Vanguards of a Missionary Uprising

Vanguards of a Missionary Uprising

Condensed

Challenging Christian African-American Students

to Lead Missions Mobilization

Michael V. Fariss

Published by Urban Discovery Ministries

Norfolk, Virginia

VANGUARDS OF A MISSIONARY UPRISING CONDENSED

Challenging Christian African-American Students

to Lead Missions Mobilization

Copyright 2017 Michael V. Fariss

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-9776180-1-9

Published by Urban Discovery Ministries, Norfolk, Virginia

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017905273

All Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version

of the Bible.

The use of materials from various websites does not imply

endorsement of those sites in their entirety.

Contents

Preface

7

Chapter 1

Know the Mission Well

9

Chapter 2

Find Your Identity in Christ

23

Chapter 3

Lead with True Discipleship

29

Chapter 4

Celebrate Your Generation's Freedom

41

Chapter 5

Find Calling Through Discipleship

45

Chapter 6

Pioneer in Spirit

57

Chapter 7

Lead by Empowering

63

Chapter 8

Bring It Strategically

71

Chapter 9

Manage Money for Mission

77

Chapter 10

Balance Two Historical Viewpoints

89

Chapter 11

Diagnose Hidden Hurdles

109

Chapter 12

Choose the Narrow Road from Norfolk

135

Chapter 13

Recognize the Broad Road's Destruction

143

Chapter 14

Understand America's White Christian Mindset

165

Chapter 15

Add Dynamics of a Successful Uprising

173

Notes 191

7

Preface

In faith that Jesus Christ will do a new thing to extensively empower

Christian African-American students, I challenge you to step up and

lead. Several Norfolk State University students once invited me to lead

a Bible study on their campus. Their strong desire to know and obey

God's will inspired me to begin writing. I appreciated their love for

Christ and how kindly they welcomed me. A few of them, along with

other students, joined me on an outreach trip to Jamaica. Witnessing

their ability in Christ to dynamically fulfill God's eternal purpose creat-

ed a sense of urgency in me. I felt compelled to write to African-Ameri-

can students and spur them on in this high calling so they might unleash

their potential upon the world.

This book challenges you to take on the one identity denied Chris-

tian African Americans so far: to become the vanguard leaders who mo-

bilize a unified American witness for Christ globally. This leadership

role in missionary work in Africa, was once the dream of many black

Christians after Emancipation. I challenge you to "lift up your eyes,"

as Jesus commanded, and dream even bigger. Lead to fulfill His great

mission worldwide.

First, I focus on reaching your great potential as a missions leader.

I define His mission and explain how to strategically lead. I offer en-

couragement to deploy yourself and others as freedom forces who are

organized and ready for action. Dedicate yourself to prepare now for

God's high calling as a missionary vanguard who leads His people.

In the last six chapters, I provide insights into missions' historical

background, breaking silence about structural problems that hinder Af-

rican Americans from extensively participating in missions, so you may

overcome them.

Aim to heighten your sense of destiny as Christ's disciple-maker

who combine evangelism with social concern. Embrace your identity

as Christ's ambassador with the vision of leading a diverse but unified

witness for Christ.

Mobilizing Christian blacks and whites for Christ's unified mission

will require more than overcoming the race problem. This book explains

how to navigate unresolved issues from the past that lead many of both

races to disrespect the Bible's authority as God's Word. I challenge you

to unify black and white Christians with all believers, under the one true

purpose that God reveals in the Bible.

8

With this challenge, I address the basic "nuts-and-bolts" mechanics

for spreading a new missions ideology.(2) I write to inspire you to step

up as a spiritual activist. By God's grace and the Holy Spirit's power,

may you mobilize many for freedom's cause. Follow Christ by forg-

ing a new path as a vanguard of a spiritual uprising. Jesus commanded

you to take up this right. He is definitely worth it. Courageously fulfill

God's eternal purpose by loving and obeying Christ. Make your life

count for eternity and for the great glory of our unstoppable Lord.(3)

Please weigh carefully my challenges and discover the glory of putting

your life on the line for Christ's great love and mission.

Respectfully,

Michael V. Fariss

9

Chapter 1

Know the Mission Well

A Vanguard Understands the Uprising's Purpose

Discover Your Revolutionary Potential

African-American student, get ready to shock the world. I write to

challenge you as a mentor who respectfully believes in you and sees

your tremendous potential to change the world for Christ. Prayerfully

open your heart as I dare to speak for Him.

Check This Out

While reading my late father's diary, which predates the Civil Rights

era, I discovered that he recognized your great potential for radically

changing international ministry. Many Christians call this international

ministry, "world missions."

I believe that God gave my father a clear vision of your great value

and spiritual destiny. Despite my role in ministry with African Ameri-

cans since 1979, my father never shared this vision with me. After his

death, my mother gave me an article from a South Carolina newspaper.

It described his attempt to start a Bible institute in the mid-1950s for Af-

rican-American students. Also, my mother provided his personal diary

that corroborates the newspaper's account. Though my father's Bible

school closed, his initial purpose for starting the school astonished me.

Before the first Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court deci-

sion overturned legally sanctioned segregation, my dad embraced what

most black and white Christians still do not comprehend today. He saw

the justice and wisdom of equipping African Americans and putting them

into motion for world missions. Dad went on to pastor a church. Later,

he watched me found Urban Discovery Ministries, which is often called

UDM, but he gave me no input from his experience in South Carolina.

Ironically, his visionary purpose for African-American college students

now fuels my life and syncs perfectly with UDM's mission. Those who

prayed for God to accomplish Dad's vision in the 1950s would rejoice

to see how God has not forgotten their requests. He continues to answer

these along with the prayers offered for my life's work today.

An African-American pastor once told me that Dad's Bible school

attempt was an act of justice against segregation. He meant segregation

10

in classrooms. Additionally, I believe Dad's vision was also an act of

justice against segregation in the mission field. If you embrace this vi-

sion, you will become a vanguard on the cutting edge of new things that

God is doing in the world. It will be the greatest challenge of your life.

A New Black Thing

A quote from the article explains my father's vision and purposes

for the Bible school in the mid-1950s:

Christ's final commission will be continually stressed because "we

believe God is doing a new thing in missions. For the first time, in

an extensive way, colored people can be used around the world as

missionaries. There are places today where a white missionary has

two strikes against him, but a Negro can go without opposition."(1)

I believe that Christ can use anyone of any race to fulfill His mission

anywhere. Yet, this "new thing" that Dad believed God was doing in

missions back then has yet to be fulfilled. After nearly 60 years, African

Americans in world missions remain an overwhelming minority. In

1980, God called me to minister to inner-city youth. This calling ex-

panded to family outreach, then to church planting and consulting.

Despite this progression in purpose, I finally understand that this

work merely laid the foundation for my ultimate purpose: your mobili-

zation. After reading the article, I began praying all the more that Christ

will mobilize people of African descent for world missions "for the first

time, in an extensive way!" This prayer sums up my passion to encour-

age you to fulfill your great calling and assignment from Christ.

About 200 years ago, a European missionary began the modern

missions movement. Since then, this movement mobilized thousands

of missionaries from many different races. What kept African Ameri-

cans from participating in this movement and, thereby, denying your

full destiny in Christ? Why did white Christians from my father's gen-

eration fail to equip blacks for this cause? Why did white missions lead-

ers exclude African Americans from the decision-making process? Why

has little changed since the 1950s in missions? You deserve to know.

Also, you deserve to know your rights and responsibilities for bringing

Christ's Gospel to the nations.

I attempt to address these issues and challenge you to grapple with

their ramifications. Sixty years ago, my father appreciated God's vision

11

for extensively mobilizing African-American students for missions. En-

vision yourself, along with Christian African-American students from

across our nation, rising up to obey Christ's wonderful Commission.

See yourself, with many other people of African descent, leading a rev-

olutionary movement of Christ's love for the lost by the Holy Spirit's

power. Leading this spiritual revolution will allow you to take your

rightful place at the forefront of Christ's witnesses in the world. Lead

from the front and become Christ's amazing vanguard in missions.

What is a Vanguard?

This book uses the term "vanguard" to emphasize mobilizing many

to obey Christ's Commission through revolutionary, innovative, and

courageous leadership. I bring out these aspects of the word from its

political, business, cultural, and military meanings. Politically speaking,

a vanguard is the party that places itself in the center of a revolutionary

movement and at the forefront of a mass action. In a business sense,

vanguards lead through innovation, creating new thinking and ideas.(2)

Referring to culture, vanguards influence how people from different

cultures view and connect with one another. To mobilize missionaries

cross-culturally, for example, the vanguard equips them to add new val-

ues, traditions, and customs to their existing cultural frameworks.

For vanguards on the cutting edge of this cultural leadership, the

word "avant-garde" (advance guard) characterizes their innovation.

They love to experiment with social norms and embrace new ideas and

practices that break through traditional barriers to widespread missions

mobilization.

As a spiritual vanguard, Jesus authorizes you to pioneer with cor-

rect doctrine, righteous creativity, and mobilizing ingenuity. Adding

cross-cultural dynamics to students' experiences equips them to glorify

God with greater unity and from different frames of reference. Such a

culturally innovative uprising will radiate the Lord's glory to the ends of

the earth.

Most of my challenges center on the bold leadership that is best de-

scribed by the term's military definition. A military vanguard is the unit

that advances in front of the army to lead it into battle. A vanguard's pri-

mary objective is to put the military formation into motion and mobilize

soldiers by leading from the forefront position.(3)

Vanguards muster first as the bravest, most committed, and best-pre-

pared military element in an army. These elite, action-oriented leaders

12

know they will endure hardship and personal suffering. Even so, they

willingly sacrifice themselves to lead the rest of the army forward. As

the "guard" portion of this word suggests, a vanguard defends from the

front as well. They knock out enemy strongholds to shield soldiers who

follow their lead.

African Americans serve honorably, even courageously, in all

branches of our military. Many made the ultimate sacrifice for our coun-

try, like the young man I knew who died fighting in Iraq. African-Amer-

ican soldiers, sailors, and marines continue a long legacy of bravery and

valor. Their reputation for fighting fiercely at the "tip of the spear" has

been made evident in all of America's armed conflicts.

Before the Emancipation Proclamation, insatiable love of freedom

and equality inspired slaves to take up arms and impact the world. In

1791, for example, intense passion for liberty and equality with white

plantation owners motivated slaves in Saint Dominique, Haiti, to orga-

nize and revolt.(4)

Following this initial uprising, ex-slaves in Haiti impressed or in-

timidated world powers with their resolve to mobilize for strategic war-

fare and defend their newly won freedoms. Self-emancipated vanguards

in Haiti mustered a people's army and defeated the French.

With unyielding solidarity, the masses chose to die fighting rath-

er than become re-enslaved. Indeed, they fought off 20,000 troops that

Napoleon sent to reinstate slavery in Haiti. After the French lost 55,000

soldiers, Napoleon abandoned his attack in 1802.(5)

Fearing the slave's vanguard ability to incite uprisings, U.S. Presi-

dent Thomas Jefferson shut down trade with Haiti in 1806.(6)

Yet, inspired by the Haitian victories, ex-slaves in the U.S. fought

willingly alongside the British in the War of 1812. Men, women, and

children paddled canoes to British ships anchored in the Chesapeake

Bay to escape slavery during this war. Foregoing the option to emigrate

immediately to Trinidad and freedom, about 300 men elected to remain

in the United States and serve voluntarily in England's Corps of Colo-

nial Marines.

Trained at a base camp on Tangier Island along Virginia's Eastern

Shore, these black soldiers displayed combat effectiveness that rivaled

their experienced, but battle-weary, British counterparts. A British vice

admiral reported how the escaped slaves were "... indeed excellent Men,

and make the best skirmishers possible for the thick Woods of this coun-

try." A captain observed that the deaths of black marines, incurred in

13

several battles, inspired rather than disheartened the rest who fought on.

He commended their excellent discipline, vivacious spirits, and perfect

obedience, describing them as "infinitely more dreaded" than British

troops.(7) Like them, spiritual vanguards must love Christ's freedom

enough to brave the relentless attacks of the evil one and throw off sin's

slavery. They sacrifice willingly to lead the body of believers in obeying

Christ's command to make disciples of all nations.

Often vanguards of Special Forces pay a steep price to lead from the

front. In 1800, the Saint Dominique uprising inspired a slave, named

Gabriel, to organize an ambitious slave revolt from Richmond, Va., that

included slaves from Norfolk.

When a slave betrayed them and the revolt failed before it began,

Virginia hanged Gabriel and 26 other slaves - even though they killed

no white people. Governor James Madison and Vice President Thomas

Jefferson discontinued the hangings to avoid criticism from other states

and world opinion. Virginia reimbursed slave owners for those who

were executed and then sold some of the remaining condemned slaves

to states farther south.(8)

When British forces left after the War of 1812, black and Indian

soldiers who fought with them took charge of their fort in Florida. This

stronghold defended runaway slaves who came through the Under-

ground Railroad, housing 300 black men, women, and children along

with 20 Indian warriors. After the British pulled out, the U.S. military

surrounded this garrison, which it called "Fort Negro," and demanded

that the slaves surrender.

The black and Indian soldiers inside raised a red flag along with

Britain's Union Jack, which indicated they would fight to the death.

Attempting to set the fort on fire, a U.S. Navy gunboat shot a red-hot

cannon ball that hit the fort's gun-powder magazine.

Of the 320 people inside the fort, 270 died instantly when the re-

sulting explosion leveled it. Although the attacking soldiers assisted the

wounded, they executed the black and Indian commanders immediately,

and re-enslaved the survivors.(9)

Things may become tragic, lousy, or discouraging for a vanguard

who leads on the cutting edge of an uprising, but Christ sends you with

His promise to always be with you. Endure and overcome the worst

circumstances as He strengthens you.

May Jesus Christ, our all-powerful, all-knowing God, strengthen

your inner core and give you a strategically holy path through the spiri-

14

tual warfare you must face. May He equip and position you to be ready,

capable, and agile to overcome spiritual conflict and fulfill His Commis-

sion. He will teach you skills for using His spiritual weapons and endow

you with supernatural strength for His glory.

Learn the Fundamentals

Back in the day, legendary football coach Vince Lombardi trans-

formed the lowly Green Bay Packers into perennial champions by

teaching fundamentals. To emphasize execution of the basics, Coach

Lombardi began a season by holding up a pigskin to his pro athletes and

saying, "This is a football..."

When telling this story to American and Jamaican college students,

I ask them what came to their minds when I mentioned Coach Lom-

bardi's football. Unlike the American counterparts, most Jamaicans vi-

sualized a soccer ball. Since cultural backgrounds often affect our per-

ceptions of the basics, we must account for this as we review the basic

facts about missions. As Christ's disciple, you deserve to know what the

Bible teaches about your role in fulfilling His mission.

Throughout the centuries, people worldwide have encountered men

and women who have dedicated themselves to fulfilling Christ's Com-

mission among the nations. The world's reaction to these missionaries

has been extremely varied. Some honor them as Christian icons. Others

hate them, considering them to be pawns of imperialistic oppressors.

In the U.S., people have diverse perspectives about missions as well.

Some still think of missionaries as white people penetrating remote jun-

gle regions, protected from mosquitoes by funny-looking pith helmets.

Others picture them as African-American ladies in church societies who

wear white dresses, gloves, and hats to serve the less fortunate.

Since our backgrounds complicate our perceptions of missionaries,

establishing the basic facts for all Christians, regardless of race, expe-

rience, or culture helps us succeed. This chapter explains the basics of

Christ's mission and the necessary dynamics of true discipleship that

fulfill it.

Discover Christ's Mission

In Matthew 28:18-20, the risen Christ authorizes and sends His fol-

lowers to complete a worldwide mission of making for Him disciples of

all nations. We call Jesus' sending command, "The Great Commission:"

15

And Jesus spake to them, saying, all power is given unto me in heav-

en and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing

them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Ghost: Teaching them to obey whatsoever I have commanded you:

and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

All of Christ's disciples fall under this mandate. Therefore, all of us

should take on the identity of "missionaries" wherever we go. Howev-

er, to make disciples of "all nations," some of us must be willing to step

forward and "go" to take the Gospel's message and reality to people

who live overseas. This often requires learning another language, adopt-

ing another culture, and living in a foreign land.

Without such culture-crossing, language-learning, disciple-making

pioneers, Christ's Commission cannot be fulfilled. Discover the signifi-

cant identity and role Christ gave you as His vanguard.

The basic fundamentals of Christ's mission can be described with

the following words beginning with the letter "P":

God's Purpose

Christ's Purchased Freedom

Christ's Process

Christ's Procedure

Christ's Provision

Christ's Promise

Your Vital Role in God's Eternal Purpose

The Bible teaches how Christ gave you a vital role in fulfilling His

Great Commission. He authorized His disciples without racial or class

discrimination and extended it to every people group in all nations be-

cause God's purpose is global. This command obligated all of His dis-

ciples equally because His mission is rooted in God's eternal purpose.

God's assignment for our lives begins with glorifying Him, not us.

Actually, since God has always existed, His overarching eternal

purpose for everything in His creation never had a starting point ei-

ther. He sees all eternity in one glance. Consequently, His reason for

doing things, His control over what happens, and His mission in the

world never needed a planning session. Like God Himself, His purpose

has existed forever in the past, controls what happens in the present,

and will remain unhindered forever into the future. We call this reality

16

"God's eternal purpose," because it emphasizes the fact that you have

always been included.

We participate in God's eternal purpose as we fulfill Christ's Great

Commission. In the Old Testament, the prophet Habakkuk summarizes

God's eternal purpose in one verse: "For the earth shall be filled with

the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas."

(Habakkuk 2:14) This verse reveals that God's eternal purpose has one

goal in mind--to flood the earth with knowledge of His greatness and

fame. Everything that God does and every aspect of His creation exists

to achieve this end. God reigns with deep commitment and great passion

to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory.

He purposed that men, women, and children from every people,

tribe, tongue, and nation would know Him fully. God sent Christ to

reveal His infinite honor, victorious majesty, uncompromising righ-

teousness, unconditional love, limitless power, and every other glorious

manifestation of his nature and character. He reigns and His purpose is

unstoppable.(10)

For this same purpose, Christ also sent us to make disciples of all

nations to glorify God. He passed onto us the mission that the Father

gave Him. In other words, when we proclaim the good news of Christ's

salvation to the world, we actively participate in fulfilling God's global

eternal purpose.

God's Purpose Trumps Everything

When I started in ministry, I ran a youth center for inner-city young

people and established friendships by playing loud, hyped-up games of

spades with them. The kids taught me how to take "books" by cutting

with wild cards like aces, deuces, and one-eyed jacks. But we valued

highly holding The Big Joker, because that card trumped them all.

We are creatures made in God's image with the power to make real

choices that have lasting consequences. Yet, regardless of the decisions

we make and the actions we take, God carries out His eternal purpose

much like we did when holding the Big Joker in a game of spades.

He trumps everything, even our ability to make real choices. When

circumstances surprise us or when we cannot understand why things

happened a certain way, we may rest assured that God has played His

Big Joker. He remains in control. His purpose trumps everyone and ev-

erything in the universe to make the knowledge of His glory known

worldwide. God is just being God.

17

Jesus' Blood Purchased Freedom to Lead His Global Forces

Notice the way God completes His eternal purpose through Christ

and His ambassadors. God's results are revealed in this song that all sing

continuously in heaven about Jesus, the Lamb of God:

...Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of

every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made

us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

(Rev. 5:9)

The phrase "every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation"

means every people group, every language dialect, and every ethnic ori-

gin. In other words, Jesus' blood sets free people of every ethnic group

in the world. He purchased this freedom from sin and its judgment when

He died on the cross. Christ's payment satisfied God's justice to allow

His mercy to flow freely to us by His grace.

Therefore, as our Redeemer, Jesus paid our slave debt to set us free

with full rights as God's children and Christ's world ambassadors. When

we serve as Christ's witnesses in the world, the knowledge of God's glo-

ry spreads globally to complete His eternal purpose. I challenge you to

exercise your rights and freedom to become a vital vanguard leader of

His ethnically diverse but united people to bring God glory worldwide.

Christ's Process Sends Us as Disciple-makers

The salvation of people from every "kindred, and tongue, and peo-

ple, and nation" occurs as they hear the Gospel, believe in Jesus Christ,

and call upon Him as their Risen God and Savior. Christ's process for

spreading His Gospel worldwide is to send empowered disciples to

make obedient disciples from all people groups globally.

Christ's process involves sending you to the nations in the power of

the Holy Spirit, just as the Father sent Him. I will discuss this sending

process in more detail in Chapter 9. I already introduced Jesus' Great

Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 where He sent disciple-makers to all

nations. In the following verses, read the connection between the Father

sending Jesus on a mission and Christ sending you as His disciple:

... Jesus stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

And when he had so said , he shewed unto them his hands and his

side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then

said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent

me, even so send I you. (John 20:20-21)

18

Christ sends you out like a farmer sends out laborers to plant, cul-

tivate, pick, and gather crops in the field. Luke 10:2 gives us, as his

disciples, the privilege and command to pray to Christ as the Lord of the

Harvest and plead for Him to powerfully send out laborers to the harvest

field. The harvest refers to people believing in Christ and becoming His

disciples. You bring them to Him like laborers harvesting farm crops.

Christ's Procedure Starts Locally and Reaches the World

Christ's procedure for going to the nations begins locally and ex-

pands to "the uttermost parts of the earth." Jesus showed in Acts 1:8

how the Holy Spirit authorizes you as His witness and starting at your

own back door.

And you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come

upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Sa-

maria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

"Jerusalem" was the disciples' own location. Judea was their region.

Samaria's people had long been racially, culturally, and spiritually at

odds with the disciples' own Jewish race. Also, going to the ends of the

earth required the Jewish disciples to include Gentiles. Back then, the

many divides between the Gentiles and Jews were just as challenging as

today's black-and-white racial divides.

Christ's Provision Comes through Partnerships

How does Jesus provide money to His sent disciples? I explain in

Chapter 9 how Jesus establishes partnerships between those He sends

out and those He gives grace to support them with finances and prayers.

Christ's Promised Presence Makes it Possible

Jesus obligated Himself to always be present with us to make com-

pleting His Commission possible. His presence in and with you gives

the highest potential, most privileged identity, and greatest advantage

possible for fulfilling His mission anywhere in the world. I write this

book because Christ's great promise is your right and privilege to know

and claim. Since each universal missions fundamental involves disci-

pleship in some way, let me introduce some basic essentials of true dis-

cipleship with Him.

19

Discipleship Fundamentally Requires Obedience

When I teach developmental basketball skills to young children, my

first goal is to win their hearts. Through positive means, I work to instill

within them the value of obedience to the coach. At the beginning of my

first practice, which usually starts when they are in the second or third

grade, I establish a rule that requires them to sprint every time I ask

them to go somewhere on the court.

After setting this standard, I intentionally give them an opportunity

to demonstrate obedience. If any player fails to sprint to the spot I des-

ignate, I send all of them back to where they were and tell them to start

again. Once these young players learn to respect a coach's authority,

they can benefit from the basketball training offered. Soon, they begin

to excel and enjoy the glorious opportunities that the game of basketball

may provide.

Likewise, discipleship begins when we honor the authority of Jesus

Christ and His Word, the Bible. True faith causes, produces, and guar-

antees obedience to the everlasting God. Teaching all people to actively

obey Christ characterizes the mission that He sent us to accomplish.

We call His words in Matthew 28:18-20 a "commission" because

He gave His disciples authority to complete the task. Yet, He gave it as

a binding command--a mandate. Jesus gave this overriding mission to

His disciples shortly before He returned to heaven, but it has remained

in effect for disciples of every generation to obey. Therefore, He also

expects us to obey His command to go out under the authority of His

Commission. He leaves us no other option. We must play an active role

in making for Him disciples of all the world's "ethnic groups."

Making disciples of all nations requires more than proclaiming the

Good News of Jesus Christ. It also requires teaching new believers to

obey all of His commands. To grow into this life of complete obedience

to Christ, new believers must recognize and value the absolute authority

claimed by Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:18. When this foundation has

been laid, new believers will step out in faith to obey Christ, beginning

with baptism and continuing in all facets of obedience.

Of course, teaching obedience to all of Christ's commands requires

teaching obedience to His Great Commission as well. Therefore, true

discipleship always involves mobilization for world evangelism. How

can we attempt to make disciples for Christ and not put them under His

Great Commission? Loving Christ and respecting His authority requires

us to teach obedience to His world mandate! Jesus said, "If ye love me,

20

keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Therefore, when we neglect to

teach obedience to the Great Commission, we fail to fully love Christ

and those we would disciple to love them.

Furthermore, justice requires teaching Christ's mandate to all races.

We must remain consistent and include all races when we teach that

Christ's love compels His disciples to fulfill His Commission.(11) We

would act unjustly when we neglect to remove any barriers that hinder

a race from responding to Christ's love this way.

Complete obedience to Christ requires unreserved consecration of

all of our lives to Him. This consecration can only happen through the

filling of the Holy Spirit. As I said previously, the Holy Spirit's filling

empowers God's people as witnesses for Christ, locally and to the ends

of the world. Christ prescribed this expanding witness of the Spirit's

empowerment in Acts 1:8:

And you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come

upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Sa-

maria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Freedom Comes Through Discipleship

William Carey, a missionary statesman from England, is regarded

as the "father of Protestant missions." Some conventional teaching of

his day held that Christ's Great Commission no longer applied to Chris-

tians. In 1792, Carey wrote an 87-page document to rebut such teaching

and to exhort believers with their obligation.

His life and work revolutionized the perspectives of white Christians

who responded by establishing missions agencies to mobilize Christians

to obey Christ's mandate. His writing exhorted (white) Christians to

make great personal sacrifices, travel long distances, brave the danger of

being killed, learn new languages, and trust the Lord for life's necessi-

ties. Carey's most famous quote summarized his exhortations: "Expect

great things from God; attempt great things for God." His challenge has

shaped, and continues to shape, the values of many missionaries.(12)

Carey taught that true discipleship means more than just baptism,

church membership, and loving one's neighbor. A true disciple fulfills

Christ's Great Commission by making disciples of all nations. The pro-

cess of making disciples boils down to this: instilling love for Christ and

teaching obedience to His commands.

This process includes the kind of relational love and hands-on trans-

formative teaching that Christ modeled for His disciples. By coming

21

in the flesh, Jesus learned self-sacrificial obedience to the Father and

lived it daily with His disciples. He also observed their behavior, eval-

uated their obedience, and corrected their thinking. Jesus picked them

up when they fell, pulled them into ministry, empowered them with His

authority, and then left them to finish what He started.(13)

So teaching believers to obey Christ means much more than help-

ing them fill in the blanks of a Bible study booklet. Christ discipled

his followers by preparing them to fulfill His last command, the Great

Commission. So must we. Do not settle for less.

Take Discipleship to Its Highest Level

Legitimate discipleship, therefore, requires that we expand the geo-

graphical scope of our worship of Christ by taking our love for Jesus

and our neighbors to an international level. Let us praise Christ as Lord

of the harvest and rejoice in His love for all nations.

If anyone doubts your potential for worldwide disciple-making, re-

member that Jesus Christ has authorized you and commanded you to do

so. Believe Him and praise Him for giving this to you as your greatest

right and responsibility.

Knowing Christ's mission in light of God's eternal purpose calls

for direct action. Spend time with the Lord to consecrate yourself, your

career, and your future to Him. Commit to obey His Great Commission

and express you willingness to go wherever He wants and do whatever

He wants. Seek His guidance on how to prepare to step up and lead as

His vanguard. Pursue real discipleship that makes full obedience to His

mission its priority.

Keep in mind that Christ commissions you without discrimination.

He reigns, expecting your complete and effective participation in the

task of declaring His glory, strength, rule, and coming judgment to all

the nations.

The next chapter deals with accepting your noble vanguard identity

and with the urgency of your uprising. I will challenge you to embrace

your identity in Christ and begin leading by empowerment on your cam-

pus now.

22

23

Chapter 2

Find Your Identity in Christ

A Vanguard Prepares for Cross-Cultural Ministry

To document the opportunity and need for mobilizing on campus-

es, our ministry interns recently interviewed a random sample of 364

Norfolk State University (NSU) students - an equal number of men and

women. The students' ages averaged 20.7 years-old. These results show

the vital importance of your vanguard leadership:

Ninety-one percent of the students interviewed considered them-

selves Christians, but 95 percent of them did not know about Christ's

Great Commission.

Sixty percent of the NSU students interviewed identified themselves

as Christians who attended church regularly. Of these active church

members, less than 7 percent (15 out of 221 students) knew about

the Great Commission.

Out of these students who faithfully attended church, only 17 per-

cent knew how to receive eternal life through faith in Christ.

As a potential missions leader, discover the reasons for these low

statistics and revolutionize student discipleship to make Christ's Com-

mission well known. May Christ make you His vanguard to mobilizing

many students across races and cultures as His change agent.

Pursue true discipleship to become equipped to mobilize students

of many races or ethnic groups, even if you must become trained by a

disciple-maker of another one. May your self-worth and sense of iden-

tity rest solely upon who you are in Christ Jesus. Follow Him and lead

God's people with freedom and without discrimination.

For those of you who are new to the faith, find your self-worth and

significance as Jesus' representative to the world. Since God uncondi-

tionally accepts you by His grace, you have nothing to prove about your

worth to anyone. Jesus already proved your great worth when He died

for you.

Also, you have nothing to lose as you trust Him for the grace that

will energize you to fulfill His mission. Take confident steps of faith as

Christ's global ambassador.

24

If you attend a Historically Black College or University, please

step forward to help bring in student-led campus ministries that already

mobilize thousands of students at other colleges across our nation and

around the world.

Unleash Extensive Campus Ministries

Use your vanguard potential to shift the American missions paradigm

past outdated segregation-based thinking and into a diverse but united

movement for Christ's glory. Enlist skilled and gifted disciple-makers,

of all races, to equip African-American student leaders for ministry in

all HBCUs, on all other campuses, and for missions worldwide.

If you attend an HBCU and do not care about the ethnicity of min-

istry leaders on your campus, you have a special opportunity to begin a

spiritual uprising from your own campus. Appeal to one of these nation-

al ministries for a strong mobilizing leader on your campus of any race.

If necessary, invite disciple-making white staff members from these

national ministries to develop and empower future African-American

campus leaders.

This would be a radical mobilizing move because some ministry ex-

ecutives over the years have told me that they will not place white staff

members on black campuses. Even with good African-American lead-

ers on their teams, national ministries have had only enough to establish

a few chapters on HBCU campuses. Yet hundreds of white campus staff

members and volunteers work with thousands of international students

of many races on American campuses.

Wherever you attend college, do not let anyone on either side of

the older generation's black-white racial divide discourage you from

launching a missions uprising. Skip the debate about race and take ev-

ery vanguard opportunity to equip students for mobilization. May God

activate your school as a vibrant resource of missionaries.

Step out front and take the lead in declaring His glory to the na-

tions. Although national campus ministries seldom place white leaders

on black campuses, they encourage many to serve inner-city children.

These white college students need your leadership or none will think

to challenge African-American children to fulfill the Great Commis-

sion overseas. Step up to the plate to ensure that well-meaning college

students teach African-American children the beauty of accomplishing

God's worldwide eternal purpose.

So I challenge you to revolutionize how extensively the Body of

25

Christ mobilizes students for inner-city ministry and world missions.

Use your generation's influence and unprecedented ability to com-

municate with large numbers of students for this purpose. Also, seek

opportunities to interact with international students on your campus.

Obtain cross-cultural ministry experience as you learn how to translate

their cultures and share Christ's love with them. Again, if you do not

care about the race of staff campus leaders, make that known.

If you attend an HBCU, step up to bring these ministries to your

campus. Wherever you study, prove that no racial hang-ups from past

generations will prevent you from finishing the mobilizing task that

Christ commands. He authorized you to make disciples. Go in His grace

and power! This is what His vanguards would strategically do.

Bridge Race Divisions

For the purpose of becoming a vanguard who mobilizes the masses

across racial and cultural lines, I challenge you to bridge the race di-

vision that most campus ministries use to grow their ministries. Take

advantage of new thinking about culture and learn how to minister

across racial and ethnic lines while still in college. I am aware that this

challenge contradicts how most college ministries operate. For decades,

they have structured programs around the idea that students come to

college locked into particular cultures based on race or ethnicity.

Therefore, many campus ministries divide and separate students

across racial/ethnic lines for African Americans, Hispanic Americans,

and Asian Americans. These ministries make exceptions for white

Christians, whom they allow to minister "cross-culturally" with every

ethnic college group except African Americans. Although whites have

somehow managed to cross over and work with black children, many

campus ministries prevent them still from assuming leadership roles

among African-American college students, especially at HBCUs. As

a contradiction to this race discrimination, usually campus ministries

lump together all international students with pronounced cultural differ-

ences into one program on each campus.

