TODAY the black clergyman is no longer the symbol of respectability, virtue, authority, honesty, and fidelity. We all can recall those days of yore when the black clergyman was the most respected and revered leader in the community. The "now" generation of nonbelievers, scoffers, doubters, the would-be change makers, spew their venomous darts upon the black religious leaders of the inner city.
Why have we been so rudely removed from the hallowed pedestal as the voice of conscience for the community? Why has the halo of virtue, fidelity, and respectability been torn from our time-honored brow?
The black clergyman is no longer considered a leader in the inner city. Some have been bold enough to say that the black clergy and the church must go. I have met men whose lives have been threatened. I have seen the remains of bombed churches and other religious institutions. These things are frightening, to say the least. Why has the ministry been down-graded? Are we contributors to the fact?
Face the Voice of Dissent
These are some of the questions, observations, and charges that we must frankly and honestly meet. And we must have the courage to face candidly and honestly the voice of dissent, or rebellion against our leader ship role in the inner city. Then we must be tall enough, in humility, to admit where we have failed, to accept change and to change, thereby bridging the no-confidence gap that separates the black clergy from the now generation, from the black militants who are the self-appointed spokesmen for the inner cities of America.
I believe that God has permitted the current rebellion and critical attitudes of today to plague and to disturb us so that we, the religious leaders of the community, may be awakened to our sense of responsibility and our duty to the challenging needs of the inner cities.
Here let me suggest how I believe the black clergy can regain the reins of responsible leadership. First, preach the Word by precept and example. The apostle Paul has said, "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ . . . ; preach the word" (2 Tim. 4:1, 2). "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" (1 Cor. 9:16). "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16).
The World Needs the Word
Gentlemen, what the inner city needs, what America needs, what the world needs desperately is the Word of God, which brings the power to change the lives of the inhabitants of these cities. So much of our modern day preaching consists of high-sounding platitudes couched in flowery words, but void of substance and life and spirit; but men today need a change of direction, a change of mind, a change of heart. That change can be brought about only by the divine power that is found in the Word of God. We call it conversion.
That is why we must not be afraid or intimidated by those who no longer believe in the efficacy of the spoken word. We must declare to this godless generation the fallacy of the new morality. We must stand unafraid upon the walls and declare God's impending judgments against evildoers. As God's anointed modern day prophets, why should we cringe and run like Jonah from our solemn duty to cry out against sin in high places and low places, against stealing, cheating, lying, white-collar dishonesty, adultery, murder, and crime? The failure of the black clergy to preach the unadulterated Word of God against these evils, to call sin by its right name, has made atheists and infidels out of some of the black militants and youth of the inner cities.
Christ Is Concerned
The second way in which I believe we can regain the reins of responsible leader ship is to identify Christ with the problems of the inner city. We read in John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Christ dwelt among us. Making the ministry of the Word relevant to the current explosive problems of the innercity is a crying need. We have failed to equate Christ with the needs and problems of today. What I mean is that we need to help people to understand, both young and old, that Christ is concerned, and more than being concerned, that He is equal to the needs and the problems of the ghetto, whether they be housing, unemployment, poverty, disease, sickness, drug addiction, alcoholism, marital difficulties, suffering, wars, what have you; Christ is concerned.
As we read the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—there are scores of illustrations pointing out how Christ became involved with the problems, the sufferings, and the needs of the common people. In fact, we are told He became poor, and I believe He became poor in order to identify with the poor, and in order to communicate with the downcast, the outcast, the downtrodden, the have-nots of His day. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).
The Supreme Test
The third thing I would like to emphasize is certainly the heart of the whole matter. Christ has made a concern, a loving concern, for others the supreme test of true discipleship. In fact, it is the divine pass port for entrance into the kingdom. You will recall the words of Matthew 25:3540, "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. . . . Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Of course you will recall the other side of the coin. Those who did not do these things had no right to enter His kingdom.
The most frequent criticism we hear to day against the black clergy and the church is this, "What have you done for me, for the inner city?" We are accused of being selfish, greedy, concerned only with bigger and faster cars. As the late Martin Luther King said in his book Where Do We Go From Here?: "Many of the young people pro claiming black power today are disappointed with some Negro clergymen who are more concerned about the size of the wheelbase on their automobile than about the quality of their service to the Negro community." They say we are more concerned about our expensive wardrobes, our palatial dwellings in suburbia, our swimming pools, larger salaries, more stipends, et cetera.
