opening worship service, Rev. James Wiggins Jr. told participants “it's time to cross over from human failures to divine possibilities.”

The Selma-born Wiggins told worshipers they would have to overcome obstacles “to get not where you want to be but where God wants you to be convo communion ,” and that “God will do some amazing things through you.”

Just as God helped the Israelites by dividing the Jordan River so that they could cross into the “promised land,” God “will do it for you, too,” Wiggins said.

Rev. John Loum, who serves African immigrants in the Synod's Indiana District, told the convocation that Africans “want to be partners” with African Americans, and he proposed that the two groups work together in leadership training, youth ministry, and church planting.

Loum said many African immigrants are joining U.S. Muslim groups. “We need to bring them back,” Loum said. “We need to be intentional about reaching them for Jesus Christ.”

In her keynote address on leadership, Dr. Cheryl Williams described a leader as “someone who has influenced” others. An effective leader has followers, and treats each of them as an individual, Williams said.

“Trust is the foundation convo workshop of leadership,” she said, and leaders must consider trust as their “most precious” asset -- if others don't trust you, they will not follow, she said

Williams, associate professor in the School of Business and assistant to the president at Concordia University, Irvine, Calif., encouraged attendees to “be ready” to step forward as leaders. A phone call got Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. involved in civil rights, she said, and Rosa Parks was “ready” when she refused to give up her bus seat, launching the civil-rights movement that eventually changed U.S. history.

Effective leaders also have “vision,” Williams said, to be able to see things in new and creative ways.

She urged African Americans to become self-sufficient, create a “sense of community and trust” among themselves, strengthen family relationships, and safeguard their health.

During business sessions, delegates adopted six resolutions, all unanimously, voting to:


	encourage Black-ministry congregations to “embrace” the Synod's Ablaze! initiative by becoming more active in reaching people for Christ, finding new ways to “revitalize” existing congregations for outreach, and making use of available resources and training.
	encourage financial support for Phase 1 of the “Vision Plan” of the Board for Black Ministry Services, which asks each member of LCMS Black-ministry congregations -- some 70,000 men, women, and children -- to contribute $5 a year for three years. The total offerings of more than $1 million would be used for Black-ministry outreach efforts. Campbell told Reporter that Black Lutherans are embracing the idea because “everybody can participate, and it's not beyond the reach of even Sunday-school kids and people on fixed incomes.” He said he is optimistic the goal will be reached.
	encourage the Synod's Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology -- an “alternate route” for training immigrants for pastoral ministry -- to accept African American students. The action was taken in light of “difficulties” the LCMS has had in “raising leaders and planting churches in [largely urban] African-American communities,” according to the resolution passed by delegates.
	designate $6,775.88 in convocation offerings -- contributed during worship services -- for Black Lutheran higher education through Concordia College, Selma, the nation's only historically Black Lutheran college and host of the convocation.
	ask the Board for Black Ministry Services to consider Washington, D.C., as the site of the next Black Ministry Family Convocation in 2008.

In his report from the Board for Black Ministry Services, Campbell shared goals for “Lifting the Vision, Today and Beyond”:


	planting congregations to reach a new generation of African Americans. Campbell urged each congregation to start at least one new outreach ministry in the next year.
	re-energizing the 300-plus existing LCMS Black-ministry congregations for outreach.
	recruiting more pastors and other professional church workers for Black ministry. Fewer than 100 Black pastors currently serve Synod congregations, according to Campbell, and he challenged each pastor and church worker to “seek his [or her] own replacement” by recruiting more church workers.
	positioning LCMS schools for “maximum outreach” to African Americans in urban areas.
	encouraging Black-ministry congregations to provide financial support for LCMS Black-ministry efforts.

Campbell also issued challenges to Black-ministry congregations to make worship “more meaningful” for African Americans, to strengthen ties between themselves and African-immigrant congregations, and to reach out with the Gospel to non-Blacks.

He described the board's Ablaze! goals: to share the Gospel with 1 million African Americans in North America, and to raise $1 million for Black ministry outreach, which works out to “$1 per person [reached] -- an effective use of money,” he said.