In many cases, white students and volunteers serve in these in-

ternational student ministries. I have observed how race-segregating

structures like these, based on past ideas about culture, provide white

Christians a reason to maintain status quo segregated structures, which

student ministry leaders of separated Asian and Hispanic ministries en-

dorse as well.

26

Become the generation that transforms the thinking held by older

black and white Christians about African-American culture.* The old

perspective undermines the vision for black students to lead cross-cul-

turally as vanguards of a culturally diverse Body of Christ. For ex-

ample, I hear many black and white Christians in my generation still

defend the past idea that all African-American students evenly share

the same experiences, values, viewpoints, beliefs, and traditions. Often,

they limit the concept of culture to only customs with rules of etiquette

and traditions that many black students share.

This old view leaves no room for exceptions and contradictions

within the black students' cultural frameworks. It holds that African-

American students may possess only one culture, which defines them as

black people and is evenly distributed among all black students.

Most who structure ministries based on this view insist that black

culture is a "thing" that requires all black students to relate and react the

same way to people of other races. Embedded in their thinking is the

assumption that black culture, as a concept, remains defiant and refuses

to allow whites and people of other races to translate and understand it.

With these antiquated ideas, white and black Christians quickly jump

to the conclusion that other races will remain ineffective in ministry

among African Americans.

I believe this outdated thinking demobilizes and demotivates be-

cause it undermines the Biblical vision for black-student vanguards

leading a multicultural missions movement from their campuses and

into the world.

Would not this entrenched thinking about culture hinder more than

just conflict resolution between black and white believers in Christ? It

debilitates His Body like pouring cold water on the spiritual fire of the

Holy Spirit's reconciling work. These past assumptions imply that black

culture overpowers the Holy Spirit's ability to fill and mobilize anyone

He chooses. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit brings Christ the most glo-

ry when people of diverse backgrounds unite supernaturally in a way

that those without Christ do not expect nor understand. Jesus saves us to

react and relate to one another as one diverse spiritual race through our

union with Him.

____________________

*I borrow this challenge, to update ideas about culture, from Kevin Avrich of the Unit-

ed States Institute of Peace who says that antiquated views of culture hinder conflict

resolution.(1)

27

Therefore, fan into flame the Holy Spirit's power to unify and mo-

bilize Christian students by changing the view that culture is a "thing"

that excuses racial division, isolation, and demobilization. For five cen-

turies, this kind of segregationist thinking has opposed the Holy Spirit's

reconciling work in America. Call on Jesus Christ to give you, and all

believers, His authority like never before. Pray that the Lord of the Har-

vest with reconcile His diverse and hurting Body as a united, empow-

ered witness to your campus and to the ends of the earth!

With vanguard skillfulness, navigate among black and white Chris-

tians who assume that black students have only one culture. Demon-

strate that all black students do not necessarily share black culture to the

same extent, and they also have more than one culture at the same time.

As you lead, point out how black culture changes over time and how

individual students can add to their cultural framework and influence

others to do so as well. Remind ministry leaders whom you encounter

that individual students think and react differently to cultural issues.

Encourage these leaders to consider the complexity of individual cultur-

al frameworks and avoid organizing ministries as though black culture

stagnates all African-American students.(3)

Think about how cultural issues will become vastly more complex

as you mobilize today's college students. They will bring many different

culture combinations that they have customized individually in compli-

cated ways. You must deploy them, with all their cultural complexities,

to go international and minister cross-culturally in harmony with other

culturally complex missionaries.

Adopting an updated view of culture will help you mobilize the

growing number of biracial students in America. One in 10 marriages in

our country today is interracial or inter-ethnic. This represents a 28 per-

cent increase in the last decade. The percentages vary in different states,

but between five and ten percent of Virginia's couples are in interracial

or inter-ethnic marriages.

Also, interracial and inter-ethnic couples make up 18 percent of un-

married couples who live together.(4) Apparently, these married and

unmarried couples of different race and ethnic backgrounds translate

other cultures well enough to establish relationships, live together, and

have children. In fact, the number of children born to black/white and

Asian/white couples doubled in the last 10 years.(2) These biracial

future students bring cultural advantages to the multi-ethnic missions

force that you mobilize for Christ.

28

Therefore, in your college experiences, make every effort to height-

en your own ability to process and understand other cultures without

making them subordinate to your own. Learn to translate and under-

stand them like learning to translate foreign languages(3) --and equip

other students to do the same! I am definitely not saying to value and

celebrate black culture less. Instead, I give this challenge: Add to black

culture the ability to minister cross-culturally as the missionary van-

guard. How else can you successfully mobilize such a culture-compli-

cated missions force?

Unfortunately, most campus ministries celebrate diversity by en-

couraging students to racially self-segregate into separate-but-equal

homogeneous chapters. For 30 years, I have observed these minis-

tries putting themselves in predicaments that end up neglecting Afri-

can-American students.

For instance, most will start ministries for black students only when

they can place African-American leaders on campus to disciple them.

This race-based policy makes starting new HBCU chapters difficult be-

cause most ministries hire their leaders from among graduates in exist-

ing chapters. Without many HBCU chapters in this contradictory struc-

ture, these ministries cannot develop the black leaders needed to start

new chapters.

In any event, with your vanguard identity founded upon Christ, in-

tervene to unleash these national campus ministries to mobilize Afri-

can-American students without discrimination. If you have to choose

between self-segregated ministries on your campus, join those who

intentionally mobilize long-term missionaries, even if you must wor-

ship cross-culturally at your own school. A vanguard must mobilize all

Christians, without regard to race, to serve cross-culturally overseas.

Why not serve cross-culturally on your own campus among internation-

al students, if your identity is established by who you are in Christ?

The next chapter's challenge centers on knowing the difference be-

tween real discipleship, which Christ intended, and inferior discipleship

that violates His Great Commission. Making this discipleship distinc-

tion increases your potential to mobilize "the masses" effectively for

His mission.

29

Chapter 3

Lead with True Discipleship

A Vanguard Knows the Significance of His Cause

Since Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley's international popularity

increased after his death, you may know about his last studio album,

Uprising. He finished producing it the year before he died. The album

ends with his reflective Redemption Song.(1) Quoting Marcus Garvey,

Marley called on people who had gained physical freedom from slavery

to also free themselves from persistent mental slavery that still keeps

them in bondage.

He asked, "Won't you help me sing dese songs of freedom?" He

concludes, "None but ourselves can free our minds." Marley's Redemp-

tion Song appears to confront the slave mentality that so-called Chris-

tians inflicted on people of African descent. Many Jamaicans resent how

whites used the Bible to teach that such bondage was the cursed destiny

of the black race and fulfilled God's purpose.

Inferior Discipleship's Spiritual Slavery

Beyond this persistent mental slavery, I believe there remains a type

of spiritual slavery that prevents many African Americans from experi-

encing holistic freedom. If I was musically inclined, I might attempt a

new redemption song, calling you to experience spiritual freedom and

discover God's tremendous purpose for your life. Garvey and Marley

only scratched the surface of how slavery continues to affect what they

called mental freedom. The inhumanity of slavery and the injustices of

segregation, all perpetrated under the umbrella of Christian society, left

many African Americans with a distorted perspective of what it meant

to follow Jesus.

I explain in this book how the root of this inferior discipleship, de-

signed by whites to suppress African Americans during physical slav-

ery, continues to spiritually enslave. I believe it hinders most from de-

veloping the vision and seizing the opportunity to gladly obey Christ's

Commission and make disciples worldwide.

This vacuum of true discipleship stripped generations of African

Americans of their rights to bring God glory as His witnesses. Just as

slavery once bound minds and oppressed hearts. This wretched spiritual

30

slavery still plagues the hearts of most African Americans to this day. I

argue in this chapter that discipleship becomes inferior to what Christ

intended when disciple-makers fail to teach obedience to Christ's global

Great Commission.

As Christ's vanguard of His forces, spearhead the spiritual warfare

required to defeat the evil one and create a new freedom movement. Lift

up your voice and sing a new song of spiritual redemption to set us all

free. In your uprising, revolutionize the Christian systems that enslave

African Americans through inferior discipleship. It is inferior because

churches, ministries and missions organizations disregard Christ's last

command--to go and make disciples of all nations--when teaching Afri-

can Americans how to follow Christ.

In This Together

First, as members of Christ's body, consider how you and I suffer

from this same kind of mental enslavement. Yet your determination is

vital as we strive together for freedom. Let basketball illustrate our pre-

dicament. Suppose Jesus coaches a championship team and drafts us

to play for Him. Imagine coming out of the locker room and heading

straight to the bench, wearing a heavy chain that binds us together. This

chain, one end fastened around my neck and the other shackled to your

ankle, renders us unable to execute His game plan. Still, we muster the

courage to approach Coach Jesus.

With frustration on our faces and big chain in tow, we ask simulta-

neously the bench warmer's favorite question: "What do I need to do to

get more playing time?"

Imagine Christ patiently revealing the obvious: Our only hope of

getting into the game is to rely on Him to remove the chain that binds

us. Surprisingly, since you and I are supposed to be teammates, He calls

us to work together, as one, to solve our mutual problem. If we stick to-

gether in this painful struggle for each other's freedom, perhaps we will

compete together once we succeed. In my parable, Christ might also ex-

press confidence in our chances of playing well together once freed and

remind us that we possess all the potential in the world through Him.

With the whole arena waiting for our appearance on the floor, He would

encourage us unite and "be there for each other" as we make the painful

changes necessary to compete at the highest level.

I cannot speak for other teammates, but I hate the bench. I would be

more than ready to struggle for change. Yet, I would remain dependent

31

on your determination to go through these "changes" with me. Perhaps

our hard-won avant-garde freedom, which would take our game to the

highest level, also would inspire others. After all, that is what vanguards

do. I do not expect we could bring about Utopia. Yet, our whole team

might get the high honor to complete together for Christ and for His

lasting liberation.

In reality, I know for certain that Christ and His team win the world

championship when the season ends. I would want to stay on the court,

and not His bench, as long as possible. I could go hard, if you would

go hard for Christ's freedom with me. That is how things work when

we compete on Christ's unified team. Do you feel me on my parable's

challenge to strive together?

I borrowed the chain analogy from abolitionist and escaped slave

Fredrick Douglass who said in 1863, "No man can put a chain about the

ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened

about his own neck."(2) However, I am not referring to physical slav-

ery. The chain in my parable depicts demobilizing racial discrimination

that still shackles us together spiritually and keeps us from effectively

serving in Christ's harvest. We remain benched on His championship-

winning team.

Justice-minded believers, both black and white, must identify and

address modern deficits that keep lining up along racial lines.

Black-White Gap Overseas

Nowhere in the American church is this black-white gap more

obvious to me than in the number of Christians serving as full-time,

cross-cultural missionaries overseas. In 2005, for instance, 822 North

American protestant mission agencies sent almost 44,000 North Amer-

ican missionaries and 90,000 indigenous nationals to foreign missions

fields.(3) How many of these thousands are African Americans? When

I poll black college students on this question, they usually guess that

10,000 African Americans serve as overseas missionaries. In reality,

only about 200-250 African-American missionaries serve abroad today.

The disparity between black and white missions mobilization war-

rants further scrutiny. Since mobilization directly results from Christ's

gracious thrust of laborers in response to prayer, the compelling love of

His Spirit, effective discipleship in local churches, consecration for obe-

dience, and victory in spiritual warfare, we must prayerfully investigate

each of these spiritual dynamics and determine the demobilizing factors

32

affecting African Americans as a group. I may stand alone in making

some conclusions, but silent neglect cannot remain an option.

My question concerns the quality of discipleship provided to Chris-

tian African-American students. For instance, opportunities arise in our

Norfolk ministry for me to ask about Christ's Commission. With the

exception of the few being discipled in national campus ministries, most

Christian black students whom I ask about His Great Commission re-

spond that no one ever told them about His global mandate. Did having

inferior discipleship demobilize them?

For instance, consider the race/ethnic-based limits on American

missions discipleship systems today. Most Asians go to Asians, Hispan-

ics go to Hispanics, and blacks go to blacks. On the other hand, white

Americans reserve the privilege to go anywhere in the world and to any

race or ethnic group they desire to reach. Is perpetuating this race/eth-

nic-segregated missions system how a vanguard celebrates diversity?

Exceed the inferior discipleship's limited and widespread low expecta-

tions for Christ's Commission that are based on race or ethnic discrimi-

nation. Mobilize a unified missions force.

Lead with True Discipleship

Discipleship becomes inferior to what Christ intended when the

disciple-maker makes the following errors:

· Fails to teach obedience to Christ's global Great Commission.

· Limits the people targeted to one's own culture, nationality,

race, or ethnic group.

· Regards the targeted ethnic group as a "missions field" instead

of an important source of future church and missions leaders.

· Fails to model partnerships with missionaries through prayer

and financial support.

· Creates dependency, so those being discipled do not see them-

selves as having mutually benefiting roles in missions.

Throughout this book, I will point out how these discipleship errors

persist and how they demobilize African Americans for world missions.

Segregated American Missions Consequences

Inferior discipleship results in a segregated American missions force

with serious consequences. Although thousands of white American

missionaries serve on the missions field, mere numbers do not reflect

the realities of how a white-only witness has undermined the credibility

33

of the Gospel. False teachers out to deceive men on the streets, at home

and abroad, see clearly the discrepancies between our teachings and ac-

tions. Often they defame Christ as an irrelevant white-man's god. Have

we resigned ourselves to accept this reaction to our status quo efforts?

We must no longer ignore the detrimental effect on the advancement

of the Gospel that segregated American missions create. Having inter-

acted closely with white American missionaries and African Americans

all my life, I feel qualified to conclude that, as long as the opportuni-

ty for missions remains blocked to one race, it will remain spiritually

blocked to both. This occurs because black and white Christians share

a united legacy of racial discrimination and division in our church and

missions structures.

Amazingly, most Christians seem oblivious to the problems created

by segregated American missions forces. Loving each other in the midst

of our diversity is critical to our witness and required by Christ. Al-

though we may have high levels of motivation for Christ's cause, we sit

incapacitated in His global spiritual harvest, and the world's population

continues to explode without a credible witness from America. As the

Apostle Paul warned, it is quite possible to preach the gospel and still

get benched by Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:27). We ought to rise up together

and compete as His champions.

Yet until stark racial divisions in missions are challenged and

changed, we will remain in denial, sitting together on Christ's bench.

Because sins of omission (failing to do what God has commanded us

to do) offend Him just as much as sins of commission (blatantly doing

what He has commanded us not to do), I believe that this present and

longstanding failure to send African Americans as full-time missionar-

ies has removed us all from close fellowship with God.

For decades, American Christians have tried to evangelize the world

while trying to ignore sins of omission at home. Christ requires us to

love our neighbors and to make disciples of all people groups. By ne-

glecting the former, we render ourselves ineffective in fulfilling the lat-

ter. Churches, missions-sending agencies, and individual believers who

fail to love and mobilize Christians without racial discrimination stand

before God in a state of disobedience.

As a vanguard who mobilizes the masses without racial discrimina-

tion, think about the ramifications of inferior discipleship. If American

churches governed by leaders of non-white ethnic groups fail to require

obedience to Christ's Commission, they have achieved the wrong kind

34

of equality with white-governed churches.

If God blessed them with resources to mobilize and send out long-

term missionaries, will they not be held accountable for ignoring Christ's

mandate and expending these resources elsewhere? Will they not also

share with white church leaders the guilt of disobeying our Lord Jesus

by failing to mobilize students like you?

The Right to Know Young

Your spiritual rights include having Christ's Great Commission im-

pressed upon you from your youth. As I explain in later chapters, this

right has been violated because of past race barriers and by present black

and white church structures and cultures. For instance, once during a

Sunday worship service where we sent out a Jamaican missionary, I

asked the congregation why we seldom hear anyone challenging black

children to obey Christ's command to make disciples of all nations.

The biracial son of my friend and ministry colleague confronted his

parents about this neglect shortly after they drove home that afternoon.

He wanted to know why no one had ever challenged him to give his

life to serve Christ overseas. Many people had already encouraged this

talented middle-school athlete to pursue his dream of playing basketball

at the highest level. Yet none in his church family had personally chal-

lenged him with his high calling in Christ's worldwide mission.

Replace Missing Veteran Missionary Role Models

With the words, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will

be also," Christ taught that our affections are undeniably tied to how we

spend our money. A 2007 marketing study showed that African-Amer-

ican teenagers spend an average of $90 per month, mostly on techno-

logical devices and clothing. The same study revealed that other teens

in the United States spent an average of 20 percent less each month,

which is still a lot of money to me.(4) The data reveals the importance

of teaching all children to prayerfully budget each month and partner

with missionaries to make Christ's global purpose a heartfelt priority.

As a college student, you may become an important, mobilizing role

model. Demonstrate your heart for missions by investing your educa-

tion and money in Christ's missions.

Who challenges you to financially support missions? Who exhorts

you to pray for specific missionaries? Do you know any African Amer-

icans serving on the missions field? Have any invited you to join them?

35

Most African-American role models, like the entertainers and athletes

whom I have heard speak, only challenge young people to work hard in

school. They exalt the pursuit of a good education as the key to enjoying

a successful life. Almost none cast a vision for education as preparation

to obey Christ's Commission among those who have never heard the

Gospel. Who teaches you to love others by crossing cultural, national,

and linguistic barriers with Jesus' offer of salvation?

My guess is that many of you can list few fellow African Americans

who are answers to those questions. Through God's Word, step up as a

vanguard role model to children and teenagers of the next generation.

The Bible provides role models of men and women who stepped for-

ward as vanguards to complete God's mission.

Do you remember reading about Caleb in the Book of Numbers? He

represented the tribe of Judah, as one of 12 spies whom Moses sent to

investigate the Promised Land. He saw the same giants as the other 11

men, but only he and Joshua expressed courageous faith by encouraging

Moses to lead the Israelites into the land that God had promised. Caleb

said, "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to over-

come it."

The other 10 spies gave evil reports and caused the people of Israel to

rebel and perish. Without elder African-American missionary "Calebs"

to inspire love, faith, and courage in the Body of Christ, we limp along,

severely hindered in our ability to obey Christ's Commission among the

nations. Caleb's greatest glory came after the rest of his generation died

in the wilderness. God allowed only Caleb and Joshua to survive.

Because of their courageous faith, God chose them to lead the next

generation into the Promised Land. At 85 years old, Caleb asked Joshua

to give him Hebron as his inheritance. This section of the land contained

the stronghold of the giants who caused such fear 40 years earlier. In his

old age, Celeb conquered the city's giants, demonstrating God's glori-

ous power to fulfill His promise of victory and peace. (Joshua 14:6-15).

In the American church, we lack African-American foreign mission-

ary warriors who have braved spiritual warfare like Caleb. The scarcity

of veteran foreign missionaries who have lived during the Civil Rights

era creates a generational void where there should be an enduring leg-

acy of courageous faith. The world will never know how their love and

statesmanship could have impacted the world for Christ, and you will

never know how their example may have influenced you to follow in

their footsteps.

36

You deserve the kind of thrust you could have received from your

own "Calebs," but too few from this present generation can give that to

you. So, you must respond to the purposes and promises of God on your

own. Will yours be the first generation of African Americans to whole-

heartedly embrace the Great Commission by going to the ends of the

earth in significant numbers? If so, Caleb's legacy of courageous faith

will begin with you. Become the role model who leaves this legacy to

the next generation. How many vanguards will lead someday and mobi-

lize the masses because of your faithful, obedient example?

Equality is Only the Start

During America's antebellum period, many slaves founded their

case for freedom upon the Declaration of Independence's assertion that

all men are created equal by God who gave them inalienable rights of

life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Christ grants you the inalien-

able right, privilege, and responsibility of fulfilling His Great Commis-

sion as well.

Rather than affirm you in this calling and prepare you for the strug-

gle of fulfilling it, we, your Christian leaders have failed. We have al-

lowed the snares of the past to hinder us from impacting the future. Yet,

you are not bound by our failures. The greatest quest for justice and

equality ever conceived, hinges on your mobilization for the Gospel.

For God affirms your equality with all people and grants you in-

alienable civil rights for the greater goal of saturating the earth with the

knowledge of His glory (Habakkuk 2:14). Receiving civil rights is only

the starting points for fulfilling this eternal purpose. God requires you to

not only embrace the Gospel, but also make disciples among the nations

through the Gospel.

Jesus assigned this crucial mission to his disciples, shortly before

ascending back to heaven. This mission compels you to passionately

follow Christ's example of self-sacrificial love. Only then will you ex-

perience true spiritual freedom.

Meditate on this important command in Philippians 2:5-6:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being

in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form

of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ... He humbled

Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of a cross.

37

Despite His equality with God, Christ exercised true spiritual free-

dom by obediently laying down His own life, rights, and happiness to

reconcile us with His Father. Similarly, Christ commands you to devel-

op His mindset and follow His example. God's Word calls upon you to

willingly surrender hard-won civil rights in order to bring His salvation

and justice to other people groups around the world. Rise above the

mindset that contradicts Christ's command to follow His example of

self-sacrifice.

Without doubt, many previous generations of African Americans

suffered greatly so you might fully experience rights to life, liberty, and

the pursuit of happiness. When you sacrifice these precious freedoms to

exercise true spiritual freedom in Christ, you testify to the surpassing

value of knowing and loving Him. For example, by voluntarily giving

up home comforts, respect, the right to govern, or the opportunity to

pursue the American dream in order to proclaim Christ's glory among

the nations, you reveal His worth in the greatest way possible.

You who love and desire to follow the Lord as true disciples deserve

to know how God endowed you with the highest conceivable right to

sacrificially change the world for His glory. You deserve to know that

this is your time to shine as bright lights throughout the entire world.

The legacy of African-American suffering, often at the hands of

white Christians, creates a platform of credibility for you and your con-

temporaries to lift up your voices and exert unprecedented influence

overseas. I will explain how white missionaries may bring a gospel as-

sociated with injustice and oppression.

You bring a gospel associated with faith-filled perseverance and em-

pathy for all who are oppressed. Christ commands and calls you to take

your rightful place in world missions--capitalize on hard-won freedoms

to spread the knowledge of God's glory around the world. Keep in mind

that Jesus is highly exalted and your greatest possession. Surrender ev-

erything else and gain Him, His glory, and omnipotence.

Break the Spiritual Shackles

In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus made it clear that His disciples must pur-

sue reconciliation with offended brothers before offering anything to

God in worship. Shortly before Jesus taught about reconciliation with

offended brothers, he declared His disciples were the light of the world.

We must not miss the connection. American Christians must not ig-

nore this principle and must keep attempting to reveal Christ's glory

38

among the nations. Let our missions efforts remain unoffered to God

until white Christians reconcile with disciples of African descent and

mobilize them to exercise their full rights under His Great Commission.

When we offer Christ and the world a united witness through justice

in discipleship, we obey Christ and shine all the brighter. We cannot ne-

glect our neighbors and accurately represent Christ among the nations.

If this unified mobilization cannot happen because of how present

churches and missions agencies remain structurally divided, you must

forge a better path and lead us. May Christ empower you as vanguards

of a spiritual revolution to replace disobedient missions systems with a

reconciled witness that more accurately reveals His love for the world.

With all the authority given by Christ to pray for laborers (Luke

10:2), pray for God to thrust African Americans as full-time mission-

aries into His worldwide harvest, and ask Him to start with you. Let

us encourage existing churches, wherever African Americans worship,

so they might see the Great Commission as the most critical aspect of

discipleship and send missionaries of African descent on long-term as-

signments overseas.

Let us establish missional churches in our inner-city communities,

designed to empower families of low-income backgrounds. By equip-

ping them with stability, Biblical training, discipleship skills, and op-

portunity to obey Christ at home and abroad, such churches will help

redefine missions mobilization paradigms.

God fulfills His eternal purpose with or without us. If we want in

on this high calling, we must go make disciples together, demonstrat-

ing His love and forgiveness. If, after five centuries of failure, we obey

willingly, would not God pave the way? Would not He respond to the

justice of our cause? Do we not have Christ's authority and promise all

the more? Together we do, but I believe we must go together or we can-

not go effectively at all.

I challenge you to take up the spiritual weapons provided by Christ's

Spirit who indwells you. Lead the spiritual uprising that is your destiny.

Keep the perspective that weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but

divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds (2 Corinthians

10:4). Lead us forward as a just cause. Bring it on.

Break the stronghold chain that shackles and holds us down with the

heavy links of past injustices. Recognize them in our Christian status

quo, but rise up to win spiritual freedom by invoking Christ's highest

authority. Find a pioneering spirit and confidence in His superior justice.

39

Step out to sacrificially lead as Christ's spiritual vanguards and defend-

ers of His true freedoms.

Create a movement by mustering others for His cause, pulling them

into His battle alongside you through true discipleship that honors His

Word. Champion the cause that true, unlimited discipleship sees the po-

tential and honors the right of all believers to fulfill Christ's Great Com-

mission globally.

Inferior discipleship fails to teach obedience to Christ's global Great

Commission. True discipleship aims at an unlimited target that includes

going to and making disciples of every ethnic group through cross-cul-

tural missions. Inferior discipleship limits the range of the people being

targeted to those in one's own culture, nationality, race, or ethnic group.

Rise up as Christ's vanguard against this injustice that shackles the

Body of Christ with demobilizing thinking from past race discrimina-

tion. Mobilize privileged disciples who close the racial gaps in Ameri-

ca's missions forces. Become faithful role models for the next genera-

tions. Begin by teaching children and teens to partner with missionaries

and invest in Christ's Commission as their partners. Build upon civil

rights won in the past by adding the right to spiritual freedom to ful-

fill God's global and eternal purpose through legitimate discipleship of

peoples in all nations.

Come to Jamaica

God blessed a partnership between Urban Discovery Ministries

(UDM) and the Buff Bay Baptist Church to establish the GLOBE Cen-

ter in Jamaica. We labored for almost two decades to pioneer this prac-

tical means of mobilizing people of African descent for world missions.

UDM owns no facilities in the U.S., but invested about $225,000 to

build the GLOBE Center for this church. I praise the Lord for His faith-

fulness and gracious provision. UDM exists to help establish inner-city

churches that fulfill Christ's Great Commission. Our vision is to see

effective, sustaining, reproducing, and missionary-sending churches in

inner cities across the nation.(5)

GLOBE stands for George Liele Objective for Black Enterprise.

Born a slave in Virginia, George Liele started two churches in Geor-

gia after receiving his freedom. When colonists tried to re-enslave him

during the Revolutionary War, he became an indentured servant with

the British and escaped to Jamaica.(6) Upon earning his freedom, Liele

started the Island's first Baptist church. Many historians regard Liele as

40

the first American-born missionary. Buff Bay Baptist Church descended

from His work in Jamaica.

As a ministry of Buff Bay Baptist Church, GLOBE equips American

and Jamaican short-term missions teams to pursue Liele's missionary

objective of fulfilling Christ's Great Commission. The GLOBE Center

is but the starting point to mobilize people of African descent to go any-

where the Lord leads them in the world.

On behalf of Urban Discovery Ministries and Buff Bay Indepen-

dent Baptist Church partnership, I invite you to join a short-term mis-

sions team to study missions at the GLOBE Center in Jamaica. We want

you to discover your wonderful potential to fulfill Christ's Commission

overseas and on a long-term basis. Come to Jamaica and discuss this

book's call for your vanguard leadership in more detail.

Often with just their presence, African Americans connect with un-

churched Jamaicans right away. I have brought diverse teams of college

students with me for the last couple of years. I teach missions and per-

sonal evangelism to the African-American, white-American, and Jamai-

can-Christian team members. They go out into the towns and villages to

establish relationships with unchurched Jamaicans and share the Gospel

on their own. I am a witness to how well African-American students

connect with the unchurched there. You may create witnessing oppor-

tunities for white and Jamaican students to join you in reaching future

community leaders whom most traditional missions teams ignore. To

quote Marley, "Won't you help to sing dese songs of freedom?"

As a vanguard, begin deploying Christian students as Christ's free-

dom forces. The next chapter challenges you to celebrate in Christ your

freedom, calling, and identity to pioneer new structures based upon

real, missions-focused discipleship. Maximize the freedom to respond

to Christ's love that compels His special college forces to deploy across

racial and cultural lines.

41

Chapter 4

Celebrate Your Generation's Freedom

A Vanguard Champions the Cause

As Norfolk's African-American population spread west from the

downtown black-business district in the early 1920s, whites established

a geographical color line at Corprew Avenue in the Brambleton neigh-

borhood. This one-street buffer zone became known as "the dead line"

to Norfolk locals. White public opinion determined that the neighbor-

hoods east of Corprew would remain "for whites only." Mobs violent-

ly chased off two black families who bought houses on this street. In

1923, a Norfolk City Council member participated with an armed mob

of 80-100 men who ordered a black family to move immediately from

Corprew Avenue.(1)

They denied Norfolk's blacks their liberty, justice, and rights that

Dubois said "makes life worth living." He labeled these segregated

places "The Valley of the Shadow of Death" for black people. Ironical-

ly, today, Norfolk State University stands proudly on Corprew Avenue

in this neighborhood where white tyranny had enforced segregation. A

couple of years ago, I prayed for grace to bridge color and generational

lines as I walked across this street almost every week. At the invitation

of some NSU students, I crossed onto their campus and started a stu-

dent-led discipleship ministry.

One would expect African-American students to celebrate the free-

dom that NSU's presence on Corprew Avenue verifies. Yet, in regard to

the color line that still exists in missions, the following Dubois predic-

tion of a coming "Awakening" remains unrealized:

But back of this still broods silently the deep religious feeling of the

real Negro heart, the stirring, unguided might of powerful human

souls who have lost the guiding star of the past and seek in the great

night a new religious ideal. Someday, the Awakening will come

when the pent-up vigor of ten million souls shall sweep irresistibly

toward the Goal, out of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where all

that makes life worth living--Liberty, Justice, and Right--is marked

"For Whites Only."(2)

42

I believe that deep religious feeling still broods silently in the un-

satisfied hearts of Christian students whom I know on this campus and

others. This kind of spiritual awakening resists the hypocrisy of putting

on a front to survive under unjust systems as accommodationists. Al-

though arriving here years after the Civil Rights Movement, something

stirs the unguided might of their powerful human souls to seek a new re-

ligious ideal. Apparently "the Awakening" predicted by Dubois has yet

to come, when pent-up vigor will sweep millions of African Americans

irresistibly toward "the Goal" of ultimate freedom in Christ.

I believe that Dubois saw only the symptoms of a deeper problem

that keeps African-American hearts still yearning for what makes life

worth living. For the greatest right of any human soul is the liberty to

respond obediently to the love that the Holy Spirit embeds in the heart.

Indeed, the Spirit of Jesus Christ compels African-American believers

with His love to declare His great majesty and salvation to the nations.

Christ's love creates the pent-up vigor that your vanguard leadership

will draw upon to sweep students toward the goal of making disciples

for Him from all nations without race-discrimination. Yet, in regard to

African-American Christians, Jesus' Great Commission might as well

be marked "for whites only"! For you, global missions fields remain

your segregated "Death Valleys" with geographical color lines and

more. Instead of rising like a mighty army, black and white American

Christians wait in a stalemate, like segregated spiritual mobs stuck in

the past on dead dividing lines. What Dubois concluded years before

the Civil Rights Movement still holds true in America for black/white

missions mobilization today:

"They both act as reciprocal cause and effect. Both must change or

neither can improve to any great extent ... only by a union of intel-

ligence and sympathy across the color-line in this critical period of

the Republic shall justice and right triumph."(3)

Meanwhile, I observe students your age wanting more than the

American dream, which many of your parents relentlessly pursue with

their liberty and rights. More students express their desires to make eter-

nal differences with their lives. Take the great opportunity, for justice's

sake, to introduce them to "the Awakening" truth that Jesus Christ is

our Commissioner. Celebrate your generation's freedom. So many will

discover their worldwide ministry potential through obedience to His

Great Commission's mandate.

43

What a blessing to inform other African-American students of their

great calling as ministers of the Gospel. How will the Holy Spirit em-

power students when William Carey's missions challenge to all Chris-

tians also grips them? Will not a great sense of destiny inspire them

to know that Christ is now overriding past discrimination against their

ancestors to give them their day as missions leaders?

How much more effective will their discipleship become when Afri-

can-American students discover that following Christ obligates them to

make for Him disciples from all nations? What glory will they receive

when Christ accomplishes in and through them the eternal purpose of

God? What transformations will occur as the Father purifies them for

fruitfulness? Would not African-American students obeying Christ's

Commission bless us all? Is it not your and my privilege to obediently

pray for Christ to send them as laborers into His harvest and to act justly

by supporting their obedience to Him?

Begin enlisting fellow students to line up with you and deploy for

action. This section of the book challenges you to muster with them

right away while still in school. I call on you to celebrate your freedom

in Christ to obey His compelling love regardless of unbiblical status

quo opinions or racial divides. Champion the Bible's authority and keep

struggling for freedom from survival mentalities and hurts of past gen-

erations. Gain a winning mentality to run with perseverance the course

that Jesus lays out for you as His disciple-maker of all nations.