Is this also true of Seventh-day Adventists? In our work there is a critical spirit developing due to some of our examples in this area. The minister is referred to by his youth as the Fat Cat. One black militant has said, "Black clergymen are noted as exploiters of the poor." My fellow clergy men, we must confess that some men are only concerned with their selfish ambitions and desires. Their only purpose in preaching is to increase, not the spiritual blessings of the laity, but to increase their own temporal blessings.
Again we must take Christ as our example. He was concerned for the welfare of others, not for the welfare of Himself. In fact, Christ had no place He could call home. He said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20). He had no high-powered automobile for His pastoral visits. He did not even own an ass; He had to borrow one to ride into Jerusalem. His was a selfless walking ministry.
Are we willing to follow in His foot steps? If so, then we will have to change some of the concepts that we have of the ministry. We will consider the message of Matthew 25:31-46 a vital part of the third angel's message of Revelation 14. As the official spokesmen of heaven to our parishes, to our cities, we must show a vibrant, living, practical concern for this world as well as for the world to come. Equally important, we must not, we dare not, lose sight of the hereafter while dealing with the here now. The charge of spookism has not frightened me in the least, neither will it deter me from preaching the Word of God about the hereafter, about the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ as King of kings. Therein lies the danger of a two-world message. As Seventh-day Adventist preachers we must not de-emphasize nor water down our Advent hope of a better world. This is the attitude of the clergy today and it is a tragedy to de-emphasize the hereafter. They have gone to the extreme in that they are preaching a gospel that concerns itself only with this world and its problems. We dare not fall into that trap of the devil.
Walking in His Steps
Again you will remember the statement that the Word dwelt among us. Christ lived here. He slept and He ate here. He had fellowship with the common people. We read from The Desire of Ages, page 640, "Many feel that it would be a great privilege to visit the scenes of Christ's life on earth, to walk where He trod, to look upon the lake beside which He loved to teach, and the hills and valleys on which His eyes so often rested. But we need not go to Nazareth, to Capernaum, or to Bethany, in order to walk in the steps of Jesus. We shall find His footprints beside the sickbed, in the hovels of poverty, in the crowded alleys of the great city, and in every place where there are human hearts in need of consolation. In doing as Jesus did when on earth, we shall walk in His steps."
We must not be afraid to dirty our hands, to soil our feet in bringing tangible evidence of our love and concern for the millions who dwell in these inner cities. Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the black clergy must make the church come alive. It must become a dynamo of activity. It must show a sensitivity for the social, moral, and spiritual needs of the community. It can no longer follow a one-day-a-week schedule. It must become a dynamic entity serving the people seven days a week. The church must organize its machinery in order to serve the needs of our people. For too long we have been callous and insensitive to these physical, social, and moral needs of the inner city.
Last year, for the first time in our history, we made a real effort to meet the crying needs of the inner cities of the United States. In addition to what has been done and is being done by many of our churches and conferences through the Health and Welfare agencies more than S200,000 was spent to meet the critical needs and to buy time, as it were, in the inner cities. Storm clouds are gathering, and I predict that we are going to see more and feel more the impact of this growing restlessness, this militancy, this refusal to buckle under to the past by the young people of this country. Particularly am I thinking of those of our own ethnic group. Therefore, if we are to survive, if we are to complete the task that God has given to us, then we must in every city, in every community, organize and financially support a meaningful pro gram that will say to black America, as well as to white America, that as clergy men, as a church, we do have a heart, we do have a message, we do have a tangible love to share with those in our cities. Then and only then will the ministry of the black clergy become relevant to the problems and the needs of the millions who now dwell in the inner cities of America and elsewhere.
"Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape the wrath of the black storm be cause thou art black more than all the whites. For if thou, the black clergy [black Seventh-day Adventist clergy], boldest thy peace at this time (no concern, no sensitivity, no involvement, no identity and no ministry for the body, mind, and soul) then shall enlargement and deliverance come from another place. But thou, black Seventh-day Adventist clergyman, and thy Father's house, the church, shall be destroyed: and I know, and you should know, that thou, the black Seventh-day Adventist pastors, the black churches and the black conferences have come upon the scene of action for such a time as this" (paraphrase of Esther 4:13, 14).
May God help us to arise to the challenge of the hour.