Addressing the convocation, LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick recalled growing up in Houston and seeing signs convo kieschnick of racial segregation on public restrooms and drinking fountains. Even as a boy, Kieschnick realized the practice was wrong, he said, and he rejoiced when those outward signs of discrimination ended.

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have crossed over,” he said to applause.

With the Gospel, “we have the message of freedom for those who are trapped in sin,” Kieschnick said. “There are billions of people in this world who need to be set free.”

Referencing the “reverse migration” of Blacks to the south, he said LCMS Lutherans “need to be ready to go and engage people with the Gospel” and to “expand and establish ministries in key areas of the population.”

Kieschnick shared the goals of Ablaze! -- to witness to 100 million people worldwide and to start 2,000 new congregations in North America by 2017 -- and said he believes “we will accomplish and surpass those goals.”

“We cannot rest in our task of sharing the Good News,” he said, and he borrowed the motto of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron, encouraging Lutherans to “ 'keep swinging' -- with the Gospel” in a “faithful and bold witness.”

“The pure Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message that crosses over and changes lives,” the Synod president said.

Kieschnick shared results of a recent study of Black churches in the United States that revealed that members of “grandparent” generations are much more religious than children -- a span of 67.3 percent to just 15.7 percent.

Quoting Ronald Reagan, Kieschnick said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. “Just l convo 3 women ike freedom, faith is not carried in the bloodstream,” he said, and he encouraged convocation-goers to “pass on” their faith to others, especially to young people.

The convocation offered more than 20 workshops on a variety of topics, including inspirational music, identifying spiritual gifts, designing a Web site, grief, church planting, marriage, getting out of debt, starting a church bookstore, media ministry, getting men to go to church, and planting a church.

In his “mega workshop,” Bishop Gary Hawkins Sr., pastor of Voices of Faith Ministries in Stone Mountain, Ga., advised pastors and congregation members to love church visitors “as they are,” without judging them. His church draws 150 to 200 new members every month, Hawkins said, and he encouraged congregations to offer a number of activities -- and to be open every day -- for visitors.

Using volunteers from the audience, Hawkins demonstrated his church's method of welcoming church visitors with “pep rally” clapping and cheers.

Pastors, he said, “gotta have passion. If you don't get upset when nobody has joined [your congregation], why are you a pastor?”

In his keynote, Dr. John Beasley shared glimpses of his life as an actor, working with such stars as Oprah Winfrey and Robert Duvall. Beasley, who starred on TV's “Everwood,” said the uncertainty of acting jobs made him rely on God.

“Through it all, God is talking to me,” Beasley said. “And every time He closes one door, another one opens, and it's always better.”

Beasley advised convocation-goers to “stop doing your thing and do God's thing.”

Sarah Stevenson of Charlotte, N.C., said she has attended all but one Black Ministry Convocation since 1978. Stevenson, who served on the Synod's Board for Black Ministry Services for 12 years, told Reporter that she looks forward to attending the biennial convocations.

“I go for the fellowship, I go to hear the sermons, and it's kind of a renewal,” Stevenson said. She also enjoys “getting new ideas from sister churches,” convo harris new she added.

Darlene Harris of Kansas City, Kan., attended the convocation with her 15-year-old daughter, Danielle, to “get acquainted with the Lutheran faith.”

Although she attends worship services at Grace Lutheran Church in Kansas City, Kan., Darlene is not yet a baptized and confirmed member. Her teenage daughter is -- Danielle joined the congregation in May after getting involved in its basketball-and-Bible-study youth outreach ministry four years ago.

The elder Harris told Reporter she enjoyed her first convocation, especially “the music, the praise and worship, and the speakers,” and she's now ready to commit herself to the Lutheran faith.

Prior to the opening of the convocation, Lutheran educators, district “unit” leaders in Black ministry, and church planters met separately in pre-conferences on the Concordia, Selma, campus.

Posted July 27, 2006