Unleash from a Survival Mentality

For their part, many African Americans' powerful potential in world

missions remains lost in their struggles. African-American struggles for

survival, freedom, racial equality, educational opportunities, financial

security, achievement of the American dream, and determination to nev-

er go back into poverty squashed William Carey's challenge to sacrifi-

cially obey Christ's Commission.

I have seen upwardly mobile African Americans teach their children

to get a good education, get out of poverty, flee impoverished communi-

ties, and pursue the American dream with their families. Usually, Afri-

can Americans who overcome these struggles stick with the black mid-

dle class rather than sacrificially obeying Christ's Commission. I have

also observed that, without generational wealth, many African Ameri-

cans remain bound by survival mentalities that prevent their missions

mobilization.

44

Reject Prosperity Theology's Selfishness

Christian African Americans' growing acceptance of prosperity the-

ology's selfish materialism brings a demobilizing effect. African Amer-

icans claiming wealth, health, and security from Christ's death remain

unaware of, or uncommitted to, His command to sacrificially take up

their crosses to serve worldwide. Jesus taught His disciples to prepare

them to follow His example and suffer like Him for love's sake. To

believe in Christ requires adopting His principle of complete self-sur-

render to God. At best, African Americans pursuing prosperity limit

missions to short-term trips that do not require self-sacrifice nor cost

them the American dream. Would not Christ also call some of them to

sacrificial long-term missions?

Next, I challenge you to seek God's calling and assignment through

discipleship so you may deploy other students with this process. I share

God's work in my heart during a college summer- break that inspires

me still. Amazingly, as I sat on a wooden board at a camp for Afri-

can-American children in rural North Carolina, He called me to chal-

lenge you to seek Him and His will.

45

Chapter 5

Find Calling Through Discipleship

A Vanguard Knows the Assignment

What plans did you make for summer break? You may need to make

money, but also invest time during your college career to seek your call-

ing and assignments from Christ for His Great Commission. Please go

back with me to a summer Bible camp in rural North Carolina where I

began seeking Christ's assignment for my life.

I sat on a painted wooden board that served as the back row of an

outdoor classroom. With only a roof on poles, this camp-style chap-

el looked more like a homemade picnic shelter. Yet, it fit in perfectly

with several nearby cabins, a shower-house, and an outhouse made of

two-by-fours and plywood. The staff held most meetings in a new cin-

der-block multipurpose building that I helped paint. On the hazy sum-

mer mornings, however, the other counselors and I led the children out-

doors for Bible lessons under the rustic shelter's roof.

The dozen or so backless benches before me held local Afri-

can-American children who sat respectfully in rows while listening to

the morning's lesson. Except for a camp board member who arrived on

weekends to volunteer maintenance help, I was the only white person

among about 60 African Americans at the camp.

I assumed that the children came from impoverished conditions be-

cause none took showers as I did. They all bathed at the same time in

the shower-house using their own washcloth, soap, and a basin of cold

water. At first, I figured they all chose to avoid the unmercifully cold

well-water that I endured in the unheated shower.

Then I noticed them coming over to the camp director's trailer after

dark from a house next door. With his permission, they filled large plas-

tic containers with water from his garden hose and took them home. The

children moved about stealthily at night to hide their poverty and avoid

the embarrassment of not having running water at their house. At least

for this family, bathing themselves from a basin of cold water was a part

of their everyday experiences.

What the camp lacked in refined facilities, the director and his vol-

unteer staff team made up for with organized fun. They offered home-

made box games and obstacle courses under a grove of trees that pro-

46

vide shade for the games but no sunlight for growing grass. Playing on

the hard dirt made it possible to compete on a basketball court located

in a gap between the trees. The staff also supervised exciting minibike

rides each day. Additionally, everyone went on regular afternoon field

trips to a community swimming pool. They all piled into a retired school

bus that the camp director drove, since he knew how to stop it using the

emergency brake.

God used these cross-cultural experiences in this rural setting to re-

vive and change me. At age 21, I had no idea that He was in the process

of placing me in urban ministry in Norfolk. Needing prerequisites to get

into an MBA program, I took summer-school business courses after I

graduated with a chemistry degree. My summer schedule left me sever-

al open weeks and I volunteered to work in this rural camp.

The camp's Bible teacher took us through daily lessons from I John

as his means of paying for his own children's camp fees, which he could

not afford. His lessons might have gone over the children's heads, but

they hit home with me.

Sitting on this wooden board each morning, I hungered for God's

Word and desired to be close to Him. God used the morning lessons and

evening messages to transform my heart and put me on a path to the

Great Commission. On that particular day in the morning Bible lesson,

my heart opened and I sincerely promised God I would go wherever He

wanted me to go and do whatever He wanted me to do. Since mission-

ary heritage made me spiritually privileged, I prayed that God would

graciously call me to pioneer where others did not want to go.

Suddenly, I felt a rush of energy and emotion causing me to almost

explode with an uncontrollable gush of tears. Quickly covering my face

with my hands to hide my embarrassing, uncharacteristic display of

emotion, it was now my turn to move stealthily and avoid being seen.

I ran from the outdoor chapel, through the grove of trees, and past the

cabins and shower-house to find a secluded place to cry openly behind

the wooden outhouse. There I wept with no concern for pulling myself

together. I wept because I mourned the loss of my father's partnership

with me in this calling.

You see, committing myself to follow Christ unconditionally took

me even further back to my early teens. I had watched my dad and an

African-American missionary minister to black and white teens at an-

other rural summer camp. They played with the kids and then sat down

and led them to Christ, like I do now. While watching them bring young

47

people to Christ on one particular day, I invoked a request from the Bi-

ble's account of Elijah passing his mantle and ministry to Elisha. I pled

to God for twice the spirit of both men for my own life's ministry (2

Kings 2:9). In effect, I asked Him for four times the spiritual power that

I had seen in my spiritual leaders.

Later, as I prayed on the wooden chapel bench in my early twenties,

the Lord answered my requests from both camps. I knew that Christ's

calling and a great mantle, my own father's in fact, had somehow fallen

upon me.

For some inexplicable reason, I wept uncontrollably for my father

and our losses. His own childhood hurts had made him vulnerable to

letting circumstances surrounding his pastorate get to him. As a result,

he walked away from any involvement in church or ministry for 20

years. He refocused his energies instead on sailing and studying secular

psychology with people who used science as an excuse to reject Christ.

Ironically, I studied science in college and become impressed with God's

Word. Dad studied the Bible in college but became impressed with the

intelligence of scientists.

I never told my father about my intense sense of calling on the day

that I wept for us. He tried to discourage my interest in missions, warn-

ing me I would get hurt like him. Almost 30 years later, when I left

his bedside on the night before he died unexpectedly, I had the same

emotions and wept for our spiritual losses again. Later, my mother gave

me his personal files and a diary that documented his calling and vision

for mobilizing African Americans for Christ's Commission, which fell

intact, like an Elijah-mantle, to me.

Although I found myself ministering among African Americans over

and over again in my teens and young adult life, black and white Chris-

tians remained quite segregated. No one, including me, conceived of

the possibility that God had assigned Kim and me to serve in inner-city

missions. Yet, I knew my sense of calling might put me in harm's way

somehow. I became determined to seek God's will - no matter what

could happen.

Not all missionaries face physical danger, but I weighed the formi-

dable risks of death and suffering when making this decision. As I said

before, a missionary to violent New Guinea tribes had been recruiting

me to go there since my elementary school days. Offering myself to

Christ to obey His Commission anywhere,

I had expected God to bring Kim and me to New Guinea, exposing

48

us to great harm and difficulties. Also, I prayed then, "If you send us to

New Guinea, I don't know how Kim will handle the snot, but I know

you can make a way (for her to cope with it)."

Although I never researched the facts, this prayer referred to the

missionary's report that women there greeted his wife by rubbing snot

into her hair--I kid you not.

My commitment included my willingness to die in New Guinea or

to live under the worst circumstances imaginable. As things turned out,

New Guinea was only a test of my discipleship and faith, which pre-

pared me to serve where some might have feared to go. Local danger

here still seems mild to me when compared to laying down my life in

the New Guinea bush.

Now it's your turn to make the call about your future. Wholeheart-

edly offer yourself to Christ for His mission. Just as you came to Christ

by faith, now declare your obedience to His Commission. By faith

commit to go wherever Christ wants you to go, and do whatever He

wants to ask you to do. You will never regret making such a high level

of commitment. He will call you to a personalized assignment in His

timing, but I challenge you to call on Him now. Declare your absolute

allegiance to Him and His cause, keeping in mind that a call to serve is

a call to prepare.

This chapter passes on to you insights about how to seek God's will

and assignment opportunities for your life in missions. I offer Bible

teaching and other dynamics that I imbibed* from my privileged mis-

sionary background. My purpose is to motivate you to make Christ's

Commission the first priority of your career planning.

Resolve to Learn Mobilizing Discipleship

Pursue a discipleship path during the school year that strategically

aims at Christ's Commission. To make disciples for Christ, you must

first become His true disciple yourself, obviously. For instance, prayer-

fully seek church and campus ministries structurally designed to mo-

bilize members for world missions through discipleship. Joining this

mobilizing discipleship is crucial at your age, because decisions made

now may set the course you follow for decades to come.

____________________

*From Dubois quote: Much that the white boy imbibes from his earliest social atmo-

sphere forms the puzzling problems of the black boy's mature years. America is not

another word for Opportunity to all her sons. W.E.B Dubois, Farah J. Griffin, The
Souls of Black Folk, (New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003), 104.

49

To determine a church or campus ministry's commitment to mobiliz-

ing missionaries, count them. For instance, committed churches usually

maintain displays to introduce the missionaries whom they send and/or

support. Respectfully ask about who they have sent out and support in

missions, and how many are African Americans. Make finding a church

or ministry and a disciple-making leader, with good track records in

discipleship and missions, your first career search priority at this point

in your life.

For example, the Tabernacle Church of Norfolk's leaders took me

through true discipleship steps, beginning in my senior college year.

Devoted to fulfilling Christ's Commission, they guided Kim and me as

we progressed toward becoming urban missionaries. They immersed us

in missions through conferences, staff meetings, visiting missionaries,

church library books, small group prayer, Sunday School classes, and

preached messages to us.

This church gave my first ministry assignment, at age 23, that read,

"Evangelize and disciple Granby High School students." I already knew

how to lead students to Christ, but had yet to receive training in disci-

pleship. I began praying for someone to disciple me. Two days later, the

late Al Vail, a veteran disciple-maker at Tabernacle Church, arrived at

our door and for two years invested in Kim, two other couples, and me.

His personal challenges between meetings and the daily prayers that he

offered for us blessed us the most.

Jesus Christ's reign gives Him supremacy in our lives and makes

His world mandate a glorious calling. Isaiah, in his Old Testament vi-

sion, saw Jesus as the Lord of Hosts sitting on a high throne and lifted

up. In Isaiah 6, he recorded seeing the seraphim shake heaven by crying

out in worship, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is

filled with His glory!"

Jesus, the Lord of Hosts, reigns over the armies of heaven, the armies

of Satan, and over every authority on earth. As Jesus' throne room filled

with smoke, Isaiah saw our Holy King and confessed his sinfulness.

After being cleansed and forgiven, Isaiah heard the question that white

missions leaders have been quoting to white students for years: "Whom

shall I send, and who will go for Us?" (Is.6:1-8).

As long as I can remember, my Christian leaders challenged me to

consecrate myself and respond to Christ's Commission with Isaiah's

words, "Here am I; send me." Many Christians consider this personal

encounter with Jesus Christ where one receives a unique, individualized

50

assignment as the "missionary call."

I did, in fact, receive this lasting sense of missionary calling in the

fifth grade. Then, during my teenage years, when I rebelled, like Jonah

heading in the opposite direction, the Lord disciplined me. Graciously,

He kept me in line with my still unknown call of duty. Kim and I pur-

sued this calling after we married, deciding we would head overseas

somewhere until God stopped us or made His calling known. We began

serving in Norfolk, while preparing for a summer internship in Haiti.

Once here, I immediately knew that this inner-city ministry was

God's missions assignment for us. This certainty gave me endurance

during the rejection and hardship that came my way at the beginning.

Knowing our calling as a couple gave me the determination to risk my

life several times, even when I feared the dangerous environment that

crack's arrival created in our city.

The question of whether a Christian should seek a special missionary

call from God for missionary service should concern the African-Amer-

ican student. Let me repeat the calling phenomena that occurred in my

white context. For 250 years, leaders committed to fulfilling Christ's

Commission have challenged (mostly) white students to grapple with

the question of God's missionary call on our lives. These leaders chal-

lenged many to determine whether we have been personally called by

God to serve overseas. Again, here are the specifics of their challenges:

Every Christian disciple is commissioned by Christ, individually

through local churches, to obey the Great Commission by praying,

giving, and going. Going may mean reaching a nearby neighbor or

coworker, but compelled by love for Christ, all must be personally

involved in fulfilling His mandate in some way.

As Christ's disciples willing to go, Christians regularly offer them-

selves to God for missionary service overseas. Christians actively

seek His will for their individual assignments in missions.

Just because a need for missionaries exists somewhere, do not as-

sume the existence of this need automatically means that God has

called you there. Missions conference speakers used to say, "A need

is not a missionary call." Each missionary receives a unique calling

from God to a missionary career, a certain field, or an assignment.

During the same time frame, most African Americans remained un-

aware of the possibility of a personal missionary call.

51

What Usually Goes Down in a Missionary Call?

Going to the missions field with a missionary call requires more

than getting an experience or feeling. Knowing the nature of the process

might give insights on why such a disparity exists between white and

black callings.

As His first priority, the Master increases the usefulness of the in-

struments being called to missionary service. In His love for us, Jesus

accomplishes His spiritual harvest in the world through us. He reigns

and overrides our failures to accomplish His purposes.

Ultimately, Christ is most concerned about who we become in our

complete and continuous union with Him. Through abiding in Him, we

remain in His self-sacrificing love so obedience to His Commission be-

comes our joy. With love, He requires His followers to first learn how

to sacrificially and unconditionally love like Him before they can effec-

tively minister for Him.

Though personal, Christ's love works in broader ways that impact

individual missionary assignments. As Head of the Church worldwide,

He works strategically in and judges each local body of believers. He

provides spiritually gifted leaders who govern and equip churches to

guide individual ministry assignments.

Local churches, for example, may confirm, postpone, or end the

missionaries' callings. Those whose calling they confirm, they com-

mission as representatives. Churches become partners in the calling by

supporting missionaries with finances and prayers. Christians sensing a

missionary call usually apply to independent or church-based missions

boards/agencies. Some go out under their church's supervision. With

missions agencies, human resource departments evaluate the applicants'

potentials for serving in ministry overseas.

After missions agencies accept them, the called ones become mis-

sionary candidates who raise their financial and prayer support from lo-

cal churches and individuals. When missionaries raise a certain support

level, churches usually commission them and the missionaries set their

departure dates.

In many cases, God provides financial support and access to a par-

ticular country, region, or people group to confirm a missionary's call-

ing. Obtaining visas from countries is important to the calling process.

The openness of a country to receiving missionaries factors into the

calling. When service in particular countries becomes extremely dan-

gerous, usually mission boards take their missionaries off these fields.

52

Those knowing their calling offer persistent prayers for open doors.

Some Christians limit the scope of callings strategically themselves.

For example, they focus their missionary service on pioneering works

among unreached people groups.

Most consider their calling a lifetime assignment, unless God chang-

es it in a variety of possible ways. Changes may come from a country

closing its doors, new opportunities arising, family responsibilities,

health limitations, and missions agency retirement policies.

Christ's Role in the Call

Jesus gives His disciples special privileges that impact the mission-

ary calling process as well. He commands them to participate in the

calling of others by praying to Him as Lord of the Harvest. To exercise

this privilege, disciples urge Jesus, through fervent prayer, to powerful-

ly thrust more laborers into the ready spiritual harvest. Christ prepares

His disciples to rejoice in the privileges of spiritual warfare, persecu-

tion, and suffering for His sake, which affects assignments.

Often, He gives vision without details because He first calls them to

the privilege of putting their complete trust in Him. To accomplish His

mission, Jesus' disciples serve as privileged partners with Him, in Him,

through Him, and for Him. His enabling grace makes any accomplish-

ments possible, so Christ has supremacy in their lives and churches,

which plays out in the missionary call. Our Lord's love does not re-

move consequences to enable sin.

Jesus gives us the freedom to choose whether we will obey His Com-

mission for love's sake. Our response, therefore, may directly affect our

missionary calling. Christ maintains high standards for disciples whom

He displays as salt and light to reflect His character and glory in the

world. His disciples purify and discipline themselves with His Word,

lest they become disqualified for service. Christ has a spiritual bench

and can sit disciples down, replacing the disobedient with the willing.

Jesus exercises His prerogative of judging pride that betrays His

selfless love. He may allow selfish people to believe they are accom-

plishing His will, when, in harsh reality, He rejects their service and

does not call them at all. Service for Christ requires complete consecra-

tion and pursuit of His holiness. Christ requires blameless reputations

of His leadership. He requires committed, self-sacrificing love for Him,

for other believers, and for the lost. Without Christ's character, servant

attitude, and love, missionary efforts fail the calling from God.

53

As a result of their union with Christ, the Father purifies Christ's dis-

ciples so they become more fruitful. The Holy Spirit works in disciples'

lives as well. He guides, teaches, purifies, and empowers disciples for

service as He opens and closes doors for the Gospel.

Why Don't African Americans Get Called?

The best and scriptural way of recognizing one's call comes by see-

ing it as God's guidance in a fluid preparation process rather than a

special revelation, experience, or feeling.

Understanding the God's work in preparing disciples for missions

explains the disparity between white and black callings to serving Christ

in overseas missionary careers.

I believe a combination of factors explains the disproportional dif-

ferences between the calling of white and black Christians into full-time

missions. Dismiss immediately one untrue scenario that says Christ

never wanted African-American missionaries serving overseas and

therefore called none to missionary service. African Americans, accord-

ing to this premise, would not be obligated to obey our Lord Jesus'

Great Commission. This scenario violates Christ's Commission to all

His disciples and contradicts black experiences.

In 1782, and 10 years before Englishman William Carey, the father of

modern missions, wrote his mobilizing exposition, the Lord "thrust out"

an African American as the first American missionary. Virginia-born,

former slave, and church planter George Liele became an indentured

servant to the British to earn his passage to Jamaica. He left churches

that he started in Savanna, Ga., to escape Southerners who attempted

to re-enslave freed African Americans. Upon earning His freedom in

Jamaica, Liele and a few other former slaves established the first Baptist

church on the island, enduring much hardship as its pastor.(1)

Liele's ministry in Jamaica raises the question of why African Amer-

icans do not heed Christ's Great Commission. If God has been calling

African Americans to personal missionary service overseas, are they

failing to obey Him as true disciples?

Some missionary leaders argue that a special call is not necessary

before disciples obey Christ's worldwide mandate. In this reasoning,

missionary statesmen and women should not need to challenge students

to discern whether they have special, individualized missionary call-

ings, if leaders disciple the students correctly. These leaders expect

Christ's disciples to obey without needing a sense of personal assign-

54

ment or destiny from God.

If true, Christians remaining absent with no long-term personal in-

volvement in international missions would either be poorly taught or

disobedient to Christ. African Americans, as a whole, would be out of

God's will or missing God's Word if only a few hundred participate in

world missions. Discipleship of African Americans would be consid-

ered inadequate, misguided, or failing, according to this reasoning. The

solution to the lack of African-American missionaries would be better

discipleship that includes obedience to the Great Commission overseas.

Yet the need for better discipleship brings me back to challenging

you to prayerfully and aggressively pursue obedience to the Great Com-

mission overseas. You deserve to know how to seek your missionary

call as a discipleship process rather than just having an experience or

feeling. All Christian African-American students deserve to know why

so few introduce them to this process, which may bring up the unre-

solved divides and barriers that Christians from my generation still do

not want to confront.

Old Barriers Still in the Systems

As I discussed in the last chapter, you deserve to know that God has

been calling you to missions but white racism, segregation, oppression,

racial prejudice, discrimination, and neglect have presented barriers to

black participation. In my opinion, the absence of African-American

missionaries exposes one of the greatest injustices that whites have ever

inflicted upon African Americans--teaching them a form of Christiani-

ty that does not empower them to carry the Gospel worldwide.

Be confident, despite this past, and know that God will provide for

your sacrificial work overseas.

Neglect in white-led sending agencies remains a systemic problem.

I assure you that white people do not sit around with Jim Crow malice

thinking of ways to prevent your participation. The neglect is ingrained

into our missions mobilization systems, produced by inherited status

quo thinking, perceptions, and ways of doing things.

For example, I told a white administrator at one mission agency,

which happens to send missionaries to Africa, that I had visited Har-

lem. His response revealed this systemic neglect that I am talking about.

He said, "Harlem? You went to Harlem? I do everything I can to stay

away from Harlem!" Speaking for myself, if we seriously sought Af-

rican Americans to activate for missions, Harlem residents could be a

55

great resource to target. The systemic problem resides in the perspective

of this administrator who did not see Harlem as a potential source of

missionaries.

A white leader in a church missions program helped me see this sys-

temic barrier when he asked, "Can you give me one theological reason

why we should spend one more dollar on inner-city ministry in America

when millions of people in the world have not heard the Gospel once?"

My one reason, which remains outside traditional missions thinking,

is that inner cities are home to a great untapped number of potential

missionary leaders. I testify how the God of all comfort prepares people

in harsh inner-city backgrounds to comfort others with the comfort they

have received from Him.

By the Holy Spirit's power, they may witness for Christ anywhere,

but they especially touch those whose lives and families structures have

been shaped by poverty, who have been rejected as outcasts, and who

are oppressed and struggle for freedom. They confront well the false

teachers who take advantage of past white missionary colonialism or

paternalism and try to discredit the Gospel.

If you come from an inner-city background, thank God for your

missionary advantage. Our Lord equipped you to share the good news

of peace and hope that you found there. He prepared you to lead us all in

effective ministry to the "least of these" in the world. But first, become

truly free in your own heart to respond to God's compelling love.

Prepare your heart for Christ's intensity. When Jesus calls disciples

to obey, He wants His special forces to bring it hot with commitment.

Unless you come willing to die for His cause, you are unworthy of His

Commission. When mobilizing disciples, Jesus "don't play."

Jesus Throws Out Laborers into His Harvest

Jesus used a serious Greek verb in Luke 10:2 that the KJV translates

as "send forth" to describe how He gets laborers into His harvest:

"... pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send

forth laborers into His harvest."

This verb, "send forth," means to cast out by a strategic force that

cannot be resisted. Also used in the Greek translation of the Old Testa-

ment, it revealed God's intensity as He promised to violently drive out

the nations before Israel (Exodus 23:30). This phrase reveals Christ's

commanding forcefulness as He cast out demons and threw money

56

changers out of the temple. Jesus' intense passion as Lord of the Harvest

to mobilize His disciples is also revealed in this verb, "send forth."

Correctly translated, Christ's mobilizing command in Luke 10:2

challenges us to pray for laborers and be prepared to make a radical

commitment. Jesus literally commands you, as His disciple, to fervently

beg Him, the Lord of the Harvest, to forcefully throw out laborers into

His spiritual harvest. His command assumes He will thrust you out first,

and with such intense action, that you must go--so pray for others to go

with you into this ripe spiritual harvest.

Christ Breaks Those He Uses

In love, often tough love, He may intervene to change your life's

course so you fulfill His specific assignments. Ignoring or remaining un-

aware of His Commission might leave you bucking against the highest

conceivable purpose and power in the universe. Other scriptures doc-

ument Christ's strong sending-work, and I can vouch for His intense

thrust in my own life.

Humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand and pursue

His holiness. Scripture and modern testimonies document well the fact

that God first breaks those whom He chooses to use. Beware of trying to

"kick against the pricks" like Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9:5. He became the

great missionary, Apostle Paul, after Christ encountered and broke him.

If, perhaps, you read this challenge after already being broken by

Christ, be assured He put His hands on you for His glory. Return, re-

joice, and obey. God obviously is training you to be fruitful for your

great future in Christ's great harvest.

Seek God's will and assignments in obedience to the Lord of the

Harvest. Make seeking His direction the first priority of your career

planning as a vanguard leader. Would not vanguards seek to know

where they are commissioned to go in order to strategically lead the

way? Would not vanguards pursue training to equip others?

Invest time during your summer break to serve in missions and seek

His assignments. Invest in your own discipleship training during the

school year. These challenges flow into the next chapter's encourage-

ment to rise up with a pioneering spirit when obeying Christ's calling

on your life. Like the Freedom Riders, inspire and motivate for action

many types of people through your stand for justice, regardless of your

background or the opposition that you may face.

57

Chapter 6

Pioneer in Spirit

A Vanguard Perseveres With a Pioneering Spirit

Discover New Confidence

This chapter challenges you to live out a new pioneering spirit.

Exerting confidence in Christ's presence will embolden you for your

spiritual revolution. Through the Holy Spirit's wisdom and power, you

can tackle new problems as they come without already knowing their

solutions. Overcome obstacles that prevent the mobilization of African

Americans for world missions.

Make new discoveries, venture into new territories, explore virgin

frontiers, brave dangers, and endure hardships to revolutionize our mis-

sionary forces so the oppressed in the most distant lands may know that

Jesus saves without discrimination.

Find in Christ the confidence and bravery that comes with an inno-

vative pioneering spirit. A background of rejection and poverty did not

stop Jesus from arising as a vanguard pioneer. He fulfilled God's mis-

sion and purpose under threatening conditions, and they must not stop

you either.

For instance, the Bible's Christmas story reveals Jesus' background

when He demonstrated God's unconditional love for us. We read how

the Father sent His Son to give peace and safety from sin and judgment

in a background of rejection, political opposition, hatred, and danger.

The Christ-child faced an imposing, threatening environment, but His

deprived background could not prevent Him from accomplishing this

vital mission.

One outcome is that God graciously accepts you because you re-

ceived Jesus Christ by faith. Christ, in turn, promised to be with and

empower you to fulfill His same mission in the same kinds of hostilities

regardless of your background.

Confidently Mobilize

Work on heightening your confidence when challenged to serve

Christ as long-term missionaries. Believe in your potential in Christ and

step up to this challenge. Respond with the same poised bravery docu-

mented in newsreels of African-American students pioneering in passive

58

resistance or militant confrontation during the Civil Rights Movement. I

grew up seeing this same confident determination in white missionaries.

Watch the PBS documentary, "The Freedom Riders,"(1) and consid-

er how they confidently mobilized for a social revolution that parallels

your spiritual one. With pioneering spirits, they attempted the impossi-

ble. Students stepped up first and then called for support and for more

brave riders.

Optimistic in their cause of justice, they took ownership of their

rights to go through barriers and expected to be miracles of God. Al-

though young, they won justice without depending on the establishment

and felt urgency to finish their task. While college students, they pio-

neered justice that transformed our nation. Like the documentary asks:

Will you get on that bus?

Grow in this grace of confidence by asking for the Holy Spirit's em-

powerment to become a great pioneer for the Gospel. For our Lord Jesus

commanded you, as His disciple, to pioneer worldwide with Him and

for Him. He expects you to make disciples while you are going. Through

His Spirit, Christ indwells you to fulfill His Commission through you.

He promises never to leave you, expecting you to become a pioneering

witness of Him to the uttermost parts of the world. Put your confidence

in Christ, in your union with Him, in His promised presence, and in

Holy Spirit's power who lives in you.

It is known that African-American students build confidence to pio-

neer in white contexts by finding other black students and hanging out

with them.(2) This may become a problem for your generation because

so few African Americans fulfill Christ's Commission overseas. You

may be the only African American in your mission agency or in the field

where you will serve. Yet God will use that kind of vanguard leadership

to break through barriers for other African Americans at home while

you fulfill the Lord Jesus' Commission in other countries.

Lead like the Freedom Riders

The Freedom Riders of 1961 demonstrated commitment and cour-

age in their activism that you must wield to revolutionize world mis-

sions as Christ's pioneering vanguard. Before boarding the buses, they

wrote their wills and prepared to die to win freedom for the oppressed.

With passion, they made the plight of others their cause. For the

civil rights of unknown countrymen, they put aside their own right to

pursue happiness when they left college before exams in order to pro-

59

test. They corrected the injustices that had been destroying the integrity

of our entire nation in the eyes of the whole world.

The Freedom Riders surrendered their ambitions of achieving the

American Dream. As you know, many left college even though they

were the first in their families to attend. They had no personal financial

incentives or obligations. The Freedom Riders owed no favors to polit-

ical parties. Their decision to go first and put themselves in the middle

of the conflict made them completely free and unstoppable vanguards of

non-violent resistance.

By grace, replicate the free resolve and courage that forced the older

generation to respect and join them. Their courageous sacrifice made

the President of the United States take action. The PBS documentary

made the point that even Martin Luther King Jr. found himself pulled

into their activism and mobilized by their initiatives.

Transfer Freedom Rider tenacity to your spiritual cause as Christ's

ambassador. For their just social/political cause, the Freedom Riders

mobilized students of both races from across the nation. They moved

our federal government and our president into action before the scrutiny

of nations around the world. They first mobilized themselves and then

called for support and other riders to join their protest.

The Freedom Riders attempted the impossible, determined to per-

form with avant-garde innovation. They entered those fateful buses

optimistic and confident in their just cause. Ask God for their deter-

mination to lead for His glory in the world. Take on Freedom Rider op-

timistic expectations by faith. They took ownership of their rights to go

through doors that unjust systems had closed. Expecting a miracle, each

accepted the value of suffering and death as the means to revolutionize.

They always, always felt the urgency to finish the task. Diverse and

unified, they did not need to debate racial issues with those tied down

by their pursuits for power, fame, or greed. Please watch the PBS doc-

umentary and apply their heroic self-sacrifice to your decision-making

about leading in Christ's spiritual cause.

As Freedom Riders mobilized in the social/political realm, I chal-

lenge you to step up and lead in the spiritual realm. Activate your Chris-

tian generation, and all of us, for the even greater cause of proclaiming

God's glory to the nations. Go first, mobilizing yourself and then others.

Attempt the impossible and be determined to accomplish it by God's

grace. Take ownership of your right to go through closed doors when

God has declared them open. Accept death and suffering with an urgen-

60

cy to finish the task of declaring Christ's Gospel to peoples worldwide.

With pioneering spirits, make the plight of others your own. Be di-

verse, unified, and free. Exercise the liberty of spiritual justice and

while you go to the ends of the earth, make more reproducing disciples

of Jesus.

Muster the Spiritual Angel of Death

When a young Marine returned from his tour in Iraq, he shared with

me a perspective from over there. He said that an Iraqi civilian told him

that they call Marines "angels of death." In other words, when a Marine

showed up to fight the enemy, God must have decided that it was time

for the foe to die. The enemies are left, I assume, to make the fight costly

so our nation decides that the warfare is not worth the sacrifice.

Perhaps our enemies hope that political division here or wars on oth-

er fronts will keep the Marines away. We know that the mission of our

military expanded to include combating terrorism by winning the hearts

of the people in other nations. Yet obviously there are certain lines that

our country will not allow our enemies to cross without making them

face our military's deadly force.

As you know, we fight in a spiritual warfare against spiritual en-

emies as soldiers of Jesus Christ. I believe that Satan's main tactic is

preventive in nature. He creates distraction to divert God's people from

the battle. To war against Christ's Commission, the evil one only has to

prevent us from showing up.

I believe that a primary reason so many factors add up to keep Af-

rican Americans off of the missions field is Satan's fear of a worldwide

united witness of the Body of Christ that includes you. I believe he spe-

cifically targets African-American men for spiritual attack for the same

reasons they should be targeted for empowerment and mobilization by

Christians for missions. Include black men in the mix and the Church's

body will become whole and more deadly in spiritual warfare. As the

Holy Spirit empowers this unity, we will war as one spiritual angel of

death against the forces of evil. Our unity means God is about to de-

stroy the works of darkness.

Lead from the Front and Call More to Follow

Always remember that the primary role of the spiritual vanguard

is to create motion. Pioneering missionaries advance ahead of others,

often at great personal risk, praying for and calling on others to follow.

61

With faith in Christ's promises, create opportunities for service while

mobilizing more laborers to share in the same risks and sacrifices that

you endure.

As a vanguard, you must mobilize others into battle to fulfill your

own calling. Learn and embrace the eternal value of making sacrifices

to pioneer for Christ like Jim Elliot. I re-emphasize what he wrote in his

diary: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which

he cannot lose.

I challenge you to accept this high call as Christ's spiritual van-

guard to fulfill His purposes for your life. Vanguard leadership remains

God's method of Christian missions mobilization. The Apostle Paul cer-

tainly took his stand as Christ's vanguard. Christ mobilized His people

through Paul, and still mobilizes through Paul's epistles, to fulfill His

Great Commission worldwide.

Paul, as I said, used military terminology to describe Christ's Gos-

pel mission and the spiritual warfare it attracts. Called to suffer much

for Jesus and His Gospel's sake, Paul understood his high calling and

willingly put himself at the center of Christ's spiritual revolution. Paul

advanced God's army for Christ's mission from the front line. He mobi-

lized at the forefront and endured extreme hardships.

He pioneered as an elite soldier of Christ with the highest convic-

tion, and he made the ultimate sacrifice. He defended the faith, as did

those who followed him into spiritual battle. When Christ mobilized

his disciples to the mass action of fulfilling the eternal purpose of God,

He placed Paul on the cutting edge of the Great Commission. Paul pio-

neered by planting churches and pulling them into motion after him.

For 200 years, white believers controlled the resources and power

to lead the modern missions movement. Now, as the world's population

explodes, I conclude that our white vanguards must lead better. I regret-

fully conclude that some have failed in missions with prideful feelings

of racial superiority. We left many of our best freedom fighters behind

in the past, incorrectly assuming that we could advance without our Af-

rican-American fellow missionary soldiers.

I remain confident that our Lord has prepared African Americans as

our present-day spiritual vanguards. We depend upon you to mobilize

us--and all races must mobilize together or fail to mobilize at all. Free

at last, you are entrusted by God with the high calling of leading us all

into the battle.

62

Bring an Uprising Not a Reformation

Although an international Christian coalition that exists to mobilize

people for world evangelism calls for a reformation, I challenge you

lead with much greater spiritual activism than that.(3) I believe reform

falls short of the radical changes in church structures, prejudices, and

missions systems required to mobilize African Americans. In your spir-

itual leadership, choose between spearheading a new spiritual reforma-

tion or a spiritual uprising's revolution.

You possess more opportunity, in my opinion, to mobilize African

Americans through spiritual revolution not reformation. Reformation

may come with this spiritual revolution. But five centuries without

progress suggest that true reformation will not come without it.

Do we have time to reform status quo church and ministry missions

systems? Christ's impending Second Coming and the world's exploding

population compel us to quickly set in motion a unified witness from

America. To create this motion requires mobilizing together people of

African descent, Hispanics, Asians, whites, and whomever else from

every race, nation, and socioeconomic class in the world.

The debate goes on today about whether Christian social activists

should work within unjust systems or go outside these systems to effect

change. I transfer the issue of how to bring about change from social ac-

tivism to the realm of spiritual activism. In spiritual activism we "know

no man after the flesh" but as new creations in Christ who appoints us to

the status of being His ambassadors to all nations. Always keep in mind

that you are free to pioneer new structures.

In the next chapter, I will explain the secret to empowering others

with the same missions privileges that will cause a true uprising of faith.

I will challenge you to arise with a transforming ambition for raising up

leaders at home and abroad. Empower them with authority to govern

churches and build facilities as you leave on your quest to deploy others

to do the same and worldwide.

63

Chapter 7

Lead by Empowering

A Vanguard Makes Mobilizing the Ambition

Pioneer by empowering others instead of seeking to gain power and

titles of your own. Many view leadership as pursuing personal ambition

and acquiring titles rather than mobilizing others as Christ's vanguard.

Consider this example. An elementary school teacher, who is a Urban

Discovery Ministries' Board member, accepted Christ as a high school

student in our outreach. I enjoyed visiting with her father during her

teen years and probably impressed him somehow.

Before he passed away and whenever we talked, he asked me if I

had acquired my "own" church yet. Meant as a compliment from his

understanding of how some pastors operate, he assumed I desired my

own large church in a big building. Although I tried to explain that my

missionary role focused on empowering other leaders to govern minis-

tries, her father could not comprehend my objective.

Whenever I replied that I had not come into possession of a church,

he thought it necessary to console and encourage me. Her father assured

me each time that I would eventually receive a large, prestigious church.

In contrast, my leadership objectives focus on pioneering missionary

structures that empower others to lead.

This chapter elevates the vanguard leader's role of mobilizing mis-

sionaries through empowerment instead of hungering for status, build-

ings, or titles. This would require sacrificing hard-earned rights, status,

and the power, which African Americans have long been denied. Almost

the whole world would advise black leaders to remain in offices gained.

Most black church structures recommend remaining in their positions of

power to bring change rather than serve as missionaries who empower

others to lead.

How can you mobilize as a vanguard leader from the front of a

movement if you pursue titles and governing positions at home? How

will you pull others into the missions field behind you if you remain

stationary in the United States?

Yet, the past struggle to govern at home will demobilize you for

missions until you surrender this right to hold titled positions at home.

Will you, instead, leave the right to rule behind to other capable leaders

64

and go overseas under Christ's authority? Will you go to sacrificially

empower leaders in other countries to govern their own ministries?

Vanguards revolutionize ministry ambitions by empowering others

rather than trying to selfishly hoard the authority to govern. Christ's

Commission, in effect, asks Christian leaders to voluntarily surrender

their privileges to govern in their churches. Missionaries, for the Gos-

pel's sake, leave the power of church government to others at home.

They travel overseas to equip and empower leaders in other countries

to govern their churches there. Church systems based on ambition to

govern at home, with the power and more certain income it brings, de-

mobilize African Americans from service in world missions.

We call Christ's last command the Great Commission for a reason.

A commission means someone gives power and authority to another to

complete a task. Our Lord's Commission is great because He first re-

ceived from the Father all authority in heaven and earth. He delegates

power to you to complete His mission of making disciples of all nations.

Also, He backs your authority to accomplish this task with His prom-

ised presence.

Make Empowerment Your Ambition

This is a true saying: If a man desires the office of a bishop, he

desires a good work (1 Timothy 3:1). But reject the assumption that

wielding power in such an office must be the aim and ceiling for your

ambition. Christ's authority given by His Commission provides greater

power and privilege. You may win future bishops for Him worldwide,

empower them through discipleship, and appoint them as servant-lead-

ers. Make becoming a spiritually powerful global bishop-maker your

highest ambition.

It is well-known that generations of African-American leaders strug-

gled against white discrimination to win or preserve the right to govern

in politics and churches.

With some exceptions, white Christians denied African Americans

the authority to lead in white controlled churches and denominations.

This discrimination instigated the racial divide between white and black

churches and missions agencies. This divide created systemic demobi-

lizing issues for African Americans. Be careful to recognize demobi-

lizing structures that are founded on ambitions to govern churches at

home, which may detour you from fulfilling Christ's Commission.

Ephesians 4:11 makes no mention of race, authority, or power when

65

describing Christ-given church leadership:

And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evan-

gelists; and some, pastors and teachers.

He gives gifted men, without race-preferences, to equip believers

for works of service. Understanding this passage provides crucial in-

sights into how local churches should also mobilize missions leaders. It

also attracts much controversy. Verse 11 either mobilizes or demobilizes

leaders for world missions depending on how it is applied.

As probably anticipated, I conclude that many African-American

churches demobilize young leaders by interpreting this Bible verse to

make governing and titles their primary ambitions.

Let me first affirm the importance of African-American leadership

for governing churches and in missions. I am calling for more Afri-

can-American Christian leaders to step up to the point of becoming

vanguards of Christ's mission. Yet, I am also addressing the reasons

why black church structures fail to send leaders to serve as career mis-

sionaries overseas.

Reasons Traditional Church Structures Demobilize

I believe that white Christians started a demobilizing problem for

African Americans by racially discriminating against black Christian

leaders throughout our country's history. African Americans achieved

the right to govern in the separate "black church." White politicians,

white church leaders, and white missionaries historically denied people

of African descent the right to govern anywhere else.

Much of the black-white racial divide that remains today in min-

istries resulted from the lack of opportunity for African Americans to

govern in churches controlled by whites after slavery ended.

Whereas in Ephesians 4:11 Jesus gives gifted biblical leadership to

the Church without regard to race, white and black churches maintain

the status quo racial discrimination that whites originally implemented

and enforced.

African-Americans and African churches answered white Chris-

tian discrimination with black Christian discrimination. "Black Power"

thinking increased this divide. African Americans and African church

leaders replaced white leaders with black leaders in their churches, col-

leges, missions societies, and ministries wherever black Christians

were being governed.

66

The right to govern became one of the greatest causes of the Afri-

can-American struggle for equality. Black Power's influence on many

African-American church leaders during this struggle, in effect, under-

mined Ephesians 4:11's teaching that recognized Christ given gifted

leaders without regard to race.

So now our racially discriminating Christian churches and mis-

sions organizations come from separated white-governed systems and

black-governed systems. We call these two-tiered divided systems "the

white church" and "the black church." As you know, this division con-

tradicts the Bible's teaching that we all are baptized into one spiritual

body by one Spirit. Our racially divided systems worry about gover-

nance power, but obviously remain spiritually powerless to evangelize

the world effectively.

Consider now the African-American side of the racial divide. When

applying Ephesians 4:11, the black struggle for the right to govern some-

how creates structures that conflict with Christ's mandate to surrender

that right and go to all nations. Christ's Commission, I repeat for em-

phasis, requires some leaders to leave church governance to other gifted

ones and go overseas to equip Christ-given leaders in other countries.

Missions, done Biblically, empower leaders in other countries with

the authority to govern their own churches. Missionaries make disciples

under Christ's authority and through the power of His presence, but they

give away to others the right to govern churches. African-American stu-

dents deserve to know that black churches generally use Ephesians 4:11

to create a hierarchy of church offices.

Like whites, many racially discriminate when appointing leaders for

these offices. In addition, ambition to govern in these offices demobiliz-

es many for the Great Commission. Many African-American Christian

leaders focus on filling leadership offices for the purpose of ruling their

churches. These offices usually come with salaries and prestige.

Popular church or denominational offices today include apostles,

bishops, pastors, ministers, elders, deacons, armor bearers, prophets,

evangelists, missionaries, and teachers. I listed them in the usual hierar-

chical order of authority that churches might utilize, depending on their

denominations' policies. Never mind that some appoint leaders to all of

these offices instead of the four possibilities of Ephesians 4:11.

As a vanguard of Christ's Commission, you should be concerned

that many African-American churches make filling these offices their

priority rather than mobilizing leaders for world missions. The loss of

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missions leadership comes about, in my opinion, when potential leaders

aim only to rule, and perhaps to become employed, in these offices.

With their focus on home ministries, Christ-given leaders back up in

these churches' systems with nowhere left to lead. Often, then, potential

leaders establish new churches to govern, instead of aiming to serve

overseas. In turn, they lose Christ's mandate for the world in their strug-

gle to govern locally. They establish many churches in the U.S., but Af-

rican-American church-planting missionaries remain absent overseas.

Reject the prosperity theology embraced by more African-American

church leaders today. Preaching prosperity theology usually fuels more

rapid church growth among people seeking financial blessings by giving

their tithes. This teaching creates opportunities for prospective church

leaders to move up the hierarchy of offices with increased authority and

financial bases. Emphasizing selfish materialism and holding leaders at

home allows prosperity theology to move African Americans in the op-

posite direction of Christ's mandate to sacrificially disciple all nations.

Leaders teaching prosperity theology financially benefit and increase

their abilities to govern. They receive financial and political benefits by

preaching prosperity theology while filling paid church offices.

Regardless of how Ephesians 4:11 is used, 4:12 clearly gives the

purpose of Christ-given leadership:

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the

edifying of the body of Christ Either as leadership roles or offices,

which ever interpretation one chooses for this verse, Christ gives

them the responsibility to build up the Body of Christ by equipping

members for works of service.

So Christ gives gifted leaders to equip and mobilize saints not

to rule over them. Each one of these kinds of leaders equips believers

under the premise that all members are sent on Christ's global mission.

Resist the temptation to focus on titles and authoritarian hierarchies in

your student-led campus ministries, which can easily undermine your

mobilizing impact on campus. I heard about a campus ministry at a his-

torical black university that self-destructed this way.

Value Unchurched Unbelievers

Millions of potential laborers for Christ exist who have not been dis-

oriented by present church and ministry structures because they come

with little or no church backgrounds. Although the "unchurched" do

not know Christ yet, have never experienced discipleship, or have no

68

knowledge of His Great Commission, their advantage comes from their

disconnection from demobilizing structures.

Ironically, the unbelieving unchurched possess potential as mission-

aries because they remain free from the structures that would demobi-

lize them after their conversions.

Those whom the church systems overlook may become the soldiers

for your spiritual revolution once they accept Christ through your wit-

ness. No one represents the unchurched or speaks on their behalf. So

no one makes them stop and debate racial and power issues. Set new

believers into motion through intense discipleship and new churches

outside of existing systems.

I challenge you to establish new churches and ministries with built-

in structures that start mobilizing people from the time of their con-

versions. Disciple and equip them with transformative leadership that

sends them as vanguards of Christ's Commission so they choose struc-

tures for their lives and ministries that make discipleship of all nations

their priority. Then your revolution will come. The uprising starts with

transforming and empowering one disciple at a time, but God's plan of

evangelism grows exponentially in mobilizing structures.

Value the Potential in People from Low-Income Backgrounds

In your vanguard leadership, make mobilizing families from low-in-

come backgrounds a high priority. Since the beginning of modern mis-

sions more than 250 years ago, black and white Christians put pressure

on the black middle class to perform like messiahs to uplift the black

lower class and save Africa.

This limited uplift ideology enabled whites to maintain segregated

status quo missions structures. Uplift gave them reasons to conclude

that few African Americans are qualified for missionary service. They

could also blame blacks for their absence in missions by expecting them

to mobilize themselves separately.

Since most white people do not notice much difference between the

black middle and "lower" classes, they often do not recognize how class

structures impact black mobilization.

For example, whites might expect black middle-class missionaries

to relate well with black people of lower socio-economic classes only

because they have the same skin color. Also, they fail to notice if mid-

dle-class African Americans have negative attitudes about people with

low incomes of other races, like international immigrants or whites.

69

Broadly speaking, most black and white Christians do not see poten-

tial in the black "lower class" to serve as missionaries. This perspective

means that African Americans with low income backgrounds are not

being effectively discipled because almost no one challenges them to

fulfill Christ's global mission.

In addition, since whites tend to negatively stereotype blacks as a

group, most see little missions potential in middle-class African Ameri-

cans as well.

Find ways to empower people from low-income backgrounds with

Bible and discipleship training without requiring them to acquire mid-

dle-class status and values. I will go out on a limb to say that Lecrae was

feeling this need in his song, Beautiful Feet:

... but then he gets saved and wanna preach Christ they

make him change his whole culture and whole way of life/

he gotta get him a bachelor's wear a suit and tie/ go to seminary/

by then all of his boys will die/ Jesus came to invade

culture outta Nazareth and used a couple fisherman who

people saw as hazardous/ the feet are beautiful if only

they'd go/ if ain't nobody in `hood preaching how will they

know?/ Eric is better used taught trues in his context/ somebody

please plant a church in his projects.(1)

Your vanguard leadership role of mobilizing missionaries through

empowerment will require a life of faith and sacrifice. Yet, Jesus does

not measure vanguard greatness by how highly a leader rises in office

or the size of his church building. Instead, your vanguard's honor will

come when the masses mobilize, the uprising spreads, and the leaders

you pulled up magnify Christ's great fame worldwide.

Fulfill your missionary objective through empowerment and you

will never regret moving beyond traditional leadership structures. May

your leadership legacy bring you high, eternal status with God for em-

powering those who spread the Gospel of salvation to thousands around

the globe. The next chapter challenges you to take aim at the right tar-

gets and mobilize this missions force strategically.

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71

Chapter 8

Bring It Strategically

A Vanguard Aims in the Right Direction

Resolve to Really Know the Great Commissioner

This chapter challenges you to step up strategically when you step

up to obey Christ's Commission. Make declaring God's glory to the

nations your target. The world's greatest need is to know that our Lord

Jesus reigns.(1) To make Him known, you must know Him for yourself

and let Him reign in your own heart, life, and plans. Consider my testi-

mony about introducing a college student to Christ to better understand

what I mean.

I planned to attend a big high school boys basketball game last sea-

son with many of our friends. Then, a parent of a girl I knew from AAU

basketball emailed to invite me to her game. I sensed that God wanted

me to go to her game, perhaps to share the Gospel with this parent some-

how. When I sat in the bleachers next to her parents, they basically ig-

nored me. So I spent the first half of the game sitting alone and praying,

"Lord, I know that I am here for a reason, but what is it? I will sit here

available for whatever you want me to do."

During half-time, I went to the foyer and talked with a coach. A col-

lege student, whom I had known since he was in middle school, began

talking to me. He informed me of his recent transfer to Norfolk State

University. Also, he shared with me how he had recently made a com-

mitment at church to follow Christ. This college student said, "Coach

Mike, I need someone to teach me the Bible. I can't understand what it's

saying." I knew immediately why the Lord had guided me to this game.

With others, I had been praying for an opportunity to start a ministry

on his campus. I offered to teach him, and we arranged to meet at the

NSU library. After I explained John 3:16 in detail, he put His faith in

Christ. A few months later, while giving his testimony at a college re-

treat, he pegged our library discussion as the moment he came to know

Christ for sure. This college student invited friends to study the Bible

with us in his dormitory. I enjoyed the honor of explaining their wonder-

ful potential in fulfilling His world mandate.

I realized from the start of our meeting that he genuinely desired to

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follow Christ, but no one had clearly explained the Gospel to him. He

went up to the front of the church during an "invitation," but did not

know how to begin a relationship with Jesus.

Many students know that Jesus died for our sins. However, they do

not fully understand the meaning of His sacrifice. Here is a short ex-

planation: We come into this world spiritually dead and separated from

God because of sin and its consequences. God is holy and must punish

sin. Yet, in love, the Father sent Jesus to make it possible to give you

spiritual life and bring you into a lasting relationship with Himself.

As a vanguard leader, you must believe that Jesus is God who came

in the flesh to pay the punishment of death for your sins. He died in

your place to satisfy God's holiness. In justice, God enforces the con-

sequence that the punishment for sin is death. Jesus bore our sin on His

body to pay that punishment. Being of infinite worth, Christ's death

satisfied God's justice so that His mercy could be freely given to us.

When Jesus completed this work, the Father raised Him from the

dead. He exalts Jesus and gives eternal life as a free gift to everyone

who believes in Him. True belief means accepting that Jesus is God,

turning from sin, and giving Him control of one's life. To receive the

gift of eternal life, one must believe that Jesus is one's Savior who died

on the cross, and rose again, as a substitute to pay the punishment for

one's sins. Trusting in Him and His work on the cross is God's only way

to receive forgiveness and eternal life.

This means trusting in Christ's payment for sin by death on the cross

and not on one's performance of religious deeds or rituals to become a

true child of God. He offers forgiveness and acceptance by grace, which

is a free blessing from God that cannot be earned and is not deserved.

If this way of believing in Jesus to receive forgiveness, a new rela-

tionship with God, and eternal life is new to you, I encourage you to put

your trust in Him as you consider this summary: Jesus gave His life for

you. Now He wants you to believe that He is your risen God, Savior,

and King--and to give your life to Him. My father explained John 3:16

to me and invited me to express in a prayer my committed faith in Jesus

Christ and to thank Him for dying on the cross as a substitute for me.

I encourage you to make the same personal commitment to give Him

control of your life.

When you opened your heart and received Him, Christ indwelt you

through the Holy Spirit and made, and still makes, your spirit alive as

His new creation. Your union with Christ comes with a new status of

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being righteous before God, and the Holy Spirit works in you to cleanse

and set you apart from sin.

As I said before, when you became a new creation in Christ and His

ambassador, your new relationship with Him gave you the possibili-

ty of receiving many privileges through God's grace. Foremost among

them is the freedom to follow Christ as His obedient disciple. Under His

Great Commission, you received the right to declare God's glory to the

nations. Through His indwelling Spirit and your glad obedience, you

may effectively declare to the world that Jesus reigns. As His vanguard,

know and proclaim Jesus as Lord, Savior, King, and the Great Commis-

sioner of His disciples to all nations.

Resolve to Get a Prayer Life

Find a disciple-maker to show you how to fellowship with God in

prayer like Jesus demonstrated out loud before His followers in John

Chapter 17. Getting a prayer life is a vital part of discipleship. During

my childhood, God used family members to impress upon me the desire

and need to pray.

I remember my father leading prayer meetings at church and camp,

my mother's prayers at bedtime, and my pioneer missionary grand-

mother rising before dawn to pray. They instilled in me the importance

of prayer. When I entered the ministry, I resolved to pray like them.

After my grandmother lost consciousness in her 90s, I read to her

from the Psalms. Although unresponsive to all else, she leaned toward

me as I read, like she knew the scriptures and could respond spiritually

somehow. Following her example, I rise each day before dawn to spend

time with the Lord and begin by praying through a psalm.

Pray About a Spouse

Speaking of my grandmother, if you need to marry, make sure that

your spouse brings to your union the same fire for Christ's Commission

that burns in your heart. My grandmother went to Africa engaged to a

man who decided not to stay. She broke off the engagement, but met

my grandfather in Africa where they married and served together. Of

course, your spouse's commitment will determine your life's involve-

ment level in missions.

If you must marry, then marry up spiritually--meaning, ask God

for a spouse who brings even hotter passion than you for Christ and

His Commission. Go on a short-term missions trip and see how well

74

you serve and complement each other in overseas ministry. Find some-

one who will pray hard with you for guidance. Seek someone, like my

grandmother, who rises early to intercede for the world, so you can step

up and lead together as one.

Make obeying Christ's Commission your standard for choosing

a spouse before you become emotionally attached. Before you fall in

love, strategically design a mobilizing relationship to land on. Pray

now about issues related to finding a missions-minded spouse prior to

meeting someone interesting.

Pray in Many Ways

Leaders at the Tabernacle Church taught me to pray in different ways

and venues when I was your age. I learned that prayer is fellowship with

God and how to pray using Scripture. They showed me different kinds

of prayer like worship, praise, confession, conversation, and concerts

of prayer. We prayed in Sunday school, worship services, conferences,

small groups, personal devotions, half-days of prayer, evangelistic cru-

sades, and with fasting. Different groups met regularly to pray for mis-

sionaries during early morning, afternoon and evening meetings.

Church-planting trained me to listen in prayer. I learned to meditate

on Scripture, wait on God's guidance, and ask Him to show me what to

pray. I began seeking His direction before setting my schedule, compil-

ing a "do list," organizing ministries, leading small groups, teaching,

preaching, evangelizing, discipling, counseling, and fundraising. Spir-

itual warfare made listening in prayer a critical part of ministry. Being

under stress from this warfare taught me prayer's principle of self-sur-

render. Expressing complete dependence upon God's grace, I came to

appreciate the great privilege of invoking Jesus' name. Prayer walk-

ing in neighborhoods also became an important strategy in our church

planting ministries.

Early on, spiritual warfare's intensity convinced me that victory

requires the prayer of many, more than mine alone. You will find the

fiercest spiritual attacks coming at you to prevent discipleship and any

effort to move out and fulfill Christ's Commission. Leading at the front

puts you at the tip of this spiritual warfare spear, but your discipleship

of others increases the number of prayer warriors in the mix.

As you equip an army of prayer warriors, pray for and seek a strong

team of prayer partners to intercede for you. Faithful prayer warriors

who intercede for us are our best ministry resources. Some wait for my

75

weekly emailed prayer requests. Some greet me by asking me specific

details from them. I can tell when people are praying. When one of my

daughters needed a heart procedure, I sent word to Jamaican churches

because I knew how hard they would pray. On the day of this procedure,

one of our prayer partners in Norfolk spent the day praying silently in

the waiting room, explaining that the Lord had led her to do so. I keep

on the lookout for more praying saints like her who will call down heav-

en for us.

Always remember to enlist and empower prayer warriors. Mobilize

them to stand with you in spiritual battle and with those who will fol-

low you to foreign lands. These warriors serve Christ through prayer as

your partners. They share in your vanguard ministry and its reward by

engaging in spiritual warfare with you. Communicate often with them

to encourage their faithful service.

Find a prayer warrior who mobilizes others as a disciple-maker to

equip you as a prayer soldier yourself. Learn how to organize your per-

sonal prayer each day by "journaling" to write out prayers and maintain

a daily prayer list. Also, learn how to constantly stay connected with

Christ so your union with Him results in fruitful obedience with prayer

as described in John Chapter 15.

When my discipleship started and while I was a college student,

a missionary spoke at our church missions retreat on prayer. I asked

him to explain how to pray so much when I could not think of requests

to ask. He challenged me to start sharing the Gospel with people and

predicted that I would find myself pleading with God for their souls. I

began connecting with a neighbor in our apartment complex, which led

to bringing him to church. I discovered quickly that the missionary was

right about increasing the amount of requests that I made in prayer.

Obeying Christ's Commission will heighten your burden for peo-

ple who need Christ. Prayer becomes vital to completing the task. As

I said, Jesus entrusted you with the privilege to ask Him to thrust out

laborers for His great spiritual harvest (Luke 10:2). Mobilize Christ's

forces through your fervent prayers. While you pray for God's people,

ask Christ to powerfully send out African Americans around the world.

Resolve to Pursue Christ's Character

To win spiritual warfare and make God's glory known, our Lord

Jesus must fight for you, with you and through you. With His presence,

victory is guaranteed. Without it, defeat is certain. Christ's presence,

76

which He promised to disciples who obey His Commission, becomes

absolutely vital to your success. But do not take Him for granted.

Since, as a vanguard you lead the charge into spiritual warfare,

make sure you qualify with the moral purity of a true disciple to claim

this promise. Some make the deadly mistake of thinking their titles or

how hard they offer praise will move God to fight for them. Your char-

acter becomes critical when mobilizing with Christ to lead others into

spiritual warfare.

Christians who compromise their integrity or condone immorality

disqualify themselves as both disciples and disciple makers. Regardless

of titles, to fail to pursue God's holiness is to abandon the assigned task

of teaching all nations to obey Christ. Our freedom cannot be misun-

derstood as a license to sin. Praise God for the many students in your

generation who live godly lives and are determined to honor Him with

their purity.

Developing Christ-like character is not the same as trying to earn

His favor or other people's respect. True godly character comes from

knowing Christ and staying in fellowship with Him. I cannot stress

enough that knowing Him intimately, maintaining a strong prayer life,

and pursuing godly character are important for all believers, whether

they fulfill Christ's Commission in their backyard or overseas.

Since a vanguard mobilizes God's people to pray, give, and go stra-

tegically on Christ's mission, invest time in meeting with your Commis-

sioner to know Him well in order to make Him well known.

In Jesus' Commission, He promised to be with you. With consistent

prayer, resolve to do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

In the next chapter, I explain how our confidence in His strength

applies specifically to the financial support that He gives through His

people to sustain His mission (Philippians 4:13).

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Chapter 9

Manage Money for Mission

A Vanguard Optimizes Financial Resources

Strategically aim your financial ambitions at the objective of ful-

filling Christ's Commission. Exercise your privilege and freedom as

Christ's vanguard to pursue a standard of living that best mobilizes you

and others. The Apostle Paul referred to this freedom when he declared,

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians

4:13). I struggled with seeking Christ's kingdom until I committed my-

self totally to completing His mission assignment.

In the seventh grade, I declared my determination to use my strength,

smarts, hard work, thrift, and privilege to economically uplift myself

from somewhere below the working class to the status of the upper

class. Until I rededicated my life to Christ at the rural summer camp in

North Carolina, I made this upward mobility objective my first priority.

My college-educated parents had chosen a ministry path that put me

somewhere below working-class status. I decided in the seventh grade

that enough was enough.

As a child, I knew where I stood economically among my friends

and classmates. I wore hand-me-down clothes given to me by fami-

lies in our church. Other boys at school would ask me why my clothes

looked worn. These clothes became a greater problem to me when our

family moved to a more affluent neighborhood. By the grace of God, a

grateful and generous couple sold their house to my parents as I entered

the sixth grade.

Located in a suburban middle class neighborhood, these friends in-

tentionally offered their home at a below-market price. After moving,

I began attending elementary school with middle- and upper-class stu-

dents and became even more frustrated with my lower status. Living in

this neighborhood brought with it the privilege of getting a good paper

route. I went to work on my objective of becoming rich. My resolve in-

creased as family members responded to my ambition with skepticism.

In gratitude, I report that my parents put a roof over my head, fed

me quite well, and gave me use of the family car. Yet, from age 12 on, I

worked and saved to pay for everything else on my own. I threw papers

and washed dishes to earn money to pay for my clothes, gas, and car. I

78

paid for my own dates, sports, and college education. My parents made

too much money for me to qualify for college financial aid, but not

enough to help pay tuition.

I washed dishes and did maintenance work at a country club through-

out college. This put my upper-class-status goal always before me as I

worked overtime below my fellow working-class employees.

When they gave me a hard time about my low position, I promised

they would someday work for me. They expressed skepticism until I

clocked out for the last time during my junior year to begin my college

chemistry co-op position with a fertilizer company. On the first day at

my new job, my supervisor gave me a white hardhat that set me apart

from the plant's working-class laborers who wore yellow ones. At that

moment, I achieved management status.

This progress increased my ambition to earn my MBA, run a chem-

ical plant, and become its CEO. I strategically planned to join the upper

class and the country club. I added an MBA to my chemistry degree

in the early 1980s as MBA salaries went off the charts. My family and

friends congratulated me for seizing the opportunity and fulfilling my

promise to rise to the upper class.

Then, many of them thought that I had gone crazy when I returned

from a black camp in North Carolina with a totally different career ob-

jective. Instead of pursuing the American Dream, I strategically chose

to place Kim and myself somewhere below the working class. I began

trusting Christ to meet our financial needs and our church commissioned

us as inner-city missionaries.

By becoming faith missionaries, we strategically relied on the gen-

erosity of church people again. I had come full circle. Like my parents,

I chose a ministry path that required setting my standard of living below

what the job market might say I was worth. My spiritually privileged

background prepared me for this change of focus. Yet, most missionar-

ies must choose this same strategic option.

I praise God for this freedom and privilege to strategically set my

standard of living. The Lord of the harvest gave faithful financial part-

ners who joined us in fulfilling Christ's mission in the inner city by

supporting Kim and me. God supplied all of our needs and blessed us in

many others ways as well.

The purpose of this chapter is to challenge you to strategically choose

a standard of living that will propel your vanguard career. I explain the

Biblical principle of how God uses partnerships between missionaries,

79

churches, and individuals to support His work. I present a theory on

why partnerships between missionaries and black churches are difficult

to establish. In addition, I give practical advice to help prepare you fi-

nancially for vanguard missions leadership.

Bank on Jesus' Reign

I wish we had a mathematical solution to compensate for the lack of

financial support for African-American full-time missionaries by black-

and white-governed churches. What you can bank on is that Jesus' reign

is unstoppable and He is intensely zealous for mobilizing His missions

forces.(1) He obligated Himself to meet your needs.

Obviously, His word is "money." In His last recorded teaching be-

fore the cross, Jesus claimed the glory of a conqueror--for all time and

eternity. Receive peace and victory to go forth through His presence and

promises (John 16:33).

In your vanguard leadership, transform traditional missions funding

systems that may demobilize African Americans. Let nothing discour-

age you from your quest. Several of my African-American colleagues

in the ministry express frustration because black churches decline their

requests for financial support. Black congregations that give to overseas

missions remain so few in number that they usually keep a full slate of

missionaries.

Yet African Americans have unprecedented resources to invest in

Christ's Commission. Since 1980, black-led churches collected a re-

ported $490 billion in offerings.(2) Some researchers estimate the buy-

ing power of African Americans has reached $1 trillion.(3) More re-

search is needed about where black churches spend their money.

Nevertheless, I will say that very few, obviously, support long-term

African-American international missionaries. My theory about this lack

of black church support for missions focuses on cultural sensitivity.

In the past, privileged white Christians enjoyed economic freedom

to choose "faith missions" as an option to receive financial support. In

faith missions, they prayerfully made their missionary needs known and

received funds from white churches and individuals.

I conclude that most African-American church members cannot re-

late to this economic privilege and missions support strategy. They can-

not culturally connect with the Biblical principle of missionaries seek-

ing financial support from churches or individuals.

Presenting one's need for missionary support, or giving financial

80

support to missionaries, seems to cut across African-American middle

class and working class convictions. Most hold that respectable blacks

must work hard and sustain their own financial independence--especial-

ly independence from philanthropists.

These uplift values bundle together, in many middle-class and

working- class African Americans, as a sense of dignity that comes

with financial self-sufficiency. When college-educated missionaries

seek financial support from black Christians, I think African Americans

equate their requests with charity. This misconception contradicts Afri-

can-American Christians' traditional perceptions of missions.

In their cultural framework, black missionaries provide charity for

the local needy. They would not seek "charity" for themselves in the

form of missionary salaries and ministry expenses. To seek this per-

ceived "charity" for one's personal missionary support would offend the

cultural sensitivities of both the potential missionaries and the church

people being asked to give it.

Many working-class white Christians struggle with the same ambiv-

alent feelings about raising support. Yet, whites have a 250-year back-

ground of missionaries presenting financial needs and receiving person-

al support for international missions.

Raising financial support might look like begging to African Amer-

icans, but many white churches regard the same kind of requests as

honorable missionary statesmanship.

Ask God for ways to intervene and solve this cultural predicament.

With a small amount of their resources fulfilling Christ's Great Commis-

sion, African-American Christians must be quite immobilized. Prosper-

ity preachers may make giving for missions more difficult by promoting

self-interested giving. May God use you to proclaim truth and champion

His missions-giving principles.

Champion Missions-Giving Principles

Praise Jesus Christ for His promise to be with us. We know how

Jesus' commitment to us includes providing our physical needs. Fulfill-

ing Christ's mission will always be connected to your reliance on Him

to provide money (Philippians 4:13,19). Missionaries, and those who

financially support them, rely on God's grace to provide all they need to

perform every good work.

Above all, champion the universal Biblical Principle of Partnership

in Philippians 4:14-17:

81

Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with

my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning

of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church commu-

nicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.

Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your

account.

The word "communicate" means to share and fellowship together

with a partner as partakers of the same thing. The Apostle Paul com-

mends the Philippian believers for their vital partnership in his ministry

through their financial giving. This Biblical example of financial part-

nership shows how those who financially support the missionary also

share in his or her work and reward. You bless those who support you

because Christ puts to their account the same reward He gives you. You

provide African Americans the great privilege to partner with you and

invest in Christ's mission.

Since society calls on African Americans to represent their race, you

might use this phenomenon to explain partnerships in missions. Mis-

sionaries represent their partners at home as they serve overseas. Also,

a vanguard mobilizes those who cannot physically go overseas by en-

listing them as financial and prayer partners with the missionaries who

go abroad.

Your missionary financial support-need may provide the means to

teach believers how to invest in Christ's mission. Additionally, mission-

aries represent the people whom they serve abroad on the missions field.

They endeavor to connect them with partners back home.

How will Americans mobilize to pray for individuals in other coun-

tries unless the missionaries report back asking for prayer? How will

American believers know how to give and go unless missionaries con-

vey the needs on the field? As a vanguard, you call on potential mission-

aries at home to join you on the missions field overseas.

Therefore, your vanguard success becomes heightened by your need

to establish financial partnerships in the States with those who give,

pray, and go.

Champion the following missions principles to show others how Je-

sus gave all believers the responsibility of sending and financially sup-

porting missionaries:

· Christ commanded that those who preach the Gospel become

financially supported through the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14).

82

· Those who support missionaries become their partners and share

in their reward (Philippians 4:13-19).

· Through the Apostle Paul's example and instructions, Scripture

teaches us to give the Gospel free of charge to unbelievers

(1 Corinthians 9:17-18; 3 John 7,8).

· Discipleship teaches financial stewardship that includes sup-

porting missionaries (Romans 10:15; 15:24).

· Christians choose their standard of living to adopt simple life-

styles and invest in eternal treasures (Matthew 6:19-20;

Colossians 3:1-5).

· The Apostle Paul carefully raised money from local churches

and taught financial stewardship (2 Corinthians 8,9; Romans

15:25-28).

· For a time, the Apostle Paul made tents to support himself while

on a mission (Acts 18:3).

· Giving reflects the heart (Matthew 6:21).

· Missionaries minister to those who send them as much as they

minister to people oversees (Romans 1:11-13; 15:24).

As you change other missions structures to send out African Amer-

icans, teach these principles to recruit partners for them. Until now,

only a few African-American-led churches have financially supported

missionaries who serve overseas. More white-led evangelical church-

es support missionaries, but apparently do not understand the critical

importance of sending out African Americans. Set the example by sup-

porting missionaries yourself and champion this revolutionizing cause

of establishing financial partnership for Christ and His Commission.

My missionary grandmother not only pioneered in Africa, she

helped teach churches in the States how to support missions through

faith-promise giving* when she traveled here on furlough. May God

empower you the same way to pioneer at home and abroad as you mo-

bilize many laborers and their financial partners.

____________________

*Church members made annual "faith promises" to give a certain amount in extra

missions offerings as God provided. The amount privately promised was considered

over and above regular church-supporting offerings. Faith promises provided the basis

for setting missions budgets and making commitments to missionaries for the year.

83

Manage Your Personal Finances Well

Build a strong foundation for missions by managing your person-

al finances well. Choose a simple lifestyle so you may support other

missionaries and remain free to go out yourself. Gain and protect your

financial freedom by staying out of debt.

Every financial advisor agrees with this challenge to avoid debt.

The Bible equates personal debt with slavery: The rich ruleth over the

poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). African

Americans should be especially sensitive to this warning. Dubois re-

ported extensively on how racist whites in the South intentionally used

debt as slavery to control African Americans after the Civil War.(4)

For freedom and for the Gospel's sake, choose a lower standard of

living while you retire student loans as quickly as possible. Pay off cred-

it cards each month. If you find yourself paying interest on credit cards,

cut them up. Avoid debt from big purchases that would hinder your

progress while you strategically aim to fulfill Christ's mission. Then

you will be free to pursue Christ's mission.

Learn financial stewardship before you leave college. Stewardship

refers to the Biblical principle that all we have belongs to the Lord and

we are His stewards over the money He gives. The Lord provides the

health and strength to work and you should prayerfully budget and put

aside offerings to worship Him in gratitude.

By giving a portion back to Him, you declare His ownership over

everything in your life. In college, I set a budget of giving 10 percent of

my low dishwasher wages to Christ through my church offerings.

Needing to pay tuition and other bills, usually I saved almost all my

money and stayed broke after paying my bills. Giving faithfully during

that time tested me. Yet, I gained valuable wisdom about financial stew-

ardship that guided me when I entered the ministry several years later.

I pass on to you a financial insight for married couples that my moth-

er-in-law shared with Kim and me, which blessed us greatly. When we

married, she advised us to start out with a frugal lifestyle and lower

standard of living. She encouraged us to live on just one of our incomes

and save the other. Kim's mother explained that we could always go up

to a higher standard of living, but it is harder to go back to less.

We followed her advice by living on hand-me-downs, mismatched

used furniture, and pre-owned cars. As a result, we saved a larger

down-payment for our house purchase. That made our mortgage pay-

ments low until we paid them off completely. Also,we could afford for

84

Kim to stay home with our young children because we lived on just one

of our incomes.

Usual Ways to Be Sent Out

Usually, American missionaries, trusting God to meet their needs,

go out to other countries while being supported in one of four ways:

as "faith" missionaries raising support and going out through a send-

ing agency, as missionaries sent and supported by church denomina-

tions' missions boards, as missionaries sent and supported by particular

churches, or as professionals gainfully employed in a foreign country.

An increasing number go out as faith missionaries who receive fi-

nancial and prayer support from churches and individual financial part-

ners. Described as faith missionaries, they trust God to provide finan-

cial partners to support them. (Of course, all missionaries should go out

with their trust in God's provision.)

Sending Agencies

Usually, faith missionaries choose and apply to missions agencies.

These agencies, in turn, evaluate the applicants and decide whether they

are ready to serve in the field. Those accepted become missionary can-

didates who raise support and receive training as they prepare to move

and serve overseas.

The missions agencies receive donations and keep accounting re-

cords as tax-deductible organizations. They supervise and care for the

candidates until they are commissioned as missionaries and move to the

field. Once in the field, the missions agencies have different ways of

providing support and accountability.

Missionaries return to the States at certain intervals on what is often

called a "furlough." They spend time with relatives, meet family needs,

minister to their financial partners, raise support, and recruit more mis-

sionaries, among other things. Some churches, or church networks, send

missionaries and provide support and oversight like a missions agency.

One of the best benefits of raising support is the vital prayer support that

financial partners can provide.

Be prepared for the possibility of being the only African American

around, or one of a few in a missions agency. You might work with sec-

ond- or third-generation missions leaders who grew up overseas without

knowing any African Americans. The media probably shapes their per-

ceptions because they grew up outside of the States as missionary kids.

85

Be prepared to offer grace to educate and introduce truth if they jump to

stereotypical conclusions.

As a vanguard, handle these kinds of issues well for the sake of mo-

bilizing others behind you. In Chapter 12, I write about the late Pastor

James Drew, an African-American leader who ministered faithfully in

Norfolk. He told me how he broke through racial barriers by ensuring

that he honored Christ with his reaction to racist comments. He took

many opportunities to educate and responded respectfully.

He kept the focus of the problem on the offenders' insensitivity and

not on his attitude or the way he rebuked them. He used God's Word and

pointed to Christ's character when correcting, rebuking, and instructing

for justice (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Pastor Drew told me how he would choose to "turn a deaf ear" to

some insensitive comments and ideas in his relentless pursuit of mobili-

zation objectives for subsequent generations. When leading as Christ's

persistent vanguard, his correction and breakthroughs demonstrated

love and a commitment to racial reconciliation.

Just as important, find a missions agency that demonstrates long-

range commitment to racial reconciliation and mobilization of Afri-

can-American missionaries. Most missions agencies express the desire

now to do so.

Observe if an agency is organized and budgets resources to send

African Americans. If offered token roles in the mission, keep looking

for a sending agency with a greater vision of spiritual revolution in mis-

sions. Choose a sending agency whose priority is to create a movement

to mobilize many people of African descent.

Other Options

Another option is to go out under a church or through a denomina-

tion's missions board whose related churches collectively support mis-

sionaries. In this process, you may not need to raise financial support.

Instead of these ways to go overseas, you may seek employment

in a foreign country as a financial support option. Some countries hire

Americans to teach English as a second language. Sports and music

ministries also create opportunities overseas. Finding employment pro-

vides advantages where countries prohibit missionaries.

Other countries, like Jamaica, for example, restrict Americans from

holding jobs within their borders.

Since these four options have yet to extensively mobilize African

86

Americans, perhaps Christ will give you the wisdom to create a new

strategy. Our vision at UDM is to see churches established across Amer-

ica that mobilize and support people from our inner cities to fulfill the

Great Commission at home and abroad.

Sell Out Young with No Regrets

Trust Christ and completely sell out to Him. Give Him your life

and obey His Commission. I guarantee that you will never regret it.

Again, spreading the knowledge of God's glory through your obedience

is priceless and worth giving Him everything. The missionary who re-

cruited me for New Guinea called me out during his sermon from the

pulpit one Sunday. He challenged me as a college student to sell out for

Christ and promised that I would never regret the decision. His promise

proved true, and I grateful with no regrets.

So I pass on this guarantee to you, and add that you will appreciate

stepping out as Christ's vanguard at an early age. You can accomplish

a lot in your early 20s that you will not have the energy to complete in

your 30s and afterward. Everything I challenge you to become as an

overseas pioneer missionary, I had the privilege of doing here in the

inner city at your age. I look back with tremendous gratitude to Christ

for thrusting me out while I was young.

In my early 20s, I became determined to serve in the inner city, no

matter what. I concluded that inner-city ministry was, indeed, my per-

sonal assignment from Christ and His calling and grace was enough. If

no one supported me, I would have taught in a downtown public school

and gone anyway. Either way, I knew that I would give my life to fulfill

Christ's Commission in the inner city.

The Lord then moved the Tabernacle Church to bring me on full-

time but required me to raise half of my salary from outside the church.

The pastor tried to prepare me for the disappointment of the fundraising

challenge facing me. He told me of his doubt that anyone else would

back me. He assumed no one would support me because I am white and

because our ministry was sponsored by this local church.

Two days later, someone outside of the church anonymously donat-

ed the entire amount I needed to raise that year. The next year, this pas-

tor sent me out again to raise support under the same cloud of doubt as

before. I went through the phone book calling on churches and learned a

lot about prevailing racial attitudes. Yet God provided faithfully through

those whom I had least expected to help me. That was more than three

87

decades ago, and I remain forever grateful to God, the Tabernacle

Church family, and the other partners who helped me step out and lead

against all odds.

The Lord also blessed me over the years to pioneer alongside oth-

er vanguard leaders. We went "first over the wall" to set His people

into motion on several fronts. On one such vanguard move, we part-

nered with Buff Bay Baptist Church in Jamaica to establish the GLOBE

Center and mobilize people of African descent for world missions. This

partnership still makes fulfilling Christ's Commission a vital part of our

church-planting discipleship here in the States.

Implement the Bible principles for establishing financial partner-

ships and begin your vanguard leadership while you are young. Strate-

gically choose a standard of living that will propel your vanguard career

and prepare you financially for vanguard missions leadership.

Champion these mobilizing financial principles as an important part

of your mobilization objectives.

In the next section's six chapters, I shift gears to break my silence

about historical issues that still hinder African Americans' extensive

participation in career missions. Knowing this background will equip

you to take on the serious responsibility of strategically mustering the

divided masses as one unified missions force. Then, you will set us all

finally free from spiritual bondage that fights against our souls and at-

tempts to undermine the Holy Spirit's powerful witness through us.

88

89

Chapter 10

Balance Two Historical Viewpoints

A Vanguard Understands the Background

In one of his books, W. E. B. Dubois offers to bring white readers on

a journey through Georgia's impoverished "Black Belt" after the Civil

War.(1) Loving history, I decided to go along with him, if only through

my imagination. Perhaps I would discover what he intended for white

people to know. Obviously, Dubois wanted us to discover something

in his writings. Intrigued by his book's title, The Souls of Black Folk, I

wondered what kind of insights he might reveal, so I took up his offer.

Always the tactful host in his book, Dubois warned that if I dare

go with him, I must ride willingly in the train's racially segregated Jim

Crow rail car. He made sure I knew that he hated being treated like a

second-class citizen, but he had no other choice of rail cars.

As if to alleviate any fear or hesitation, Dubois assured that whites

travel comfortably and often in these segregated seats. He emphasized

that no one would object to my passage in a Jim Crow car because the

races mixed there. He said, in fact, that four white men sat there al-

ready. To reiterate his point about my safety in the Jim Crow car, Dubois

showed a young white girl and her nurse who rode among us. In other

words, I could feel confident that no African American meant harm,

since a white woman and young girl felt comfortable among them.

Normally, I would want to be careful when coming around racist

white people. I know from my own experiences that many racist whites

hated other whites who "mingled" with African Americans or who

helped them stand up for their rights. Actually, I already knew about

race-mixing in Jim Crow train cars. My mother told me about her ex-

perience riding in a segregated rail car when Grandmother brought her

back from Africa. They arrived in New York on a freighter and traveled

by train to South Carolina.

Mom recalled how their rail car carried white and black passengers

until it stopped at Washington, D.C. From there to South Carolina, the

train company enforced segregation.

Grandmother and Mom continued south in the 1945 version of a Jim

Crow car. Somewhat like the little white girl in Dubois's Jim Crow rail

car, at age 12 my mother rode in one with my widowed grandmother.

90

Impoverished for the Gospel's sake, they lacked the luxury of taking

a nurse along like the little girl on Dubois's train. Also, overcrowding

took all the seats in my grandmother's case and forced her to sit on her

suitcase the entire way.

Picture a widowed mother sitting on her suitcase with her daughter

in a crowded Jim Crow rail car. She mingled with African Americans

as she traveled into the segregated South to leave behind this youngest

child at a boarding school. She did all of this in order to return to Africa

alone and serve black people as a single missionary. What was in the

souls of white missionary folk who chose to pioneer like her?

Dubois pointed out that my grandmother, mother, and I were still

privileged passengers under Jim Crow. Like all white people back then,

we could choose to ride in any seat available without racial discrimina-

tion. Whites could choose, of course, to ride in the whites-only rail car

and sit anywhere in it. We could choose the Jim Crow car as well and

even sit on our suitcases if necessary.

My privileged background's free choices, which Dubois revealed

using segregated train seats, exposed the hurt that Jim Crow caused Af-

rican Americans, including him. Frustration compelled Dubois to invite

white men into his soul, and he laid bare the souls of other black folk

along the way.

In the South, these African Americans traveled in Jim Crow rail cars

but suffered its oppression in everyday life. Analyzing Dubois as I read,

I saw a black man whose heart agitated him to seek freedom. He de-

tailed the many demeaning injustices that southern whites had aimed at

his manhood, rights, and dignity.

I flattered myself as I read Dubois's history. He wrote to northern

white people and invited them onto his thundering train to witness the

injustices he exposed. Perhaps he would have wanted me on that train

with him as well, feeling and caring about Jim Crow-inflicted suffering.

His history lessons showed me, at the least, how privileged I was

to have choices. I could decide whether, and to what extent, I go or I

avoid. I could choose to see or to look away, to learn from or to ignore,

to speak up or to remain silent, to mix or to segregate, and to love or to

hate. I was privileged to decide how far I would roll with those who had

no choice but to suffer down the line. History taught me and shaped my

vision for obeying Christ today and in the future.

91

Balance Two Opposite Missions-History Views

I must break my silence about how American Christians waste your

great potential in missions as both black and white believers demobilize

us with a race problem. The root causes of our division are spiritual and

structural in nature. The race problem belongs to all members in Christ's

body because we are one spiritual race in Him. Therefore, I challenge

you to lead and mobilize God's people in a spiritual uprising that con-

verts racial roadblocks into a worldwide witness of His power and glory.

In another book, The Study of Negro Problems, Dubois insisted, "...

if we would solve a problem, we must study it ... there is but one cow-

ard on earth, and that is a coward that dares not know."(2) I defy the

foregone conclusion of some who say that your generation wants instant

answers and will not think for itself. To become a vanguard, you must

rise above low expectations and join the black "thinking class."(3) Cer-

tainly, a vanguard dares to study the background issues before taking on

the serious responsibility of strategically mustering the divided masses

as one unified missions force for Christ.

These next six chapters begin to explore the problematic reasons

why African Americans do not extensively participate in missions. I

call on you to study these pages. This chapter addresses the historical

background to these demobilizing problems. It provides the historical

basis for my challenges as well. Discover why you must bring a spir-

itual uprising that revolutionizes rather than just reforms our present

Christian systems.

Of course some white and black theologians remain quite emotion-

ally committed on two opposite, racially divisive, polar views of mis-

sions history. Past hurts preserve a racial wedge that keeps driving the

older generations apart. Each side has hot button issues tied to these

unresolved hurts. On separate paths, both voice their positions on mis-

sions boldly while ignoring hurt that divides them. Each side decides

what position is right for you without letting you consider both sides of

the historical issues involved.

Many traditional African American churches and HBCU leaders

view past white missionaries as oppressive collaborators with racist,

imperialistic colonialists. Most evangelical white Christians take the

opposite view and praise missionaries as heroes of the true Gospel.

Although historical research supports many claims on both sides,

the balanced truth exists somewhere between these two extreme opin-

ions. A few researchers seek to find this balance in spite of this debate.

92

Your vanguard leadership can break the stalemate. In the next chapter, I

explain a third view that may help you minister to people on both sides

of this debate.

The stand traditional African-American ministry leaders have taken

in the past few decades explains a lot about why almost no traditional

black-led denominations send missionaries on long-term missionary as-

signments. Their position explains why few challenge students at histor-

ically black colleges and universities are aware of, and fulfill, Christ's

Great Commission.

Many traditional African-American church, college, and seminary

leaders believe that our existing world missions systems perpetrate

white Christian attempts to subjugate peoples of color for the comfort of

white people.(4) These leaders document, with historical integrity, their

claims that white missionaries have mingled the Gospel of Jesus Christ

during the past 200 years with imperialistic efforts to subject blacks and

other races to colonialist rule. I found a number of books that explain

how many white missionaries, who took the Bible literally, believed

untrue racist doctrine that claimed God gave white people superiority

over blacks and other races.

These whites believed they had a God-given duty and burden to

explore, educate, civilize, commercialize, and paternalistically govern

other races for their own good.

I must take this criticism about modern missions systems head on,

knowing that you will discuss my challenge, to fulfill the Great Com-

mission, with campus leaders. They may bring up past failures of mis-

sions to show how racial discrimination remains in present missions

structures. After addressing these concerns, I briefly discuss an oppos-

ing view of missions history held by many white Christians.

In the next chapter, I present a more balanced perspective between

these divided opinions to prevent one or the other from demobilizing

African-American students.

I want to explain that although condemnation of missions by tradi-

tional black-led church leaders and many HBCUs seminary professors

has merit, it does not give the complete picture. Also, I explain how

Christ never intended for His true Gospel to be dishonored by whites

this way.

Denying that injustices happened or failing to see how they remain

unnoticed in missions systems will continue to demobilize you from ful-

filling your vanguard mission. As I wrote in earlier chapters, I believe

93

you have the God-given role to break the chains from past hurts that

bind us all.

Jesus reigns and gives you the full right and privilege to declare His

glory anywhere on the earth. I want to make that clear because many

would use these accusations of colonialism, paternalism, and racism by

white missionaries to discourage you from following Christ and obey-

ing His Word.

Anticipate and be prepared for the possibility of strong, negative

reactions to your vanguard stand for His Commission because of past,

unresolved hurts among Christians.

A Look at Past Injustices in Missions

My brief summary of 200 years of mission focuses on examples of

injustices that impacted the mobilization of people of African descent.

John D. Rockefeller funded a study that criticized missionary motives

and theories for the century after the Revolutionary War. In his 1945

doctoral dissertation, Wilbert Harr reported on demobilizing racism and

structural problems for African Americans in world missions. When do-

ing your own research, you will find other studies on missions history

abundant and accessible.

I willingly reopen some festering wounds from past white injustices

against African Americans for several reasons. First, I want to position

my challenge to you in a historical context that explains why your van-

guard leadership is an important act of justice. Racial inequality persists

in missions for black Christians.

Although many black heroes broke color barriers in other causes,

African Americans have yet to break through extensively in missions.

Second, some African-American leaders reject evangelicals' calls to

mobilize for world missions because unresolved hurts from the past

still divide us. Third, most white evangelical Christians are unaware of

white racism in missions and the hurt it caused. They, therefore, cannot

recognize how these unresolved issues demobilize African Americans.

I believe many black and white Christians would come together to

mobilize you if they knew the serious consequences of past racial divi-

sion in world missions systems.

African-American clergy and professors who remain offended by

past white missionary injustices would point at two eras of white op-

pression in missions history. First, they often begin with accusations of

racism, colonialism, and cultural imperialism against England's mis-

94

sionary societies and white American missionaries after the Revolution-

ary War.

Second, they bring charges of racial discrimination, segregation,

and neglect against American missions boards and missionaries after

the Civil War. Together, these two eras encompass the entire 200 years

of our modern missions movement.

William Carey's Demobilizing System

As a case study of how these demobilizing traits became implement-

ed in mission structures, consider William Carey's system that began in

England after the Revolutionary War. Acclaimed as the father of mod-

ern missions, with others, Carey designed missionary societies as new

structures for mobilizing missionaries.(5)

Carey became the father of modern missions because he invented,

promoted, and demonstrated today's missionary society system. Carey

spoke against slavery as a committed abolitionist and world missionary.

Yet, he and his missions society made no structural provisions for

extensive, global mobilization of people of African descent. Christians

of his day did not see worldwide missionary potential in black peo-

ple. I believe that Carey's missionary society set precedents made up of

norms, ideals, and structures that it built on the prejudiced thinking that

leadership of world missions is the obligation of whites.

During Carey's lifetime, literature reveals how white Christians saw

slaves as their missions field instead of potential global missionaries. In

America today, many Christians view inner-city residents the same way.

Applying recent research about race problems among white evangelical

Christians, I believe that the "taking-for-grantedness" of sending out

only white missionaries by these societies blinded them to unnoticed

structural racial discrimination and status quo segregation in their mis-

sions systems.

I also believe that hidden norms and structures still preserve this

white-only assumption in missions systems. This assumption remains

backed by missions structures that maintain divides between black and

white Christians as the status quo.(6)

Using a phrase coined in South Africa to describe whites' sub-

conscious acceptance of racial segregation, Wilbert Harr called this

white-only assumption in missions a hidden "lie in the soul," which

destructively exists unrecognized.(7) In 1945, he also observed that

some missions boards failed to notice the loss of African-American mis-

95

sionaries in their ranks.(8)

White missionaries from the society Carey founded went overseas

as pastors, indicating that it took for granted that missionary leaders

would be white. They went out to evangelize but failed to disciple and

equip indigenous leaders to govern their churches.(9)

By not empowering indigenous leaders, the missionaries' governing

role became permanent. African-American leaders today would point to

this failure as evidence that the white missions system oppresses.(10)

This permanent rule by missionaries led to a leadership crisis as many

blacks in the Caribbean and Africa came to follow Jesus Christ.

Our present missions system formed during an era when the British

felt economically, culturally, intellectually, spiritually, and morally su-

perior to other nations.

With Europe's industrialization success, the British pursued prog-

ress, reform, and expansion. England expanded its world empire while

under the impression that it possessed a God-given duty to govern coun-

tries it deemed less civilized.(11) All of Europe had just gone through a

time where its culture came to value progress through research, explo-

ration, and commerce.

England's Christians combined these influences to support causes

like abolition or fulfilling Christ's Great Commission. Funding for both

became available outside of traditional church structures as business-

men, abolitionists, and the British government provided support for

ventures in the West Indies and Africa. Christians formed societies that

crossed church and denominational boundaries to raise funds, mobilize

missionaries, and implement strategies to end slavery.

In cooperation with missionary exploration, European countries be-

gan scrambling to occupy, govern, and exploit African resources. The

invention of cars and the demand for rubber tires made colonialism ex-

tremely lucrative to European rulers. Thousands of Africans died in this

exploitation.(12) Missionaries even saw benefit in this selfish exploita-

tion because they believed that Europe's colonialism would spread

Christian civilization.(13)

England's believers wanted to compensate Africans when the slave

trade ended. Yet they viewed blacks as savages who needed Christ, civ-

ilization, and commerce. Skin color did not matter as much, but they

viewed blacks as morally inferior, uncivilized people who needed gov-

erning. Therefore, missionaries worked to spread Britain's civilization

with the Gospel.(14)

96

Prejudice Demobilized People of African Descent

The prevalent thinking of missionaries from Carey's day held that

people of African descent were culturally, intellectually, and spiritually

unfit and would always need white people to govern them.(15)

When the Society did mobilize Jamaicans to serve in Africa, they

put a white missionary over the Jamaican missionaries and the indige-

nous African leaders. Regarding his rule over the Africans, the Society

appointed him to "govern those who were not governable."(16)

No doubt false and racist Bible doctrine prejudiced white-controlled

missions. According to a popular heresy in those days, whites believed

that God had endowed them with racial superiority.

Many misused the Bible to teach falsely that God intended for

whites, as descendant of Noah's son Japheth, to rule over people of Af-

rican descent, whom they mistakenly labeled as cursed descendants of

Noah's son, Ham.(17)

One missions group even made a distinction between what Africans

were easier to civilize based on their estimated relation to Ham.(18)

This false teaching provided whites a way to use the Bible to justify

slavery, segregation, and colonialism.

Additionally, white missions leaders made stereotypical racial as-

sumptions. When Africa became a graveyard for white missionaries

who succumbed to malaria and other diseases, whites assumed that Ja-

maicans and African Americans were immune to malaria and other dis-

eases in Africa.

White Christians sent black missionaries where whites could not

survive. Today, some leaders believe black missionaries became less

valuable to the missions societies as the use of quinine proved effective

against malaria.(19) Also, in missions, as in white American and Euro-

pean societies, people of African descent had to overcome prejudices

caused by scientists of the time who taught that blacks lacked whites'

mental capacities.(20)

Colonialism Ended Black Empowerment

Carey's missions society quickly aligned with British colonialism

for racial, financial, and philosophical reasons. At first, its missionaries

wanted to end the slave trade and make reparations to former slaves.

They used both as their primary reasons for beginning work in Africa.

The society planned to accomplish these purposes by bringing

Christ, British civilization, and commerce to the continent. In 1879,

97

the Baptist Missionary Magazine revealed the colonialism embedded

in Carey's system when its primary leader William Wilberforce wrote

an article praising Carey as the one who "saved India to the British Em-

pire."(21)

Many missionaries accepted British occupation, which controlled

one-third of Africa, and believed it was needed to civilize people. To

encourage the U.S. to implement this same kind of imperialistic rule,

British poet Rudyard Kipling labeled this perceived need as "the white

man's burden" and described Africans as "half devil and half child."(22)

Still today, a Christian website that documents this history credits

colonialism with advancing the Society's missionary witness for Christ

in Africa.(23) Many black Christian leaders condemn this kind of racist

expansionism as devastating oppression, a judgment that still must re-

main hidden to the Christians who published the website.

With the arrival of England's colonialism, for example, the Brit-

ish Missionary Society abandoned a good philosophy of empower-

ing self-supporting, self-governing, and self-reproducing indigenous

leaders in Africa.(24) From its beginning in Africa, philanthropists

and commercial interests wanting to exploit Africa's natural resources

sought missionary help with African exploration.

This commercial financial support increased the governing role of

white missionaries but ended the empowerment of indigenous leaders

they replaced.(25)

White missionaries accepted support from British colonialism to

speedily achieve the goal of reaching Africa's interior. The purposes of

winning Africans to Christ and exploration to expand the British Empire

became intertwined by the funding that the latter brought the missionar-

ies and their sending agencies.

British commercial and colonialist leaders wanted to end the slave

trade because it depleted the African work force they sought to exploit

along with other resources.(26) The Baptist Missionary Society recruit-

ed Jamaicans for service in Africa whose motive was ending slave trade

more than spreading the Gospel.(27)

Fundraising from white sources played a role in mobilizing people

of African descent. For example, white missionaries in Jamaica came

under severe criticism for raising great amounts of money that many

outsiders assumed paid high salaries.

This criticism reduced philanthropists' donations and provided a

reason for the Baptist missionary society in England to force the Ja-

98

maica mission to become self-supporting. Then the British Parliament

passed legislation that caused sugar prices to fall drastically.

As a result, the Jamaican missionaries in Africa went underfunded

and eventually most returned home. Much controversy arose in Africa

because missions societies that sent Jamaicans there did not pay them

the same wages they paid white missionaries.(28) For instance, a mis-

sions society in Nigeria wanted to pay Jamaicans 1/20th of a white mis-

sionary's salary, consequently, the return home.(29)

Prejudice Caused Missed Opportunities

Influenced by the prejudiced norms and ideals of his day,(30) I be-

lieve Carey used Scripture to perpetrate hidden racial hypocrisy in his

famous writing that launched our modern missions era. I believe that

he excluded blacks when he obligated all Christians to obey the Great

Commission. In his book, An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians

to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, Carey documented

from the Bible why the Great Commission is binding on all believers.

(31) Unfortunately, in practice, Carey fell short of including Christians

of African descent in his concept of "all."

He denounced the African slave trade and encouraged Britain's ef-

forts to establish a colony in Sierra Leone for Africans rescued from

slave ships. Carey had taken this radical abolitionist stand at home in

England and against the African slave trade. While establishing the

Baptist Missionary Society and preparing to become its first missionary

to India in 1793, Carey denounced slavery in speeches and writings. He

worked with other abolitionists in England, including John Newton, the

converted slave trader who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. Carey even

refused to eat sugar that slaves had been forced to harvest in the West

Indies. In his 1792 book that brought about our modern missions era,

Carey expressed his contempt for the African slave trade.(32)

However, in spite of this abolitionism, British Parliament acted 26

times that same year to encourage it.(33) Carey responded by attempt-

ing to establish a mission in Sierra Leone, Africa. His society sent mis-

sionaries there to civilize the people instead of emphasizing the Gospel.

(34) This mission failed, and Carey went to India where he worked for

social reforms and evangelism.

At this point, Carey had missed the opportunity to demonstrate to

the world the slave and freedman's great spiritual capacity and glory.

He failed to elevate those rescued from slave ships to the high status

99

of Christ's ambassadors to the entire world. At that time, many whites

considered Africans brute beasts without souls. Most others regarded

them as barbaric savages who needed slavery to bring them salvation.

Carey could have proved them all wrong through inclusive discipleship

and missions mobilization.

Imagine the potential impact and testimonies of these rescued Afri-

cans if Carey had equipped them as missionaries to India. Remember

that during this era, the self-emancipated slaves in Haiti successfully

organized a revolt, defeated Napoleon's French soldiers, and established

their own government. During Carey's missions career, ex-slaves in

Haiti and America fought tenaciously for freedom and equality under

the battle cry "death or liberty!"(35)

What if Carey had empowered them as free and equal vanguards,

with himself, and focused their passion on world evangelization? Al-

though the British trained ex-slaves in America to be disciplined,

self-sacrificing soldiers during this time, Carey's missions society in

England failed to deploy them globally as soldiers for Christ and His

world mission.

I am sure that Carey assumed that the Christians mobilized by the

challenge in his famous book would only be white. I doubt that he in-

tended to obligate slaves, freedman, and other people of African descent

to obey Christ's global mandate.

Previously, I wrote about our partnership with a Baptist circuit in

Jamaica that began in 1993. These churches descended directly from

Carey's missions system. We found them facing this same leadership

crisis that existed 150 years ago. Almost all Jamaicans assumed that

missionaries are white.

Usually, Jamaican Christians do not include themselves in Christ's

Commission, and most unchurched men label white missionaries as op-

pressors. In fact, many unchurched men view the Gospel itself as an

oppressive white belief.(36)

I heard unchurched Jamaican men express resentment against Christ

and His Gospel that paralleled accusations made by Boakman Dutty, a

Haitian voodoo priest who instigated the Saint Dominique slave revolt:

The god who created the sun which gives us light, who rouses the

waves and rules the storm, though hidden in the clouds, he watches

us. He sees all that the white man does. The god of the white man

inspires him with crime, but our god calls upon us to do good works.

Our god who is good to us orders us to revenge our wrongs. He will

100

direct our arms and aid us. Throw away the symbol of the god of the

whites who has so often caused us to weep, and listen to the voice of

liberty, which speaks in the hearts of us all.(37)

Ironically, many white churches and missions agencies refuse to

send missionaries to Jamaica because they consider the country already

"reached" with the Gospel. The resentment felt by many unchurched Ja-

maican men against white-governed missions systems must also remain

hidden to these churches and sending agencies.

The Baptist Missionary Society's work with Jamaicans gives exam-

ples of how structures may have demobilized people of African descent

from world missions. George Liele and other former slaves from Amer-

ica, who used the British Army to escape slavery and travel to Jamaica,

invited the Baptist Missionary Society to join their struggle to evange-

lize and free slaves on the island.

About 50 years later, the "Baptist War" in Jamaica provides an in-

sightful example of how missionaries' good intentions became demo-

bilizing in paternalistic and race-divided structures. When the Baptist

Missionary Society positioned white missionaries over its churches in

Jamaica, their paternalism gave rise to two kinds of Baptists - missions

Baptists, with white missionary pastors, and Native Baptists, with black

Jamaican leaders.

Many Jamaicans had dual membership in both churches. Jamaicans

not wanting subservient roles in the missions churches could become a

"daddy" or "ruler" in the Native Baptist churches.

More likely, these Native Baptists leaders used the missionaries for

their own purposes. Also, since the missionaries returned to England of-

ten, they left their churches open to the influences of the native leaders.

Can you see any structural problems in this divided system?

When (white) Baptist Missionary Society missionaries, like William

Knibb, returned from England and reported the progress of the Aboli-

tionist Movement there, they raised the slaves' expectations about im-

mediate emancipation.

One vanguard slave leader, Sam Sharpe, put this excitement into

action in 1831 and organized a large passive-resistance effort against

plantation owners. In this sit-down strike, slaves swore on Bibles that

they would not work at the start of the cane harvest after Christmas. An

estimated 60,000 slaves participated in this action.

The white Baptist missionaries did not find out about this plan to

strike until the last minute at their Christmas services. They tried to per-

101

suade the Jamaican slaves to obey their masters and continue to work.

"General Ruler" Sharpe led the strike anyway.

This action escalated into a 10-day revolt in which slaves killed 16

white people and burned many plantations. The British militia ended

the poorly armed slaves' uprising. In revenge under martial law, whites

quickly tried and executed 312 slaves, including Sharpe.

This revolt set into motion a series of events that show the lost po-

tential caused by the white missionaries' paternalistic missions struc-

tures. Although the Baptist missionaries had attempted to prevent the

uprising, the plantation owners blamed them and all missionaries for

agitating the slaves and causing the revolt. They arrested six missionar-

ies and wanted them all expelled from Jamaica.

Ironically, free black Jamaicans, who were pro-missions, had gained

enough political clout to come to the missionaries' aid. When the Ja-

maicans stood up for the Baptist missionaries, they drew them into their

political action as well. Missionaries could no longer remain neutral in

the slaves' struggle for freedom, nor compromise with plantation own-

ers to focus on slave evangelism.

William Knibb returned to England and used the slave uprising to

mobilize the Baptist Missionary Society, with other missions societ-

ies, for more intense political action against slavery in Jamaica. With

eye-witness testimonies, missionaries became the slaves' spokesmen be-

fore the British Parliament. They expressed confidently that the slaves'

intellectual abilities equaled that of whites and that Christianity could

not suppress their ambitions for freedom.(38)

The plantation owners waged their own political campaign against

abolition, but the increasingly high cost of their sugar in England dimin-

ished their influence. In 1834, the British emancipated slave children

under the age of 6 and all slaves by 1838.(39)

This history shows how the Baptist's paternalistic missionary sys-

tem demobilized Jamaican slaves, like Sharpe, instead of empowering

them as vanguards of the Gospel and social justice. With his passion for

freedom and action, Sharpe could have edified the British missionaries

and made their outreach more effective. Left to mobilize social action

on his own, Sharpe organized the masses outside of the traditional mis-

sions systems.

Yet as a true vanguard, his self-sacrifice and leading from the front

mobilized Carey's missionary system to bring the political pressure that

won emancipation for Jamaica's slaves.

102

Unfortunately, the paternalistic missionary system continued to de-

mobilize the Jamaicans after their emancipation. Baptist Missionary So-

ciety leaders believed that God had directed it to recruit Jamaicans to

evangelize West Africa through a mission in Cameroon, West Africa.

Former Jamaican slaves, who concluded that God had given them

freedom so they could take up the cause of ending African slavery, en-

thusiastically took up the society's call to serve in Cameroon. The Ja-

maicans assumed that they would minister as equal partners with the

British missionaries. In Jamaica, the British Missionary Society required

Jamaican workers to be self-supporting, self-governing, and self-prop-

agating. Yet when they arrived in Africa, the society expected them to

be content with African-level wages in a two-tier system where British

missionaries received more.

The society's progress revealed status quo structures that eventu-

ally demobilized most of the Jamaicans who left after five years. For

instance, a white missionary brought forward and then published accu-

sations of missionary cruelty against Jamaican workers, saying that a

missionary mistreated them like slaves. Existing structures maintained

white missionary rule at the mission.(40)

Another colony in Liberia established by former slaves provides

another example of the missionary potential of freed slaves. These mis-

sionaries went to receive emancipation or basic rights. The literature

also testifies how many believed that God had entrusted them with free-

dom for the purpose of spreading the Gospel in Africa.

In general, freed slaves believed that their loyalty to Christ was su-

perior than that of whites, making them better missionaries to Africa.

(41) A missionary magazine reported that liberated slaves who followed

the British to Nova Scotia learned how to read, came to Christ, read the

Bible during their leisure times, and showed "willingness to aid every

institution that has been brought before them."(42) No doubt they would

have gladly taken on Christ's Commission to evangelize the world if

asked and sent out.

After slave emancipation in the States, our government's Freedman

Bureau and more than 50 missionary organizations spent millions of

dollars for four years trying to put millions of destitute freed slaves to

work in the resentful unreconstructed South.(43) What if these mission-

ary organizations and Carey's missionary society had mustered former

slaves to reach other continents, since their freedom brought with it such

a great sense of destiny and mission?(44)

103

Reading of their committed zeal for evangelizing Africa, I believe,

without doubt, that they would have mobilized gladly as missionaries to

the ends of the earth. If they had been treated as equal ministers of the

Gospel, the witness of their unity with white missionaries could have

turned the world upside down again.

As it were, white missions societies only accepted blacks as mis-

sionaries in America, Africa, and in other places where people of Afri-

can descent had settled. I can find no indication that missionary societies

in Carey's day conceived of ever extensively mobilizing them to fulfill

their global obligation to Christ's Commission.

The concept of keeping African Americans in home missions or lim-

iting them to service in Africa contradicted arguments in Carey's book.

He asserted that all Christians must attempt the impossible to reach the

entire world regardless of the needs at home. Carey said that out of pity

for humanity, which lacked good civil government and Bibles in their

written language, Christians must be willing to go abroad.

From the beginning of modern missions, those blacks providentially

sent out by Christ into His harvest, as exceptions, only went to serve

other blacks in the world. This limitation probably suited the liberated

slaves because they must have wanted to establish new black identities

in the white Christians' system.

Reaching their own race would give them daily interactions with

other blacks. According to today's research, these interactions would

likely have helped them establish their identities as free black men and

women.(45) Unfortunately, this racial and geographical segregation en-

abled white Christians to maintain missions' segregated status quo.

It took 30 years for Carey to win a convert in India. I wonder what

might have happened if the Africans rescued from slave ships had the

opportunity to reach the oppressed, darker skinned people of the lowest

caste in India? I doubt that Carey saw slaves from Africa as potential

missionaries. Like many American Christians today, he took for granted

that global missionaries would only be white.

In hindsight, the European colonialist governments' reactions to the

work of African Americans in Africa shows how they could have edified

white missionary forces. I believe that African Americans' mobilization

would have increased the long-term credibility and effectiveness of the

Gospel worldwide.

For instance, Wilbert Harr documented how European governments

did not want African-American missionaries in Africa. As these govern-

104

ments cruelly oppressed, they called African Americans "agitators" who

inspired exploited Africans to rebel against European occupation.(46)

The Europeans regarded African Americans as threats to their status quo

colonialism and its resources.

By 1920, American missions agencies, governed by white board

members, accommodated European governments' efforts to keep

black missionaries out of Africa. These agencies withdrew their Afri-

can-American missionaries thinking it was best to maintain law and or-

der, and wrong to pressure the European governments to act justly.(47)

Silent while Jim Crow laws oppressed African Americans in the

U.S., these missions agencies accepted prejudice and neglect in Afri-

ca as well. For their part, the European governments tolerated white

missionaries who counted converts, served sacrificially, provided edu-

cation, and silently watched Africans suffer from colonialism's oppres-

sion. In 1917, and when my missionary grandparents served in Africa,

119 protestant missionary societies had more than 5,000 in its white

missionary force while keeping African Americans at home.(48)

The sensitivity, moral courage, and voices for social justice that

African Americans brought to missions could have encouraged white

missionaries to speak up with them for both spiritual and physical free-

dom. Missionary to Africa and Hampton Institute graduate, William

Sheppard, and his white colleague, accomplished this very thing in the

Belgian Congo.(49)

In turn, like with Sheppard, the white missionaries' willingness to

die for the Great Commission could have inspired African Americans

to become world pioneers for Christ.(50) Black and white Christians

missed the opportunity, during colonialism's time frame, to glorify

Christ through a racially and doctrinally unified witness. Together they

could have stood for the true Gospel and real social justice. Without

this mutual edification, African American and white Christians became

divided in missions, and the Bible's true Gospel came under attack.

Harr reported in 1945 that black Christians contributed to the mis-

sions racial divide as much as whites by wanting to keep their boards

separated. His assertion shows that the race-divide, which white segre-

gation wrought between black and white-led churches, carried over into

American missions societies and divided our missions forces.

A world-changing unified witness for Christ, which the past black

and white generations failed to muster, awaits your strategic vanguard

leadership for His glory.

105

American Christians' Racial Divide

A colleague of William Carey imported his missionary society

structure from England to the States in 1793.(51) In addition to foreign

missions, Christians began "home" missionary societies here to send

missionaries to minister among Indians, slaves, and those living in the

frontier. These home missions societies established African-American

churches and colleges, contributing to the idea that blacks should focus

only on local missions.(52)

Although Carey fathered modern missions and rejected slavery in

England, in 1792 the movement that he began became divided racially,

geographically, and spiritually in America as slavery quickly grew more

entrenched here in the following few decades. A year later, in 1793,

Carey left for India, but Eli Whitney perfected the cotton gin. This in-

vention made slave exploitation much more profitable and permanent in

the States.

For example, by the time Carey saw his first Hindi convert in 1820,

the number of slaves in America had increased by 83 percent. The cotton

gin increased profits as the demand for U.S. cotton climbed in England.

Cotton revenues jumped from $150,000 to more than $8 million in the

first 20 years after its introduction. Economic success at southern cotton

plantations made it difficult for slaves to purchase their own freedom.

As the cotton industry spread westward and increased the demand

for slaves to move with it, human trafficking tore slave families apart in

America's expanded domestic slave-trade.(53)

As you know, slaves struggled for survival and freedom as they

searched for their identities in a white, oppressive society that regarded

them as savages and property. As they struggled by defiance, compli-

ance, passive resistance, hard work to earn freedom, and faith, white

and black Christians became racially divided by segregation.

Many African Americans found their identities in separate,

black-governed churches. Missions became a part of their survival at

home. Some middle-class African Americans attempted to earn approv-

al from influential whites by becoming missionaries. Some also used

missions to receive prestige and status to prove themselves as members

of a "better class" above most other blacks whom whites regarded as

savages.(54)

Adding to this past hurt is the fact that many white missionaries laid

down their lives to save the souls of people they considered savages

while segregating themselves at home from African Americans.

106

This discrimination sent the message that white Christians viewed

them as inferior and worthless--below the world's worst cannibals. Wil-

bert Harr's doctoral dissertation provided a snapshot of missions and

black missions mobilization in 1945. He documented missionary rac-

ism, racial discrimination, segregation, racial division, structural prob-

lems, neglect, inconsistency, disinformation, and miscellaneous issues

as barriers to African Americans in world missions.

Harr concluded his dissertation by raising hopes in the abilities and

commitments of missions conferences and sending agencies to increase

the number of black missionaries. Since this increase never material-

ized in the 75 years since then, one wants to ask whether these barriers

still exist and demobilize you.

Harr documented in missions the relatively recent racism that of-

fends many African-American leaders today. Some stereotype white

evangelical missionaries as faceless members of a racist group who all

neglect social justice and oppress with imperialism. Yet understanding

white missionaries' motives over a 200-year period is complicated and

more involved than these generalizations suggest. Their emotional reac-

tions demonstrate why I believe your vanguard leadership is needed to

set us all free!

In later chapters, I address more observations made by Harr, includ-

ing some insights on African-American roles and advantages of a di-

verse missionary force. First, I address the spiritual devastation and so-

cial destruction inflicted upon African Americans by white missionary

paternalism after the Civil War.

Why the True Gospel Spreads in These Countries Today

Some historians address why evangelical Christianity rapidly

spreads today in countries where past white missionaries brought pa-

ternalism, colonialism, and imperialism. In these countries, many in-

digenous church leaders welcome white missionaries and appreciated

those who came in the past. I offer several observations to explain this

spiritual phenomenon.

First, never underestimate the Holy Spirit's power to illuminate

God's Word to accomplish His purposes, regardless of how white peo-

ple mishandle it. Time proves that the true Gospel is the power of God

for salvation to everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16) Even in oppres-

sive structures, white missionaries translated and taught the Bible.

The Holy Spirit demonstrated His Bible's supernatural usefulness

107

for equipping men of God for every good work. Increasingly today, na-

tionals accept Christ and His true Gospel in great numbers and beyond

what one would expect from their backgrounds under colonialism. Yet

the surprising harvest shows how God gets glory by backing up His

Word in unlikely circumstances.

Second, do not underestimate the savvy and creativity of indigenous

leaders who benefited from the resources made available to them in pa-

ternalistic missionary systems. Many came to Christ and received for-

mal Bible training needed to start ministries outside of white mission-

ary control. An African-American pastor who served 10 years in West

Africa reminded me that African leaders used the missionaries while

the missionaries used them. This pastor also reported that the white mis-

sionaries' self-sacrifice inspired African leaders to higher levels of com-

mitment in their own outreaches.

At the same time, many white Bible-believing Christians in the

States, including missionaries, rejected African Americans through seg-

regation. The resulting deep, unresolved past hurts keep many white and

black Christian leaders divided in America while a much more power-

ful, reconciled witness expands in some other nations. Please, let noth-

ing stop you from reconciling a new missionary force from here!

A Second and Opposite Perspective

Many Christians would take a second and opposite view of white

missionary history. They feel strongly that past missionaries fulfilled

Christ's mandate courageously as spiritual giants and heroes. Indeed,

an untold number of white missionaries laid down their lives for the

Gospel. Many lost wives and children who went along to increase the

missionaries' effectiveness. White missionaries started schools and hos-

pitals all over the world. Many became martyrs by refusing to leave

their posts during political uprisings. Only a fourth of the missionaries

who first went to the Congo survived their initial term. Most who died

were in their 20s.(55)

Surely, many thousands of nationals received the Gospel and eternal

life through the self-sacrifice of these laborers in Christ's world harvest.

Missionaries' faithfulness in separating from family to give up every-

thing and love people in other lands makes them highly regarded as

faith heroes by many Christians.

My siblings, cousins, and I share a small part of the ultimate price

paid by missionary pioneers. We grew up without receiving in person

108

the love of a wonderful grandfather. Before dying in missionary service,

he revealed in a diary his amazing heart for Christ and for Africans.

I witnessed my mother coping with other hurts as well. Hers came as

a young teenager when my grandmother left her behind at the boarding

school in the States. Missionary self-sacrificial commitment built both

joys and regrets into our lives.

These hardships are links in the chain on my neck. The Body of

Christ's failure to invite and mobilize all of its members caused more

strain on those members left doing the work on the missions field, and

our family suffered from this loss. The following verses teach how God

designed the Body so that all members need one another and strengthen

one another during difficult circumstances:

That there should be no schism in the body; that the members should

have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer,

all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the

members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and mem-

bers in particular. (1 Corinthians 12: 25-27)

When white Christians fail to mobilize African Americans, we de-

mobilize ourselves because we are all one Body. Of course, the reverse

is also true. Should African-American Christians fail to invite other rac-

es to mobilize with them, they would put more strain on their mission-

aries and demobilize themselves in the process. We must all go forward

together because there can be no schism (means "division) in the Body.

Past failures to mobilize African Americans for missions increased

the suffering that my family endured - that is how a critical part of the

chain fastened to my neck. I know that this kind of demobilizing still

goes on today as black and white Christians maintain the same status

quo racial schism in missions. It is time to end my silence and take a

stand against this unbiblical division. I write to become free from this

old chain.

Discern Satan's spiritual opposition to our united and diverse wit-

ness for Christ. Ephesians 6:11-12 challenges us to stand against the

devil's schemes. The next chapter exposes hidden hurdles to missions

mobilization that Satan recycled through the centuries. The evil one ini-

tiated his divisive demobilizing wiles (deceitful strategies) soon after

Christ gave His Commission. As Christ's vanguard, learn to diagnose

and overcome these hidden hurdles.

109

Chapter 11

Diagnose Hidden Hurdles

A Vanguard Shines in Spiritual Warfare

From 1932 to 1972, black and white professionals from Tuskegee

University and public health services cooperated on the destructive Tus-

kegee Syphilis Study. They deceived 400 African- American sharecrop-

per men, whom the researchers diagnosed as having syphilis. Doctors

withheld medical treatment from these men and focused their research

on autopsies of the dozens who died.

The researchers lied to the men about the nature of their disease.

They withheld medicine from them even after penicillin became a prov-

en cure for syphilis. As a result of this deception, some of the men in-

fected their wives and children. President Clinton gave a formal apolo-

gy in 1997 to the remaining survivors and the families involved, calling

the experiment "shameful."(1)

How could African-American professionals at Tuskegee University

treat black sharecroppers inhumanely for 40 years? If Booker T. Wash-

ington and other Christians founded Tuskegee to uplift African Ameri-

cans, why would its black leadership collaborate with the government

to harm them? How could African-American leaders at Tuskegee allow

people of their race to be treated as laboratory materials and not as sick

patients?(2)

Answering these questions, I believe, may give insights for diag-

nosing some hidden barriers that undermine African-American partic-

ipation in full-time missions. This chapter will require serious study of

Christian history. Be prepared to need more than one sitting.

As a vanguard, you must know and overcome current barriers to

African Americans in missions that intensified in the years after the

Civil War. Thank you for investing the time and hard work to become

equipped with insights to lead well. I present the background to why

some historians identify these same missionary demobilizing problems

when analyzing the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

Hopefully, when you have completed the chapter, you will see how

the ideology supporting this horrible experiment came from the same

ideology that hinders African-American missions mobilization. After

the Civil War, many African-American Christians felt a strong sense of

110

duty and destiny to serve as missionaries to Africa. Nevertheless, Af-

rican-American missions professor and author Dr. Sylvia Jacobs writes

that even though this missionary impulse continued on, it failed to cre-

ate a missionary movement. Only a few African Americans completed

long missionary careers.(3) By 1920, most African Americans stopped

going to Africa, and elsewhere, as missionaries.

Jacobs concludes that the percentage of African-American mission-

aries who served in Africa before 1960 was relatively insignificant com-

pared to the percentage of white American missionaries who ministered

there.(4) What stopped African Americans from mobilizing as mission-

aries for Africa and the world?

In 1917, American missions agencies met in New York City for a

three-day conference called The Christian Occupation of Africa. A mis-

sions leader addressing the conference called Africa the Laboratory of

Christianity.(5) The white and black experiments on African-American

missionary mobilization conducted in this laboratory after the Civil War

failed with devastating consequences.

Some of the same reasons for this failure to mobilize African Amer-

icans also apply to the shameful Tuskegee Syphilis Study. With God's

grace and as Christ's vanguard, lead in such a way that prevents this

kind of historical failure from repeating itself.

My theme is that spiritual warfare raged in the decades following

Reconstruction (starting with 1880s) to prevent African Americans from

fulfilling Christ's Great Commission. During the many cultural changes

that occurred after the Civil War, I believe that Satan sent combina-

tions of spiritual assaults against black and white Christians. His evil

intentions, I am sure, included shutting down African-American global

missionary mobilization.

Foremost in this hidden spiritual warfare is a demobilizing ideol-

ogy that African Americans began using as a way to cope with racism

and their lack of citizenship rights after the Civil War. This unbiblical

ideology came from white paternalistic missionaries' efforts to instill

"missionary spirit" into people of African descent.(6)

Built upon white racial prejudice and feelings of superiority, Ameri-

can missions agencies wanted to give this "missionary spirit" as the key

to mobilizing black people to bring civilization to their own race. This

ideology included evolutionary views of culture and it became known

as "uplift."

I will explain how uplift ideology, evolutionary theory, and destruc-

111

tive criticism of the Bible swept across our nation among white and

black people. Ultimately, these hidden problems brought damaging and

demobilizing spiritual consequences to both races.

In addition and as part of the spiritual warfare, the black-white di-

vides among Christians widened because of racial discrimination, pol-

itics, and money issues. Reading prominent African-American theolo-

gians and sociologists' documentations about the demobilizing effects

of white racism saddens me the most.

I will go into more detail in the next three chapters about how many

black students turned away from correct Bible doctrine or moral stan-

dards when resisting white segregation or missionary paternalism. I

summarize three instances now. First, in the 1920s, cultural changes

undermined the sanctity of the home and godly morals among Afri-

can-American young people. I commend their determination and suc-

cess in overthrowing the white missionary paternalism and segregation

at many of the HBCUs. Unfortunately, many students threw out some

godly moral standards that the missionaries had strictly enforced.

Second, missionary ideology created a black social class hierarchy

in which upper and middle-class African Americans tried to distance

themselves from the "lower" class masses.

Third, by the 1950s, several future African-American civil rights

leaders emerged from white liberal seminaries during a time when many

Bible-believing seminaries remained segregated.

One of the most prominent black theologians and a leader in the

Civil Rights Movement, Samuel Proctor, wrote how he came to accept

white liberal theology's attack on the Bible's authority.(7) James Cone,

and other African-American theologians who followed the same white

liberal-doctrine path behind Proctor, even attempted to prove from Mar-

tin Luther King Jr.'s writings that he had forsaken faith in the Bible's

authority. Cone asserted that King chose white liberal theology over

the truth taught in his home church. Cone claimed that King rejected

Christ's deity and faith that Jesus died on the cross as a substitute to pay

the penalty for our individual sins.(8)

Accepting white liberal doctrine demobilized African Americans

from fulfilling Christ's true Commission. This white false teaching

not only undermines faith in Christ's deity, the Bible's authority, and

the true Gospel's credibility, it rejects the priority of fulfilling Christ's

Commission through world evangelism. These three changes point to

demobilizing spiritual warfare in both the black and the white Christian

112

communities. Satan, the evil one, aimed his attack at the Bible, the Gos-

pel's credibility and Christ's Great Commission for world missions.

Satan eliminated a potential movement to mobilize African Amer-

icans for Africa. White paternalistic missionaries and their segregated,

discriminating missions systems thwarted plans for African- American

mobilization. Well-meaning missionaries imposed "uplift" ideology

upon African Americans that proved spiritually, morally, socially, and

physically detrimental. Blacks' trust in this ideology's potential to uplift

Africa collapsed when Jim Crow oppression caused many to lose re-

spect for its ability to achieve civil rights in the States. Atlanta Congress

on Africa

In 1895, prominent African-American theology professor John W.

E. Bowen sponsored the Congress on Africa convention as part of the

Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition. He purposed to mo-

bilize African Americans as missionaries for Africa through this con-

vention. At the time, Bowen served as Gammon Theological Seminary's

missions professor and as the secretary of its foundation that supported

African-American missionary mobilization.

He documented and published the Africa Congress's speeches and

minutes that showed great potential for starting a missions movement

among African Americans.

The Congress on Africa's great timing gave an opportunity for black

and white Christians to end racial division and send out African-Amer-

ican missionaries together. A former slave, Bowen was the first African

American to earn a Ph.D. He taught at Morgan College and Howard

University and eventually became the Gammon Theological Seminary's

president. Other African Americans who addressed the convention came

with advanced degrees and a wealth of missionary experience.

Both black and white speakers expressed amazing unity at this mis-

sions convention. They respected African-American leadership in mis-

sions. For example, Bowen's minutes recorded the following encour-

agement given to the African-American leaders by the white bishop of

the Episcopal Methodist denomination:

I was born among you. Don't think of yourselves as `colored peo-

ple,' but think about yourselves as those whom God has called to

be men. I never put in the definition of `man' the idea of color. Be

men, and I assure you that the lines of longitude and latitude will not

measure the respect given to you. I welcome this hour. Determine

that you will solve your own problem by being true to the estate to

which you are called in these latter days.(9)

113

When other black denominations accused the A.M.E. of letting

white people "boss" them to get missionary money, a black A.M.E. min-

ister responded: Because we are men and propose to stand up side by

side with the best white membership in the church and show them and

the world what great work being done ... for the evangelization of the

world ... we can bear our share of the burden.(10)

Even Georgia's white governor attended and expressed commit-

ment to equality in education. The governor's support at the convention

demonstrated its racial unity.

This racially diverse Methodist denomination and its Freedman's

Aid and Southern Education Society considered African Americans and

Africa as the world's greatest missions fields. Solving the race problem

for all people and for all time by training and mobilizing missionaries

became their sense of duty.(11)

By 1901, these related institutions held valuable experience at mo-

bilizing large numbers of workers for missions. As missionary ventures,

they founded the Gammon seminary and many other institutions af-

ter the Civil War for the primary purpose of training evangelical Af-

rican-American missionaries for service at home and abroad.(12) By

1905, the missionary society had grown to 600,000 national members.

Blacks and whites worked together to bring 10,000 instructors who

taught at the many HBCUs, academies, medical schools, and hospitals

that the denomination's missions efforts had established.(13)

This missions society implemented advanced fundraising programs

including planned-giving opportunities through banks. It standardized

special Lincoln Birthday church services designed to raise missionary

support throughout the denomination's churches. Philanthropists of

both races financially endowed black education in response to mission-

ary appeals. One white pastor gave most of his extensive personal assets

to start the foundation at Gammon Theological Seminary to mobilize

African Americans "for the uplift of Africa." Bowen became the secre-

tary of this foundation, which also financed this Africa Congress.(14)

This conference occurred in an era before widespread acceptance

of European evolution theories and liberalism destroyed faith in the Bi-

ble's true Gospel for many in our country and at this denomination's

HBCUs. One black pastor stated at the congress that African Americans

in their denomination were not only Christian, but committed evangeli-

cal Christians.(15)

Just 30 years after the Civil War and in Atlanta, the convention's

114

speakers understood the demobilizing impact of slavery well. They

recognized barriers that prevented African Americans from going to

the field. Many Methodists became highly committed to the cause of

evangelizing Africa, believing that Abraham Lincoln had ushered in the

Kingdom of God with slave emancipation.

Therefore, the Congress on Africa enjoyed remarkable racial unity,

vision, funding, mobilization experience, evangelical doctrine, student

power, education, and the will to mobilize thousands of African Ameri-

cans for missions in Africa.

So what went wrong? Almost everything imaginable went wrong

to quickly destroy this vision of African-American missionary mobili-

zation. This vision died in this Episcopal Methodist denomination and

in the rest, as well. The Congress on Africa demobilized more than just

Episcopal Methodists. In effect, it forced the other denominations to fol-

low suit. Although intended to mobilize African-American missionar-

ies, its ideology turned out to be a house of cards that quickly collapsed.

In my opinion, the waves of complicated and combined opposition that

came against its missions vision possessed all the divisive traits of spir-

itual warfare. Let me attempt to explain what happened.

Start Diagnosing in the Third Century A.D.

To diagnose the loss of black vision for missions after the Civil War,

we must go back in history to the problems Jesus encountered with the

Pharisees as He served the poor and outcasts.

First, I formulate our diagnoses of these problems by starting with

the third century after Christ's return to heaven. Then I go back to the

days of Christ's ministry on earth and the Pharisees' issues. From there,

I trace how these problems recycled through the centuries, played out in

the late 1800s in America, and still demobilize today. Focus with me as

we move quickly through much history in a few pages.

Let us begin our diagnosis with the third century A.D. Depending on

whose opinion you choose, the Roman Emperor Constantine converted

to Christianity to either seek God's assistance or to gain a political ad-

vantage. He made Christianity the Roman Empire's national religion.

This move introduced politics into the Church and eventually divided

the Christian elite, ruling class from the masses. As the Roman Empire

declined, Christian leaders centralized their power as the Roman Cath-

olic Church.

The Catholic Church took several steps to empower its elite class of

115

clergy by taking the Bible out of the hands of the common man. They

taught the masses that only the spiritually elite at the top of a leader-

ship hierarchy possessed the ability to correctly interpret the Bible. The

Catholic Church gained power by adopting a system of Bible interpre-

tation that centralized its clergy's authority.

Catholic Church leaders began "spiritualizing" the Bible to find hid-

den meaning beyond the way human language is normally interpreted

literally. About four centuries after Christ's resurrection, theologians

used this spiritualizing interpretation method to view God's people as a

kingdom on earth. By figuratively interpreting Revelation 20, and other

passages about Christ's 1,000-year (millennial) reign, Christian leaders

concluded that Christ's kingdom had already begun. This belief is called

post-millennialism because it held that Jesus would return after (post)

His "spiritual" millennial kingdom-reign first occurred on earth.

In the centuries that followed, all the way to America's Civil War,

most Christians believed it was their God-given responsibility to Chris-

tianize the world and bring about Christ's return. With this post-millen-

nial doctrinal framework, most Christians became optimistic about the

potential for their evangelism efforts to produce a utopia of peace on

earth in a new, Christian world order.

They expected the Gospel to prevail over evil and cause worldwide

spiritual, social, and political transformations to bring about Christ's

return and world peace. Their mission included proclaiming the Gospel

and reconstructing social and political systems.(16)

For a time, the Catholic Church adopted the mission to expand

Christ's kingdom on earth by any means necessary. Its crusades and

violent inquisitions came out of this thinking that prevailed through the

middle ages. Christianity became a military force determined to con-

quer the world.

Later, England emerged from the Reformation believing that God

had given it a superior form of civilization with the duty to help other

nations progress by governing them. At the same time, Christians in

Britain believed, based upon post-millennial doctrine, that they would

also change the world through Christ, civilization, and commerce.

By this formula, they wanted to bring about social and political prog-

ress through the Gospel to fulfill Jesus' Commission and bring on His

return. Their post-millennial views paralleled the desires of England's

government and commercial interests to expand its world empire. As

a result, post-millennialism and British colonialism thrived together in

116

England as Christians formed our modern missions system.(17)

For instance, famous British missionary pioneer, David Livingston,

explored Africa to advance the Gospel and commerce.(18) Both objec-

tives fit in his post-millennial belief of bringing about a Christian king-

dom on earth. He failed to foresee the ruthless oppression of European

colonialism that he facilitated through his exploration and post-millen-

nial doctrine of Christ's Second Coming.

In addition, William Carey and many other missionaries in his era

became abolitionists and worked for social justice in their missions fields

as post-millennial efforts to establish a worldwide Christian kingdom.

They confronted social injustice expecting "the golden age of Gospel

domination" to change individuals and institutions of the world.

They believed that God uses people and institutions to regenerate

world kingdoms. Their missions societies began to cooperate with Brit-

ish colonialism because of their similar kingdom expansion motives and

objectives.(19)

Diagnose a Hidden Spiritual Stronghold

I believe that Christian leaders through the centuries remained de-

mobilized and unable to fulfill Christ's mission because a particular un-

recognized sin that held them in spiritual bondage. In spiritual warfare

terms, this kind of bondage is often called a "spiritual stronghold" that

enslaves like a blind spot. When a spiritual stronghold becomes embed-

ded in social structures and cultures, some might call it the "status quo."

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for perpetrating a status-quo, blind-spot

in their religious system. After He called Matthew to follow him, the

Pharisees criticized Him for eating with sinners at Matthew's house.

Under Roman dominance, Pharisees sought status and power for them-

selves and their race by becoming an elite, pure-blooded, representative

class of Jews. They distanced themselves from the lower classes or, like

in Matthew's case, from Jewish "sinners."

Pharisees kept and enforced their elaborate system of strict rules

against specific sins because they hungered for this status and claimed

spiritual, racial, and social "eliteness." Their spiritual stronghold, and

self-deception, became evident in their futile attempts to earn status

with God and man as their hearts remained prejudiced against those

whom they ostracized in the lower classes or as sinners. This prejudice

against sinners demobilized them from loving and serving the masses

for whom Christ felt compassion.

117

The Pharisees attempted to bring about the Messiah's coming

through Jewish nationalism. They took it upon themselves to represent

the Jewish race and nation in Jerusalem, but distanced themselves from

the lower-class Galilean Jews. They demanded justice for their elite

Jewish class from Roman oppression, but withheld mercy and justice

from Hebrew widows and orphans. Jesus responded to the Pharisees'

criticism by quoting the Lord's command in Hosea 6:8: "Go and learn

what this means, `I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'" The Pharisees' sin-

ful stronghold neglected and discredited God's Word.

When Christian persecution ended under Constantine in the third

century, these same sins - hungering for status, prejudice, discrimination

against lower classes and sinners, and trying to earn respectability by

moral accomplishments - demobilized Christians. Then during the Ref-

ormation, this stronghold became evident among the ruling class who

protected Martin Luther during his rebellion against the Pope. Luther

taught salvation by grace through faith to this ruling class that defended

his Reformation.

Peasants, who served the ruling class as slaves, made a respectful

appeal for their equal rights that included Scripture references. They

explained how their appeal advanced the true Gospel, not discredited

Christ's cause. Luther called on the peasants, instead, to submit to the

ruling class' authority in order to maintain law and order. When they re-

volted violently, Luther wrote that any of the rebelling peasants should

be killed immediately because their violence had earned them damna-

tion.(20) He "threw them under the bus" to accommodate the ruling

class so the peasants' revolt failed.

Later as Europe's industrialization elevated its working class, Chris-

tians sought freedom from state churches but maintained prejudice

against Africans, whom most regarded as inhuman savages. Through

the African Slave Trade, this stronghold of class discrimination mixed

with racial prejudice and brought about American atrocities that still

demobilize our missions systems today.

Whites brought post-millennialism to America from England and

linked it to the ideal of liberty. Many American theologians viewed the

freedom won in the Revolutionary War as another God-given opportu-

nity to advance God's global kingdom. Patriotic white post-millennial

thinking held that spreading democracy would advance the Gospel and

bring the world closer to Christ's return and Utopia.(21)

Likewise, black slaves used this liberty ideology, brought forward

118

during the Revolutionary War's Declaration of Independence, to ad-

vance their own struggles for freedom.

In summary, to survive political and social oppression through the

centuries, Christians repeated a pattern of prejudice against the less for-

tunate. Repeatedly, the Christian elite social classes in each instance in-

ternalized prejudices against these groups and emerged from their own

conditions of oppressions wanting to represent or rule the less fortu-

nate. They intended to govern the poor while thinking it best for their

own good.

Over the centuries, did not the evil one war against God's purpose

using this cycle of repeated oppression? Instead of spreading the knowl-

edge of God's glory, Christians' hungering for status and power when

surviving oppression brought shame to Christ. They have discredited

His Gospel and Word worldwide since the beginning.

Also, during significant movements of survival, Christians invent-

ed structures that centralized their power but demobilized the masses,

so they failed to complete Christ's Great Commission. Missionaries

and evolutionists fostered this type of survival strategy among the black

middle class after the Civil War, which failed to extensively mobilize

African Americans for world missions.

This failed strategy is called "uplift." In addition, as African Ameri-

cans became interested in missionary service to Africa, Satan unleashed

a barrage of other demobilizing attacks against God's Word, the true

Gospel, and the Great Commission on top of Jim Crow oppression. I

address the "uplift" problem here and begin to explain the rest of these

attacks, which I will cover more extensively in coming chapters.

Diagnose Unbiblical Cultural Conceptions

During the past 150 years, white social scientists came up with two

unbiblical concepts of "culture" that demobilize African Americans to

this day. Before this time, many viewed culture with prejudice as some-

thing only a small segment in any social group "has." Then white so-

cial scientist Edwin Taylor championed a concept of culture based upon

evolution that violated sound Bible teaching.

This led to a widespread view that culture is an evolutionary ladder

of progress on which people in social groups could be placed. In this

evolutionary thinking, people who were considered "savages" could

progress up the culture-ladder to become "barbarians" and then eventu-

ally become "civilized." It provided the possibility for anyone to move

119

"up" when having the necessary education and ambition. This evolu-

tion-based use of "culture" supported the ideology of colonialism and

missionaries who focused on "civilizing" blacks and others.

At the end of the chapter, I will explain how social scientists in the

1950s made popular another unbiblical concept called "cultural relativ-

ism" as a hidden barrier to African-American missions mobilization.

First, I address here the hidden missions problems pertaining to uplift

ideology.(22)

Diagnose the Missionary Uplift Problem

Under severe Jim Crow oppression after Reconstruction (after

1870s), and with paternalistic* input from missionaries, the black mid-

dle class adopted uplift's evolution-based concept of culture in an at-

tempt to win full citizenship rights. Strategically thinking members of

the African-American middle class wanted to pull themselves up the

evolutionary culture-ladder as representatives of the civilized black

race. They valued high moral values, hard work, and thrift as the means

to earn the respect of influential whites in order to gain equal rights

through these qualities.

To prove their worth even more, the black middle class took on the

responsibility of "uplifting" and "civilizing" uneducated freed slaves in

America. Many whites viewed these ex-slaves as savages on the lowest

rung of evolution's culture ladder in a predicament that most called "the

black problem."

When black uplift efforts did not bring equality, some middle-class

African Americans became missionaries in a much greater attempt to

prove their worth to earn respect and equal rights.(23) They accepted

responsibility for uplifting the entire black race in the States and in all

of Africa.

Imagine wanting full rights as an American citizen so much that you

unsuccessfully resist Jim Crow injustices by shouldering the problems

that slavery and colonialism imposed on the black race. Picture climb-

ing against racists sentiments of the same white people you want to

impress in order to earn civil rights and acceptance--only to find in the

end that you remain on square one.

____________________

*Feeling superior and believing it best for black peoples' own good, missionaries

watched over, encouraged dependence, governed and/or limited African-Americans'

autonomy.

120

Now, consider the problem of adding Jesus' Great Commission to

this struggle for basic rights. Would you want to risk your life in Africa

to earn whites' respect only to be treated as a second-class citizen upon

your return?

Can you feel the demobilizing weight of hidden problems in uplift

missions ideology? Obviously, unbiblical ideas about culture-evolution

created this flawed missions ideology so uplift failed to mobilize Afri-

can Americans extensively.

Let me give you the history of how uplift ideology played out. When

the Declaration of Independence motivated both slaves and abolitionists

to demand liberty and equality for African Americans, home missionary

societies began sending missionaries to the South to work among slaves

to "uplift" the race.

This early ideology of racial uplift assumed that African Americans

would gain full rights and freedom. Many abolitionists believed that

slave emancipation would also be the clincher that ushered in Christ's

kingdom.

Severe Jim Crow racism, segregation, disfranchisement, job dis-

crimination, and anti-black violence that followed Reconstruction led

the white missionaries and black middle class to limit uplift ideology

to lesser objectives. In this desperate racist context, they settled for an

uplift ideology that no longer pursued equal rights and freedom.

They emphasized, instead, Christianizing and civilizing the black

race to bring on Christ's return and peace. By not pursuing full citizen

rights and freedom for African Americans, missionary uplift ideology

brought lasting demobilizing consequences. Historians and sociologists

have written much about uplift ideology.

I focus on how its principles demobilized African Americans in

spite of its focus on sending black missionaries to Africa. Missionary

uplift ideology created a hunger for status, emphasized self-help and

achievement to impress influential whites, reduced Biblical morality to

just a means to counter white racists myths, increased class division

and discrimination, encouraged dependency on wealthy philanthropists,

increased acceptance of evolution theory, reduced credibility of Biblical

moral standards, and set the stage for black acceptance of liberalism's

attack on the Bible.

Harr concluded in 1945 that the absence of black missionaries was

a white problem. Instead, uplift ideology after the Civil War blamed al-

most every problem on the black lower class. White missionaries chal-

121

lenged the black middle-class Christians to solve the "Negro Problem"

through uplift.

As I said before, many whites believed that the lower class black

masses were innately inferior, immoral, and disorderly barbarians.

This same kind of prejudice surfaced again in the Tuskegee Syphi-

lis Study, where medical professionals viewed sharecroppers who con-

tracted syphilis with the same low regard. With prejudice against people

of lower incomes and morals, doctors justified withholding life-saving

medicine from them using deception. This kind of prejudice plagues

uplift ideology.

Being called "a problem" showed the desperate existence of Afri-

can Americans after the Civil War. In this oppressive context, the black

middle class took on the responsibility of representing and uplifting the

black race. They attempted to earn the respect of influential white peo-

ple in order to achieve full citizenship rights for the race.(24) Notice

again what the white Episcopal Methodist bishop said to African Amer-

icans at the start of Bowen's Congress on Africa (Italics added):

Determine that you will solve your own problem by being true to

the estate to which you are called in these latter days.(25)

By blaming blacks for their low social status, uplift thinking created

a class distinction between middle and lower class African Americans.

Christians upholding uplift ideology based one's status on a hard work,

high moral standards, fathers providing for their families as head of

their homes, thrift, and property ownership. Many middle-class black

Christians highlighted the differences between themselves and the low-

er class in an attempt to show influential whites the relative progress of

the black race.

Contrasting themselves with the lower class, they tried to demon-

strate with their relative progress that the black race deserved full rights

of American citizenship.

Unfortunately, many middle-class African Americans internalized

white racism and made degrading judgments about the black lower

class. Like whites, many in the black middle class blamed the lower

class for their inferior status and took it upon themselves to represent

the race as the "better class."(26)

These degrading comments reinforced whites' prejudices and en-

abled status quo racial discrimination. This enabling gave white society

reasons to continue blaming the black race as the problem instead of

122

ending its Jim Crow oppression. Therefore, uplift's self-help ideology

did not challenge white racist myths and the exploitative structures that

prevented black progress.(27)

Indeed, missionary self-help and uplift beliefs failed to earn civ-

il rights for African Americans. Whites often frustrated middle-class

blacks by ignoring them. Southern whites made no distinction between

members of the stratified black social classes when inflicting Jim Crow

oppression. Also, the black middle class's criticism of the lower classes,

regardless of race, prevented African Americans from all classes from

being extensively mobilized as missionaries.

For example, I am not the first to challenge college students to bring

a spiritual uprising to fulfill Christ's Commission. The Student Volun-

teer Movement (SVM), started by the white evangelist D. L. Moody,

held a national convention and made the same challenge in 1898.

The SVM had become a student-led missionary recruiting organi-

zation that existed for 50 years after the Civil War and mobilized an es-

timated 20,000 white missionaries to serve overseas.(28) After its first

10 years of recruiting white students at 400 colleges, the SVM held this

convention and published its call for a student uprising.(29)

John W. E. Bowen, the prominent African-American theology pro-

fessor at Howard University and the historically black Gammon Theo-

logical Seminary, spoke at this convention. He addressed the need and

possibilities for SVM to mobilize black students for foreign missions.

He cast a wonderful vision for HBCUs to equip missionaries for Africa

but stopped short of challenging their African-American students to rise

up for Christ's cause.

Instead of calling on black students to fulfill the Great Commission,

Bowen called fellow African Americans, as a group, a "raw, restless,

dumb, stupid, stubborn, superstitious, and corrupted race thrown into

the lap of American Christianity." He described African-American min-

isters this way: Large in proportion of the ministry, because of intellec-

tual weakness and moral inefficiency, is unable to check the degenerate

growth. They are blind leaders of the blind moving with fateful rapidity

to the ditch of destruction . . . many would serve God better upon their

knees on the old-time Methodist mourners bench than orating in the

pulpit.(30)

The SVM published Bowen's speech that challenged whites to evan-

gelize and train African-American students in order to reach Africa. Be-

fore identifying the black colleges, he called on the whites, as men of

123

God, to bring the Gospel to them or "the sweetness of our American life

will be corrupted by the virus of lawlessness and crime."(31)

Interestingly, Bowen made his indictment against blacks during

the same time period when William Sheppard, an African- American

HBCU alumnus, became a world-famous missionary to Africa. He en-

rolled in Hampton (Institute) University in 1880(32) and left for Africa

as a Presbyterian missionary in 1890.(33)

Sheppard's overseas departure came just two years after Bowen had

stereotyped African Americans as stupid and their spiritual leaders as

intellectually weak.

Class consciousness became the big issue in forming black identi-

ties in Bowen's day. Blacks and whites in the South made the distinction

between African Americans who were and were not considered respect-

able. As mentioned beforehand, many whites and elite blacks stereo-

typed African Americans who lived in the lower socio-economic class

as barbarians.(34)

Blacks sought to accomplish something unusual and exemplary

with high moral character and virtue to prove their fitness for responsi-

bility. Doubting the whole black race's ability to amalgamate into white

society, many attempted to become the strongest and fittest in order to

achieve acceptance on an individual basis.(35)

Middle-class blacks stood aloof from the black masses but served to

elevate members of their race.(36) To form their identities as black men,

African Americans invented traditions and used speeches, writings, and

organizational networking.(37)

Some middle-class African Americans became missionaries after

the Civil War and used all of these strategies to form their identities

as respectable men. Whites esteemed missionaries as celebrities, while

feeling superior to the "heathen" and "savages" living on the missions

fields. Therefore, some Africa Americans made missions their exempla-

ry achievement to earn super-respectability.(38)

Their missions reports back to the States provided opportunities for

writings. They made speeches when they returned, impressing large

crowds of white people with stories about great feats among cannibals

and wild animals. Missions provided many networking connections as

well. William Sheppard exhibited these identity development strategies

as an African-American missionary to the Congo.

However, white Christians managed to treat him as a statesman

during his speeches, but as a second-class citizen otherwise.(39)

124

White prejudice fostered the requirement that black missionaries

must also be the strongest, most educated, and most fit of their race for

missionary responsibilities.(40) Uneducated African Americans living

below the middle class had no chance of being sent out as career mis-

sionaries overseas.

Sheppard, and the few middle-class African Americans who also

went to the field, endured prejudices at home that no white missionary

faced. One white leader opposed sending Sheppard to the Congo, for

example, fearing that single African-American men could not handle

the sexual temptations facing them in Africa.(41)

Some whites supported Sheppard and other African Americans with

racist hopes that these missionaries would take the rest of the blacks

who lived in the U.S. with them. Others saw the advantages that black

missionaries provided for opening trade with African tribes so white

Americans could exploit Africa's natural resources like the European

nations that scrambled to divide and colonize the continent.(42)

Looking back, I conclude that Bowen's negative stereotyping of

blacks enabled whites to deem them unfit for white missions structures.

Apparently Bowen affirmed his own identity as a respectable man with

influential whites by describing African Americans so negatively in his

speech at the SVM convention.

A missions professor at a black seminary with funding for Afri-

can-American missionaries, Bowen tried to earn respect but instead en-

abled the segregated, imperialistic white status quo to continue unchal-

lenged in missions.

I make this judgment based upon his documentation of the Congress

on Africa. First, the only quote that he recorded came from the white

bishop who affirmed African-American potential to demonstrate their

manhood and earn respect through missions.

Second, instead of challenging African Americans to mobilize,

Bowen put on display the spiritual and mental capacities of the Afri-

ca-American participants by ending his minutes with these praises:

There certainly has not been gathered in any other city a more august

body of colored divines and men of brains and eloquence in their race

since the days of slavery.(43) Sounds like to me that Bowen was docu-

menting an intelligent, civilized black identity that countered the racists'

opinions of white society about black barbarianism.

Third, the congress made a motion in its minutes inviting church

members to attend the Cotton States and International Exposition that

125

presented "trades and handicrafts," which stood as "magnificent object

lessons of the capacity and ability of the Afro-American" and "which

speak so eloquently for the race."(44)

Fourth, white convention speakers got away with white racist pro-

paganda. Whites praised Europeans highly for dividing and occupying

Africa to subjugate its people in order to civilize them. They celebrated

how white missionaries worked in partnership with European occupy-

ing governments and with exploitative traders.

One speaker gave thanks for the selfishness of European colonialism

that he believed would Christianize Africa. He expressed compassion

for European workers who would go hungry if their industries could not

export to its colonies in Africa. He praised Belgium's King Leopold as

a Christian hero.(45) In reality, Leopold's greed and treachery left thou-

sands of Africans murdered, disabled, dehumanized, and enslaved in

the Congo while he destroyed their economy and nonrenewable natural

resources.(46) White speakers praised European countries for sending

whites by the millions to live in Africa and to bring their civilizations

with them.(47)

None of the African-American speakers confronted the whites' im-

perialistic perspectives. They challenged, instead, the congress to make

empowering African indigenous leaders its absolute priority.

One black speaker eloquently expressed racial pride by heralding the

great heritage, dignity, and potential of the Africans. At this early time,

these black speakers did not anticipate how missionary partnerships

with European colonialism prevented indigenous leadership develop-

ment and supported white oppression of Africans. Speakers warned

about the consequences of government injustices, but white speakers

offset them by predicting that the European scramble for Africa would

bring missionaries great advantages.(48)

I believe Bowen remained silent as white speakers supported impe-

rialistic missions, and then denounced African Americans in his speech

at the SVM convention a few years later, because he was the product

of white missionary attempts to civilize blacks in the South. A former

slave himself, Bowen was in the difficult process of developing his new

identity within the context of an extremely racist, white-dominated so-

ciety. He, therefore, enabled white racists' structures in missions to go

unchallenged. He inadvertently enabled white Christians to continue

their status quo imperialistic missions systems.

126

Booker T. Washington Accommodated the Problem

Booker T. Washington became the most powerful African American

in the country. He made missionary uplift ideology almost mandatory in

many HBCUs. He graduated from Hampton Institute and founded Tus-

kegee Institute with missionary support. Washington not only embraced

uplift's self-help ideology but also held that it should come about gradu-

ally as blacks laid a foundation for progress through vocational training.

Washington insisted that black colleges teach vocational skills rath-

er than higher liberal arts education. Since white racial discrimination

prevented most African Americans from obtaining professional jobs,

Washington wanted to train them for agriculture work. An accommo-

dationist, he conceded that blacks should remain segregated and live in

submission to whites to survive.

Washington received extensive financial support for his accommo-

dation to segregationists and cooperation with industrialists who wanted

to control and limit black labor to farm work. His financial support came

from wealthy missionary and industrial philanthropists. If one added

together the endowments of Washington's Hampton and Tuskegee In-

stitutes in 1922, the amount would be more than twice the size of all the

rest of the HBCUs' endowments combined.(49)

At Tuskegee Institute, Washington pursued uplift ideology's quest

of proving African Americans' worth to influential whites in a racist so-

ciety. He considered Tuskegee to be a crucial test of African-American

abilities. He designed its facilities and pushed the faculty to maintain

images of perfection and efficiency, being extremely sensitive to the

impressions the school made on outsiders.(50)

Booker T. Washington advised two U.S. presidents, and a number of

black professionals were indebted to him for federal jobs, appointments,

and favors.(51) To vindictively shut down criticism of his industrial ed-

ucation emphasis, he got people fired from their jobs or prevented their

institutions from getting philanthropists' funding.

Civil rights leader W. E. B. Dubois criticized Washington anyway.

He accused Washington of asking blacks to submit to Jim Crow oppres-

sion and thereby surrender political power, civil rights, and the opportu-

nity for higher liberal arts education.(52)

Incidentally, Washington lived in an "imposing residence" at Tus-

kegee Institute, and his children attended prep schools in New England

and black liberal arts colleges. Although he wanted low-income families

to limit their education to industrial training in the South, his daughters

127

traveled to Paris for music studies.(53)

Dubois laid out a gracious but unsuccessful appeal to Bowen and

other black leaders to end their silence and take a stand against Wash-

ington's compromise that surrendered blacks' civil rights.(54)

With his silence, Bowen allowed Booker T. Washington to can-

cel out the missions mobilization potential of the Congress on Africa

during its same weekend. Remember that Bowen held his missionary

convention during the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposi-

tion. Washington did not appear in Bowen's minutes from the Congress

of Africa, but whites had chosen him to speak as a representative of

African Americans at the same exposition.

Washington's speech became known as the "Atlanta Compromise"

because he gave in to segregation and emphasized self-help initiatives,

vocational training, and accommodation rather than insisting on full

black civil rights. His speech gave him national prominence but rein-

forced many southern whites' racist justification of Jim Crow segrega-

tion, disfranchisement, and violent enforcement.(55)

In the face of anti-black violence, Washington remained conciliato-

ry and purposefully avoided politics. All this occurred while southern

racists managed to equate African-American social equity with a myth

that black men innately wanted to rape white women.

In reality, African-American women lived in danger of rape by white

employers and landlords. Lynchings prevented retaliation and enforced

other Jim Crow injustices.

Twenty years after his death, the legacy Booker T. Washington left

behind demobilized African-Americans who followed his philosophies.

For instance, in 1915, African-American Robert R. Moton succeeded

him as Tuskegee Institute's Principal and continued Washington's ac-

commodationalism.

Tuskegee's Syphilis Study began during his tenure and continued

with his endorsement. Through Tuskegee Institute's expansion to Libe-

ria, Morton exported Washington's political compromise and industrial

education philosophies to Africa.

Under Morton's leadership, Tuskegee Institute reinforced white rac-

ism, paternalism, business interests, and colonialism in Africa. Morton

received funding for expansion there from white philanthropists who

had rejected the Bible's authority and true Gospel.(56) He focused

more on education expansion and African politics than on mobilizing

missionaries.(57)

128

Yet, missions agencies at the 1917 Christian Occupation of Africa

conference endorsed the replication of Washington's industrial/agricul-

tural education model across Africa.(58) A conference speaker conclud-

ed that African Americans who received a higher level of education than

Washington's agricultural system provided were more likely to succumb

to "fleshly passions."(59)

Several factors contributed to the end of Tuskegee's educational ex-

pansion to Africa in the 1930s. Washington's accommodation politics

became irrelevant and unappealing to African nations pursuing inde-

pendence from European governments. Moton retired from Tuskegee

Institute in 1935, and the new president did not maintain its focus on

Africa. Also, World War I and the Great Depression reduced financial

donations.(60)

Uplift Failed With Deadly Consequences

Ten years after Bowen's Congress on Africa and Booker T. Wash-

ington's compromise speech, missionary uplift's house of cards crashed

during the Atlanta Race Riots.

The promise that good citizenship earned blacks respectability and

civil rights lost credibility when race-baiting candidates for governor

incited a mob to riot by publishing rape allegations against black men.

Bowen suffered injuries when he opened his campus to rescue African

Americans from a white mob.

He had called the police for protection, but some of the black men

taking refuge there mistook them for the mob and shot at them. This

defensive action resulted in a policeman beating Bowen's head with the

butt of a rifle.(61)

Ironically, unchurched, "lower-class" African Americans armed

themselves during the riots and prevented white mobs from killing black

middle-class residents.(62) These defenders came from the same class

of black people whom Bowen had denounced as barbarians. Remember

how Bowen, a black seminary professor, told white students that they

needed to evangelize these men in to protect the American way of life?

Inevitably, violent Jim Crow oppression destroyed Booker T. Wash-

ington's credibility with many African Americans. Yet fearing financial

repercussions, few blacks dared to criticize his ideologies. Until his

death in 1915, Washington remained the broker of government jobs,

favors, and philanthropist donations for the African-American mid-

dle-class.(63)

129

In addition, as black and white Christians became more racially seg-

regated after emancipation, black Christians divided by social status and

economic classes. As African Americans migrated north, churches and

denominations divided along class lines, educational levels, and wor-

ship styles. Black traditional denominations and storefront Pentecostal

churches separated from each other.

By the 1920s, secular institutions had replaced missionaries and

some churches as leading voices among the black middle class. The

NAACP, black nationalist organizations, and freemasonry became more

influential than black-led churches in some places.

In the 1920s, the more militant "New Negro" ideology took hold

and caused the respect of African Americans for white missionaries and

black clergy to decline. Criticism increased against white missionaries

who practiced segregation while paternalistically governing HBCUs by

enforcing stringent rules and dress codes.(64) Black nationalists like

Marcus Garvey added to uplift ideology, among other things, the con-

viction that only African Americans should govern black people. They

also criticized African Americans who received funding from whites.

How African Americans defined manhood underwent changes

during this time. Previously with uplift ideology, they determined status

and judged manhood by one's character and accomplishments. As I

said, manhood depended on high moral standards, productivity, edu-

cation, authoritative rule in the home, providing to protect one's wife

by keeping her out of the work force, thrift, and property ownership.

Marriages suffered because racial discrimination prevented many Afri-

can Americans from achieving these ideals regardless of how hard they

worked for them.

During the 1920s Jazz Age, many younger African Americans be-

gan to judge manhood based on physical masculinity, sexual virility,

and personal possessions.(65) These changes influenced HBCU stu-

dents who protested against white missionary paternalism, strict rules,

and racial segregation. As a result, many of these colleges dropped their

uplift moral standards.

Although missionaries established them to equip black missionar-

ies for Africa, HBCUs began allowing their students to party on their

campuses.(66) With this new criteria for manliness, many African

Americans began regarding black pastors as feminine, corrupt, or as

white-controlled puppets.(67)

Middle-class African Americans not only internalized white prej-

130

udice against lower class blacks, many also discriminated against the

lower class whites and new immigrants.(68)

Unbiblical (Psalm 18:27) missionary uplift failed to elevate the

black race. Never did Christ command His disciples to trust in an ide-

ology, ethics, or moral performance to fulfill God purposes. Hungering

for status and seeking society's respect contradicted God's grace and

opposed the call to self-sacrificially bear Christ's reproach.

Uplift ideology became a counterfeit to God's grace and true faith

in Christ. Uplift's failure discredited the true Gospel, the Word of God,

Biblical holiness, thrift, family values, and world evangelization.

Did the Lord Choose African Americans to Break the Cycle?

Perhaps the Lord of the Harvest chose blacks to end the oppression

cycle that opposed His eternal purposes through the centuries. Perhaps

Bowen's missions vision failed because Christ would not allow this

limited, corrupt and class-conscious version to be exported by African

Americans to Africa. Did He prevent African Americans from teaching

demobilizing uplift ideology in Africa like white missionaries had done

in the States? For instance, about the same time that white missions

agencies stopped sending out African Americans in the 1920s, because

of racial prejudice and to accommodate imperialistic colonialism, these

agencies organized to instill "missionary spirit" ideology to uplift Afri-

cans. Perhaps God prevented African Americans from joining in with

whites to repeat uplift's demobilizing prejudice in Africa. In any event,

motivated only by love and grace, become His vanguard change-agent.

Lead freely and extend mercy without uplift's prejudice or wanting to

earn acceptance and status.

Although Christians usually attempt to enlist middle-class African

Americans for missions, the Lord requires you to mobilize without re-

gard to socio-economic backgrounds. Muster racially and economically

diverse believers for the Gospel's sake. Tear down the spiritual strong-

hold of class-conscious racial discrimination in obedience to Christ.

I concur with some historians who offered reasons why professional

African Americans participated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. These

historians raise the possibility that the African-American professionals'

desire to succeed in white-dominated society, hunger for status, eco-

nomic dependency, and prejudice against lower class immoral share-

croppers increased their willingness to collaborate in this atrocity.(69)

If so, this study showed how destructive uplift ideologies may become.

131

A Barrage of Demobilizing Spiritual Attacks

The worst demobilizing spiritual attacks in black history occurred

after World War II. I believe that previous missionary uplift ideology set

up African-American leaders for the most spiritually destructive conse-

quences yet to come. In this time period, white false teachers contrived

and passed on to black theologians untrue doctrine.

Through these black leaders, this wrong doctrine became accepted

at the HBCU seminaries that trained pastors. The following false theol-

ogies might not have much meaning to you at this point, but as Christ's

vanguard you will need to recognize and refute them: liberal theology,

liberation theology, prosperity theology, and the social gospel. I provide

a brief overview of their demobilizing effects.

After the Civil War, most Christians accepted the Bible as authorita-

tive but also were influenced by the scientific revolution that seemed to

contradict it. The Civil War and Darwin's Theory of Evolution changed

and divided white people's thinking about Christ, the Bible. and mis-

sions. The Civil War and two world wars ended post-millennial opti-

mism for most American Christians. The Civil War marked the turning

point that shook their faith in the true Gospel's power to dominate evil

and bring world peace.(70)

White liberal theologians attacked the Bible's supernatural inspira-

tion, miracles, and authority wanting to reconcile it to Darwin's evolu-

tion theory. They destroyed trust in the Bible and its revelation of Jesus

Christ as God and Savior. They reduced the glory of Christ to just His

humanity and ethics. This liberal theology replaced the Bible's true

Gospel with a bogus one based on doing good works rather than person-

al salvation by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ.

Already inclined to social outreach, many post-millennialists ad-

opted this false teaching. Called "the social gospel," this new doctrine

focused on confronting social injustices in institutions' structures rather

than the sins of individuals.( 71) The social gospel's emphasis on bring-

ing liberation to the poor and oppressed became known as liberation

theology in the past century. Liberation theology reduces Jesus' death to

a political act limited to justice on earth. It holds that His death does not

pay the punishment for sins, but instead, politically empowers people

to overcome oppression in this life. It fails to recognize the need for

Christ's atonement of God's wrath for sins.(72)

Seeking justice only in this life, those who believe liberation theol-

ogy reject God's work of justice to give eternal life. The Bible teaches

132

that God is holy and decreed that the penalty for sin is death. Jesus, God

the Son, paid this death penalty for sin, and rose again, to satisfy God's

justice so that His mercy may flow to us. In short, God punished Jesus

instead of punishing us. When we turn from sin and put our trust in Je-

sus Christ as God and our substitute, who bore our sins in His body on

the cross, the Father Himself declares us righteous and gives us eternal

life as a free gift.

Our lives change because we become united with Christ and His

death. We are also raised to a new life and in a personal relationship

with God. Having received justice and mercy, we follow Christ as His

disciple on a mission of gratitude and love. Our purpose is to proclaim

this good news of eternal life with acts of justice and by extending mer-

cy in this life to make more disciples of Christ for the glory of God.

By rejecting God's work of justice to forgive sin through Christ's

substitutionary atonement, liberal theologians bear the penalty of sins

themselves in this life and eternally. Therefore, they reject knowing Je-

sus Christ as their personal Savior.

Many who believe in Liberation Theology, especially Black Lib-

eration Theology, assume falsely that people who believe in Christ's

spiritual atonement for sin on the cross do not care about social and po-

litical liberation from oppression.(73) Unresolved past hurts make it an

either-or proposition to them. Your vanguard leadership will prove them

wrong as you confront unjust structures and, at the same time, proclaim

the true Gospel's salvation from sin and God's wrath.

By the 1930s, white Christian thinking became polarized between

two doctrinal positions on the Bible, missions, and social justice. Those

who still believed that the Bible is the God-breathed, authoritative, in-

fallible Word of God, which He gave without error, separated from the

growing number of churches and seminaries that did not.

Those adopting liberal doctrine no longer held to this high regard of

the Bible and to the true Gospel of salvation. For example, the Student

Volunteer Movement ended after its leaders sided with liberal theology,

forsook faith in the authority of God's Word, and lost its commitment to

world evangelism.(74)

Liberalism's Counterfeit Mission

Those accepting the social Gospel's reliance on ethics instead of

faith in Christ invented a false, counterfeit mission to replace Christ's

true Great Commission. They rejected Christ as the only way to receive

133

eternal life. Keeping their optimism for bringing world peace from their

roots in post-millennialism, these liberals turned Jesus' Great Commis-

sion into a mandate to establish a global and morally ethical community.

Instead of obeying Him as the risen, exalted Lord and Christ, their

bogus mission only accepted Jesus' moral ethics, liberation from struc-

tural oppression, and compassion for the poor. Instead of proclaiming

Jesus as the only way to the Father, they disregarding His claims as God,

made all religions equal to His teaching, and treated Him like a mere

man as though He were dead.

They partnered with secular humanists in governments worldwide

to improve civilizations like past British missionaries attempted with

England's colonialism.

I repeat this history for emphasis. Liberals invented a false global

mission that they substituted for Christ's true mandate. They changed

His Commission to "building a global community." White liberal mis-

sionaries and philanthropists introduced this false mission at HBCUs.

Likewise, white liberal seminaries gave potential black leaders schol-

arships and taught them this counterfeit commission. These seminaries

emphasized cultural relativism, which meant accepting all other exist-

ing religions as equal to the Gospel of Christ. This generation of Afri-

can-American leaders became champions of this false mission at HB-

CUs and other universities.(75)

Cultural relativism taught that no one should place value judgments

on the many unique and diverse world cultures that it claims are morally

equal.(76) Unfortunately, theologians include religion in the definition

of culture and hold that all beliefs are equally valid, including those that

reject the Bible's authority, moral absolutes, and Gospel of individual

salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Since cultural relativism opposes racism, prominent African-Amer-

ican theologians adopted its unbiblical and demobilizing ideology.

Tragically, during this same time period, many white Bible-be-

lieving, missionary-sending Christians, including their seminaries, re-

mained segregated. As a result, most black theologians naturally accept-

ed "building a global community" as Christ's Commission and taught

liberal theology's cultural relativism at HBCUs. Many rejected ada-

mantly His true mandate of proclaiming faith in only Christ for personal

salvation as an example of whites oppressively imposing their culture

on other peoples.(77)

Those believing the Bible and Christ's true mission reacted by fo-

134

cusing only on preaching the true Gospel and lost any vision of mak-

ing institutional structural changes for social justice.(78) Christians

remaining committed to the authority of the Bible became known as

fundamentalists* who defended the essential fundamentals of the Bible.

The fundamentalists also separated from theologians who believed that

only certain parts of the Bible contained God's Word. Fundamentalists

focused on defending the Bible and separating from false teachers.

Prior to this controversy, many fundamentalists conducted extensive

social outreaches. Unfortunately, in reaction to liberalism's false gospel

and commission, fundamentalists eliminated social outreach from their

missions to rapidly avoid anything that resembled the liberals' social

gospel.(79) Yet, liberal theology's deceptive criticism of God's Word

brings spiritual and moral demise wherever people, churches, and sem-

inaries adopt it.

In Chapter 12, I challenge you to defend sound doctrine when es-

tablishing your vanguard ministry upon God's Word. I contrast the lives

of two African-American leaders from Norfolk who went in opposite

doctrinal directions. One chose the broader path to fame that white lib-

eralism offered. Accepting evolution's theory, he championed this white

false teaching at HBCUs. I will challenge you to take the narrower, less

popular path to defend the Bible's authority, proclaim the true Gospel

and mobilize for Christ's real mission.

___________________

*Generally, fundamentalists separate themselves from liberal theologians who do not

believe and teach sound Bible doctrine. Also, most fundamentalists usually, or used

to, separate from those who fellowship with liberals. During my generation, for ex-

ample, fundamentalists did not partner with Billy Graham because he invited tradi-

tional denominations to participate in his crusades. Fundamentalists considered these

denominations as permanently liberal and refused to support Graham. In the 1960s,

Bible-believing Christians who worked with Billy Graham began calling themselves

"evangelicals" instead of "fundamentalists." I try to avoid being labeled. However,

since I use labels often in this book to explain how different groups effect missions mo-

bilization, I will call myself an evangelical. In prayer, evangelism, and social outreach,

I cooperate with, and perhaps seek to transform, a few traditional mainline Christian

denominations. Notice my determination to re-combine fundamentalist Biblical con-

victions with social outreach. To fold together the same essential doctrines held by

evangelicals and fundamentalists, I utilize the label "fundamentalist" to describe both.

In the same sweeping way, I use the label "liberal" to lump together Christianity's

range of theology that does not accept the Bible as God's inspired, trustworthy, and

authoritative Word. I address vital doctrinal differences between Christianity's theo-

logical fundamentalism and liberalism that impact mobilization.

135

Chapter 12

Choose the Narrow Road from Norfolk

A Vanguard Defends Sound Doctrine

In 1921, two significant African-American leaders, the late Pastor

James Drew and the late Dr. Samuel Proctor, were born in Norfolk.

While I assisted Drew for eight years, he told me many stories about his

childhood experiences growing up in the Titustown community. Proctor

wrote in his autobiography that he was raised in Norfolk's Huntersville

neighborhood.(1) His grandfather pastored a church in Titustown, and

his grandparents lived in its parsonage nearby; so, I assume that Proctor

might have crossed paths with Drew during their childhoods.(2)

As young men, these future leaders faced the same challenges of

following Christ in a segregated, white-dominated society. Also, both

came on the scene as the severe controversy between white "fundamen-

talist" and white "liberal" theologians required them to choose between

two opposing doctrinal positions.

They had to accept one side or the other in order to benefit from

white-controlled seminary systems. By this time, each white seminary

had chosen to teach dogmatically either fundamentalism or liberalism's

presuppositions about the reliability and authority of the Bible.

Drew and Proctor took opposite theological roads from the same

starting point. Contrasting their lives and ministries provides a case

study about the reasons why many African Americans do not participate

in evangelical missions. I believe that the existence of these two path-

ways came about as result of an intense spiritual warfare that had been

raging among white churches, denominations, and seminaries.

By tearing down enemy strongholds in their paths, a vanguard de-

fends the masses from the front. I give insights in this chapter on the

spiritual warfare surrounding the Bible that you will face when strategi-

cally mobilizing the masses for missions.

This chapter provides historical background to this spiritual conflict

so you may strategically defend the true Gospel and the authority of

God's Word. By contrasting the doctrinal choices of Drew and Proctor, I

expose the demobilizing consequences of choosing to believe white lib-

erals' attacks on the Bible. This contrast challenges you to join a move-

ment of African-American believers who respect the Bible's authority

136

and take a stand against false liberal theology.

Follow the example of the Apostle Paul who constantly defended

and confirmed the true Gospel while using the Bible to persuade people

to believe and follow Jesus. (Philippians 1:7, Acts 28:23) Additionally, I

show how entering into a personal relationship with Christ provides the

vital spiritual foundation for social action.

Entering White Spiritual Warfare

As I said in an earlier chapter, I believe that post-millennialism and

missionary uplift ideologies were a part of Satan's setup for his spiritual

ambush that came after the turn of the 20th century. Whites holding

these ideologies trusted in evolutionary social progress, morality, pro-

ductivity, and civilization but devalued sound Bible doctrine and the

true Gospel.

At Bowen's Congress on Africa, for example, no one used the Bi-

ble, and none spoke of the transforming power of the Gospel and God's

Word. To review, while African Americans struggled under white racist

discrimination after the Civil War, Satan was unleashing a fierce spiri-

tual attack on three fronts against whites and their faith in God's Word

and the Gospel of Christ.

First, during a time of industrial and scientific revolution, Darwin's

evolution theory rocked the faith of many whites.

Second, German theologians applied evolution theory to Bible in-

terpretation. They took the position that miracles were irrational myths

that must be removed from the Bible. They invented "higher criticism,"

a method of Bible interpretation that attempted to discredit anything

supernatural to make it collaborate with evolution. They rejected the

Bible's authority and made themselves the authority instead. White lib-

erals studying abroad brought this destructive attack on the Bible to

America, and it eventually swept through traditional seminaries and the

secular colleges that taught religion classes.

Third, a notion became popular with many white Americans that

science should determine theology. Their modern ideology taught that

there could be no reconciliation between science and faith. Their faith

applied to ethics and social outreach but not to the supernatural.

Many post-millennialists accepted this attack on the Bible's author-

ity and the true Gospel. They had become disillusioned with previous

kingdom-building expectations after the Civil War. They adopted this

modern ideology to focus on ethics and try to change, what they be-

137

lieved, was an evolving society. This evolution-based ideology fit well

with their past optimism for uplifting civilizations through social prog-

ress. Soon they changed the Gospel's definition.

They limited the Gospel to falsely include only salvation from so-

cieties' sins instead of trusting in Jesus Christ for personal salvation

from individual sins. Known as the "social gospel," it became popular

among white liberals until the First World War's atrocities discredited

its emphasis on creating a global community. This heated theological

controversy among white theologians in the last century left the country

spiritually divided.

African-American students wanting to find their identities in minis-

try after World War II entered into the aftermath of this spiritual devasta-

tion. On the one hand they encountered white segregated fundamental-

ists reeling from humiliating defeats in their defense of God's Word. For

example, a leading fundamentalist spokesman lost a nationally-covered

debate on whether evolution should be taught in schools. Once leaders

in social outreach, fundamentalists reversed their past support of social

action to avoid anything that looked like the liberals' social gospel.

On the other hand, most traditional white seminaries and denomi-

nations adopted higher criticism and became liberal. In contrast to the

fundamentalists' segregation, white liberal seminaries welcomed key

African-American students and provided them scholarships. By accept-

ing African Americans, white liberals found the future leaders needed to

champion social gospel doctrines that most whites began rejecting after

World War I.

As Pastors Drew and Proctor began preparing for ministry in the

1950s, they took opposite doctrinal roads. Dr. Proctor became the white

liberals' champion who took up their attacks on the Bible and its true

Gospel.(3) He especially championed white false teaching at HBCUs.

Drew took the road less-followed, at that time, by many African-Amer-

ican leaders. Looking back on this history, we see how the true Gospel

eventually prevailed, as God's power of salvation for everyone who be-

lieves, and just in time for your vanguard leadership.

A Narrower Road

As young men, both Drew and Proctor encountered fundamentalists

who believed and taught that the Bible is the authoritative and trust-

worthy Word of God. Fundamentalists defended essential doctrines

founded upon the belief that God inspired men supernaturally to write

138

the Bible without error when given. The Bible is God-breathed, yet He

did not dictate His revelation to make the writers into robots. God used

human language so that it must be interpreted normally and literally.

Therefore, the essential Bible doctrines defended by fundamentalists

were always that Jesus Christ is God the Son, born of a virgin, died as a

substitute to pay the punishment for our sins, rose again, commissioned

His disciples to make disciples of all nations, and will come again as

promised. They believed the Bible's teaching of a literal heaven and

hell. They believed that everyone must be born again by putting their

faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior. To fundamentalists, these non-

negotiable essentials have eternal consequences.

Unfortunately, after the Civil War, many seminaries that defended

these true doctrines also practiced racial segregation. They remained si-

lent during Jim Crow oppression and the Civil Rights Movement. Their

rejection caused much hurt among African Americans.

Those practicing racial discrimination deserved to forfeit their title

of being Bible-believing Christians. Instead, they kept the title, and their

segregation discredited the good cause of defending the fundamentals of

our faith. Doctor Proctor's autobiography describes the hurt that whites'

segregation brought African Americans:

Even as children, we knew that there was a huge wall "out there"

that no black person could go over and around, regardless of our

qualifications. It's difficult to describe our feelings of the "respect-

able" white Christians who sang in church choirs, served as dea-

cons, trustees, and elders in downtown churches, who joined the

Boy Scouts, and sat on city councils, court benches, and in the Con-

gress, yet felt no shame in endorsing this whole-sale racial discrim-

ination.(4)

As a result, Proctor made the following stereotypical judgment

against all fundamentalists:

My seminary training help me see how orthodox, fundamentalist

Christianity, with its credulous literalism about the Bible, ended up

as a religion that found reasons in the Bible to accept slavery and

the subjugation of women; a religion that ignored Jesus, its Lord,

and became comfortable with the rich; a religion that subjugated and

exploited all the darker skinned people of the world for the comfort

of whites; a religion that quietly endorsed militarism and bloodshed

everywhere. In the hands of the fundamentalists, Christianity had

become an embarrassment to Jesus.(5)

139

Drew chose the fundamentalist's theological road. He believed

in the authority of the Bible regardless of how whites misused it. His

choice subjected Drew to humiliating racism from segregated whites,

and to insults from blacks who followed white liberals and went in the

opposite doctrinal direction.

Scofield's Reference Bible at the Colored Union Mission

James Drew came to Christ and received training at Norfolk's Col-

ored Union Mission, which operated outside of the traditional black

church network. His African-American pastor James A. Handy founded

this compassionate ministry after seeing the desperate plight of many

homeless blacks. The white and segregated homeless mission turned

them away without assistance. Unable to attend segregated evangeli-

cal colleges himself, Pastor Handy taught his students the Bible using

the Scofield Reference Bible's notes as their training curriculum. White

fundamentalists published this study Bible in 1909 to refute white liber-

als' false doctrine.(6)

As a result of Drew's studies with the Scofield Reference Bible, he

and other future leaders accepted the Bible as authoritative. By apply-

ing the literal interpretation of the Bible as God's inspired Word, they

defined the Gospel as Jesus' deity, death, and resurrection for the atone-

ment of sin. They also embraced the Great Commission as making dis-

ciples for Christ of all nations. They especially appreciated the Gospel's

power to improve men's lives by impressing in them a moral compass

through sound Bible teaching. This background led Pastor Drew to seek

formal Bible training at a white evangelical Bible college.

While a letter-carrier in Norfolk, Drew graduated from Norfolk State

University. After receiving a cold shoulder from other Bible colleges,

Drew completed a three-year Bible training program at Washington Bi-

ble College near Washington, D.C. He told me stories about making the

four-hour drive back and forth to the campus each week. He made this

long drive to break the racial barrier for the young men who followed

him in ministry.

Drew's conviction that the Bible is God's authoritative Word be-

came evident in his commitment to fulfilling Christ's Great Commis-

sion. His church supported black and white missionaries. Naomi Dose,

an African-American missionary from his church, served in Liberia and

co-founded the Carver Bible College there. His church sent one of its

best leaders, Pastor Olah Moore, as a missionary to Nigeria for 10 years.

140

Church members financially supported both black and white mission-

aries. They defined the Gospel as the good news of God's grace in giv-

ing salvation from sin and its punishment through faith in Jesus Christ.

They proclaimed this Gospel in their community through a five-week

summer Bible school and challenged African Americans to declare it to

the ends of the earth. Drew preached the Bible's true Gospel that Christ

gave the Apostle Paul:

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how

that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He

was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the

Scriptures. (1 Corinthians. 15:3-4)

Defending and confirming this true Gospel put Drew outside of the

mainstream, traditional African-American church system. In Norfolk's

Park Place community, he pastored a small non-denominational church

that met in two buildings - a converted house and a small former fork

lift repair shop. I heard students heading to Virginia Union University's

seminary label him an "Oreo" for his alliance with white evangelical

Christians.

As he broke segregation barriers, Drew remained humble but fierce-

ly persistent and undeterred. He faced humiliating rejection from both

blacks and whites, but nothing stopped him from challenging others to

take up his cause and proclaim the true Gospel at home and abroad.

Pastor Drew died as a relatively unknown pioneer in American

Black History. The good seed that he sowed in his legacy has yet to bear

fruit in our nation and world. You may change that as you rise up with a

heart for Christ's Gospel and for a lost world. Take his narrow road that

leads to life.

A Balanced Mission

As Pastor Drew ministered, he bridged the divided views of funda-

mentalists and liberals on social outreach, community development, and

the true Gospel. Liberal theologians made social outreach their gospel

and community development their mission. Most fundamentalists over-

reacted to the liberals' social gospel, back then, by avoiding any kind

of social outreach in the States. They limited their mission to mostly

preaching the true Gospel to introduce people to a personal relationship

with Christ individually.

Fundamentalists believed that social justice would naturally follow

141

as individuals came to Christ. Racial justice meant repenting of personal

prejudice and loving one's neighbor instead of confronting institutions

or supporting African Americans in their political struggle for equality.

In the 1960s, African-American leaders interpreted fundamentalists'

silence and non-involvement in the Civil Rights Movement as assent to

the unjust status quo. They saw fundamentalists' emphasis on personal

salvation as a problem that kept whites from recognizing society's sins

against black people.

Many African-American leaders considered the process of "accept-

ing Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior" as a white protestant doctrine

that maintained the status quo injustice of white society.(7)

The resulting racial and doctrine division created the belief that min-

istry must be only one or the other, either evangelism or social outreach,

and not both as Christ commanded.

The stand by fundamentalists against social outreach, combined

with segregation, alienated many African-American leaders who then

embraced only the social gospel. Proctor correctly called it a "copout"

for fundamentalists to label concern for human suffering as a liberal or

social gospel.

Unfortunately, he made the social gospel the means of personal sal-

vation. He preached, "One sure way to go to hell is to ignore the social

gospel ... the gospel is by nature social."(8)

Drew demonstrated a fresh commitment to combine both evange-

lism, for personal salvation from individual sins, and community de-

velopment. He mobilized his church for evangelism while he tirelessly

spearheaded community-development initiatives to empower the poor.

Drew must have been well acquainted with the poor. After World War

II, many houses in the Titus Town neighborhood where he grew up with

his grandmother deteriorated into slums.(9)

Almost every one of his sermons challenged listeners to minister to

the poor who lived in the church's neighborhood. His outreach included

establishing a preschool, a community library, and a thrift store; and

building a workshop.

Drew responded to many requests for assistance from the poor. I

spent many days crawling under houses with him to fix plumbing prob-

lems. He specialized in fixing stoves and furnaces but made many kinds

of emergency repairs.

Pastor Drew became a champion for the poor on several levels in the

city. He enrolled his children in a Christian school to break through the

142

racial barrier for other African-American students there. Some in his

congregation wished he had spent more time inside the church's four

walls rather than exhausting himself and others on many outreaches to

the poor.

When the church's neighborhood became one of the most violent in

the city, Drew lived there in a house donated to the church. He remained

a part of the community even though he had the means and opportunity

to live elsewhere. He stayed even after a purse-snatcher struck his wife,

and, on another occasion, a man robbed her at gunpoint.

Drew balanced meeting social needs through community develop-

ment with confirming Christ's true Gospel and with teaching the Bible

as trustworthy and authoritative. His dedication to community devel-

opment became recognized by a national leader in social outreach, Dr.

Anthony Campolo, who endorsed Pastor Drew's vision for empowering

the poor. Drew's appreciation for political action came across as he ex-

pressed gratitude often for leaders in the Civil Rights Movement regard-

less of their theology.

Gratefully praising God for Drew and Proctor's generation of Af-

rican-American leaders, I give them all due respect for their sacrificial

and courageous struggles for civil rights. Yet, I ask for grace and the

chance to explain the tragic consequences that eventually came about

when Proctor and others championed, with good intentions, the road

where white liberal doctrine rejected the Bible's authority. The next

chapter outlines the tragic results of taking this broad road to destruc-

tion. I challenge you to respect, above all opinions, the Bible as God's

Word and choose His road to life.

143

Chapter 13

Recognize the Broad Road's Destruction

A Vanguard Chooses Right

Good Intentions and a Destructive Turn of Events

National prominence came to Samuel Proctor as he took the road

that followed white liberal deception. Unlike segregated evangelicals,

many liberals, who openly rejected God's Word as authoritative, accept-

ed African Americans into their northern seminaries.

Some financially supported southern historically black colleges and

universities as well. Support for HBCUs came through home mission-

ary societies and philanthropists who sided with white liberals who had

reduced the gospel to only helping one's fellow man. Their theology

came from whites who thought Darwin's evolution theory had enlight-

ened them enough to attack the Bible.

They offered African Americans great opportunities at a great price.

In these white liberal seminaries, many African-American leaders aban-

doned the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. They rejected Jesus

Christ as the only way to come to the Father to receive life eternal and

the forgiveness of sins.

With God's authority, the Bible teaches that rejecting God's Word

and Gospel results in death and destruction. (Psalm 1:4-5; Matthew

7:26-27; John 12:47-48; Galatians 1:6-9; James 1:22-25; 2 Peter 2:1;

Revelation 22:18-19) This chapter explains how unbelieving whites,

who trusted in liberal doctrine, evolution, and in making man the center

of the universe instead of God, brought about death and destruction in

the last 100 years.

The devastating impact of abortion upon the black community pro-

vides a case study of how this occurred. For instance, through liber-

al theology or politics, white-organized Planned Parenthood partnered

with African-American leaders, including W.E.B. Dubois and Martin

Luther King, Jr. to provide contraception. Then with abortion's legal-

ization after Dubois and King's deaths, white liberals used these heroic

leaders' good intentions to promote abortion and control the "lower"

class black population.

In the 1920s, Dubois partnered with a white woman, Planned Par-

enthood's founder Margaret Sanger. They brought contraceptives to

144

Harlem to control the population and poverty of "lower" class African

Americans.(1) From the beginning, Sanger and her colleagues practiced

eugenics, which was a weird science based upon selective breeding and

genetics. Eugenicists wanted to control the population of the poor and

weed out the unfit (minorities) using birth control, abortion, and steril-

ization to create a "thoroughbred" race.

Some black women resented how white-controlled organizations

pushed the pill on them. Sanger's own writings show how her commit-

ment to eugenics and population control motivated her efforts to provide

contraception to the poor. Some African Americans distrusted Sanger,

believing that she wanted to eliminate future black generations.(2)

Working closely with Dubois while being accused of practicing eu-

genics, Sanger opened a contraception clinic in Harlem in defiance of

the law.(3) Decades later and from the start of his ministry, Martin Lu-

ther King, Jr. assisted Planned Parenthood's efforts to provide contra-

ceptives, but not abortion, to the poor.

In 1966 and a few month before her death, Martin Luther King, Jr.

credited Sanger's social action with giving resolve to his own non-vi-

olent struggle for equality. With good intentions, he praised Sanger for

preventing "the unwanted child."

When accepting the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parent-

hood, King made the following statement about providing contracep-

tives to prevent poverty among African Americans:

The Negro constitutes half the poor of the nation. Like all poor, Ne-

gro and white, they have many unwanted children. This is a cruel

evil they urgently need to control. There is scarcely anything more

tragic in human life than a child who is not wanted. That which

should be a blessing becomes a curse for parent and child.(4)

Nevertheless, Alveda King, Martin Luther King's niece, is an out-

spoken critic of Planned Parenthood and insists that her uncle was

against abortion. She posts an article in her blog about an advice column

King wrote in Ebony magazine that provides evidence of his pro-life

position.(5)

Again, Sanger and Planned Parenthood won Dubois and King's sup-

port when the issue was providing contraceptives to the poor, not abor-

tion. Planned Parenthood began promoting and performing abortions

later when it was legalized in 1973 after King's death. Unfortunately,

before his death, King wed Planned Parenthood's population control

145

agenda to the Civil Rights Movement.(6)

Planned Parenthood began performing abortions about five years af-

ter King's death with endorsements from other prominent black clergy.

To this day, Planned Parenthood uses King's support of providing con-

traceptives to imply that he also put his stamp of approval on abortion.

Sanger and Planned Parenthood recruited the support of theologi-

cally liberal clergy to promote its population control efforts.(7) Their

liberal doctrine denied the Bible's God-given authority to declare that

the life and soul of the unborn child begins at conception. (Psalm 51:5;

139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:5) Does not God charge with murder those who

take an unborn child's life? (Exodus 21:22-25)

Like I said, Planned Parenthood began promoting abortion after po-

litically aligning with King and other leading African Americans who

had only promoted contraception. When Planned Parenthood began per-

forming abortions in 1973, and increased aggressively the number of

new abortion clinics, it brought about a destructive change in the mean-

ing of "contraception" that turned Dubois and King's good intentions

into black genocide.

Therefore, by embracing white liberal theology, Proctor uninten-

tionally paved the way, theologically and politically, for the Planned

Parenthood organization to receive black clergy support to kill Afri-

can-American unborn children. For instance, the two seminaries that

Proctor influenced the most now champion the abortion cause. Leaders

at Howard University's School of Divinity and Virginia Union's Samuel

Proctor Theological Seminary became prominent voices in a national

black religious coalition that dogmatically supports pro-choice, abor-

tion agendas.(8)

The alignment of so many significant black leaders with Planned

Parenthood forces the Democratic Party to include abortion in its plat-

form. This alignment resulted in our first African-American president's

willingness to allow government funding for abortion. How can we cel-

ebrate racial equality and progress before God with clear consciences

when a vote for President Obama was a vote to provide government

funding to Planned Parenthood, which, in God's eyes, murders by abor-

tion unborn children? It was also a vote for our nation funding other

international abortion providers who increase its genocide worldwide.

Accepting white liberal doctrine provided the theological foundation for

this horrible turn of events.

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. say today if he knew that this

146

white-organized. pro-choice, abortion-rights group had used his support

of contraception clinics to justify killing 13 million unborn black chil-

dren in abortion clinics? What would he say if he knew that Planned

Parenthood changed his concept of preventing "unwanted children,"

who had not yet been conceived, into meaning the killing of unborn

children already in their mothers' wombs?

Would not King reject Planned Parenthood's inferences that the

child in the impoverished mother's womb is the problem preventing

racial equality? For instance, would not he take a stand against the abor-

tion of a disproportionate number of black babies?

The 2007 U.S. Census* recorded three times as many whites living

in poverty as blacks.(9) If preventing poverty justified abortions, then

one might expect three times as many white babies being aborted. Yet,

in that year, white women aborted 668,000 babies and black women

aborted 448,000. White women of childbearing age outnumbered black

women five to one but black women had more than 37 percent of all the

2007 abortions in America, including all other race/ethnic groups.(10)

Would not King reject Planned Parenthood's assumption that they

must advise and empower the poor to kill their unborn to elevate Afri-

can Americans from poverty? Would not he want to change the reasons

why many more black babies get aborted than other races?

In regard to New York City where Sanger opened contraception clin-

ics with Dubois, would not Martin Luther King, Jr. now protest against

killing more than 40 percent of unborn children in this city each year?

In 2010, 60 percent of African-American babies were killed by abortion

there. Seventy percent of New York City's black teenage mothers abort-

ed their babies.(11)

Does this tragedy equal the freedom and progress that Dubois envi-

sioned when he brought the first contraception clinic to Harlem?

If Dubois' heart broke for the loss of African-American children's

potential in the South, how would he respond to the abortionist killing

millions of black children across our nation? Would Dubois and King

remain silent during this genocide today or would they take a bold stand

against it like Mother Teresa. In part of her 1994 National Prayer Break-

fast speech, she denounced abortion and called it murder.(12)

_____________________

I chose this year because the latest U.S. Census annual abortion statistics only go

through 2007.

147

Would not King defy prejudice against the unborn that makes "un-

wanted children" expendable in present-day pro-choice political plat-

forms? Also, would not King reject Planned Parenthood's continued use

of his name to promote the murder of so many unborn black children

under the disguise of civil rights for women? Would not he speak for

the defenseless unborn? What would he dream about white and black

children if he knew how abortionists kill thousands of them each week?

When Samuel Proctor promoted white liberal theology, he chose a

path that wed him with whites who promoted these abortion atrocities.

Additionally, this broader, destructive theological path included false

doctrine, the social gospel, and a bogus commission that brings eternal

destruction.

With good intentions, Proctor promoted this white liberal theology

at HBCUs that became a broad road that leads to destruction and demo-

bilization. In this chapter, I explain more of these tragic consequences

that came about when Proctor chose this white liberal theological path

that rejected the Bible's authority and true mission.

Promoted White Liberals' False Teaching

Sparks Melton, the liberal white pastor in Norfolk who I introduced

in Chapter 10, showed kindness that impressed Proctor during his child-

hood. When Proctor's church had a fire, the pastor came out in the mid-

dle of the night and shed genuine tears. Then his segregated congrega-

tion invited the African-American church to use their Sunday school's

meeting room while it repaired its own building.

Melton later obtained a full tuition scholarship for Proctor to attend

Crozer Seminary that was notorious for attacking the Bible with white

evolution and liberal doctrine.(13)

Proctor entered Crozer Theological Seminary as the only Afri-

can-American student. Like James Drew, he broke the racial barrier for

future generations of black leaders by humbling himself and enduring

racial prejudice.

Crozer started out well under Weston's 40-year presidency but soon

began using liberal presuppositions and approaches to Bible study.(14)

A wealthy family founded, endowed, and governed Crozer instead of

a church denomination. Without theological accountability, it quickly

became one of the country's most liberal seminaries.(15)

Although Sparks Melton studied under Weston, he went through a

spiritual crisis two years after graduation and became more theolog-

148

ically liberal.(16) At the time, many Baptist congregations recruited

pastors based upon their preaching ability rather than doctrine. Melton

struggled academically but spoke eloquently, receiving Crozer's covet-

ed award for preaching.(17)

Throughout his lifetime, Melton received much recognition and

many pastor job offers because of his speaking ability. Mercer Uni-

versity, for example, invited Melton to join its trustee board after he

gave an impressive speech when he received an honorary doctorate.

Melton's message encouraged the university to accept evolution.

The same trustees had recently fired a professor for teaching evolu-

tion, but accepted Melton on their board after he so eloquently support-

ed it.(18) A biographer made it clear that preaching doctrine was not

important to Melton. With impressive stature and a compelling voice,

he brought topical sermons without notes and usually on just one Bi-

ble verse each message.(19) Apparently, his white listeners also en-

joyed his insensitive minstrel-like stories about African Americans that

heavily invoked the N-word.(20) Melton became friends with John D.

Rockefeller who funded liberalism's attack on fundamentalist doctrines

and on evangelical missions.

In Norfolk's fiercely racist and segregated context, Melton spoke

up for African Americans. Yet, his church remained segregated as Afri-

can Americans moved into the downtown houses that turned into slums

around Melton's church. Some senior African Americans told me about

blacks living on dirt floors at that time in the neighborhoods near his

church. The housing authority replaced them with public housing.

In 1924, his congregation went into shock when a Methodist church

on its street prepared to sell its building to African Americans who had

been moving into the area. Melton's church took steps to buy the Meth-

odist's building to prevent its sale to blacks and considered moving out

if blacks acquired it. A Catholic group bought the building to end the

whites' "crisis."(21)

In spite of this racism, Melton took personal initiative almost 20

years later to obtain a Crozer scholarship for Samuel Proctor.

At Crozer, Proctor coped with white liberal professors tearing his

faith in the Bible to shreds by accepting the writings of other whites

who approached the Bible already believing that Darwin's Theory of

Evolution was true.(22) One of these writers, Reinhold Niebuhr, started

out teaching liberal social gospel to replace the true Gospel. He then

changed his beliefs to "neo-orthodox" theology that did not regard the

149

entire Bible as the completely inspired, trustworthy Word of God.

The other writer, Harry Fosdick, championed false teaching called

theistic evolution. This doctrine holds that God created the universe but

let Darwin's evolution occur under His control. To do so, Fosdick re-

jected the Bible as God's literal, inspired Word and promoted the ac-

ceptance of this kind of evolution instead of a miraculous creation. He

taught that the Bible evolved like evolution and rejected all of its re-

corded miracles.(23)

Proctor became one of the most influential African-American cham-

pions of white liberal theology. At seminary, he became a friend and

mentor to a younger student named Martin Luther King, Jr. Proctor

helped King accept white liberals' teaching about evolution using

Niebuhr and Fosdick's wrong presuppositions about the Bible.(24)

In addition, Proctor mentored James Cone who later in the 1960s

used Black Power and liberation theology from South America to pro-

mote Black Theology. Cone elevated black experiences, in his theology,

to equal authority with the Bible. In reaction to white racism, he built

his new teaching upon white liberals' rejection of the Bible and its es-

sential doctrines.(25)

Samuel Proctor influenced many future African-American leaders

as president or professor at several seminaries. He was an author, states-

man, and civil rights leader. Many African-American theologians cite

Proctor in their writings. He oversaw a Peace Corps program in Africa.

As James Drew had accomplished in Norfolk, Proctor integrated a pre-

viously segregated school by enrolling his children. He earned the re-

spect of many in his lifetime. After his death, Virginia Union University

named its theological seminary after him.

Unfortunately, Proctor's influence encouraged many other Afri-

can-American leaders to build their faith on doctrines that white liber-

als had championed at the expense of Biblical truth. African-American

leaders like Cone modified and adopted this white false teaching until it

became their own.

Some might now think that Proctor's liberal theology had somehow

originated with people of African descent, rather than being invented by

Europeans who attacked the Bible to support evolution.

Proctor made the unfounded claim that African Americans had de-

veloped liberal doctrine on their own - as a black thing separate from

white beliefs. His following assertion deserves severe criticism because

this untruth became popular with black leaders:

150

Although customs varied from one congregation to another, black

people had carved out a distinctive style of biblical interpretation

and worship. White people spent most of their time preparing for

heaven; although blacks did not reject the vision of heaven, they

emphasized that a better day would come, here on earth. White's

emphasized God's holiness and judgment; blacks saw God as the

liberator of the oppressed. Whites asked, `What if you should die

unsaved?' Blacks believed that God would help them to bear their

daily burdens. Whites said that they wanted to be ready when Jesus

came again; blacks that God would make a way out of no way.(26)

This racialized, stereotypical, and divisive judgment said that whites

had their evangelical doctrine while blacks had developed their own

liberal theology. Nothing could be further from the truth. Proctor and

his generation of leaders fail to tell you the following facts about their

efforts to support liberal doctrine:

Whites Invented Liberal Doctrine Based on Darwin's Evolution

The well-documented truth is that black and white Christians held

the same evangelical beliefs about the Bible, although these beliefs were

distorted for both by white racism. Then a spiritual crisis occurred in

the last century as white liberal Europeans, who considered themselves

more enlightened and insightful than Bible-believing Christians, em-

braced Darwin's evolution and used it to attack the Bible. These whites,

feeling scientific, took up the cause to "tear to shreds" faith in the Bi-

ble by teaching it to students in seminaries and colleges where no one

could defend the Word of God.(27) White liberals managed to flip the

doctrine of the Ivy League seminaries and many other white seminaries

around our country.

Whites themselves have been divided over liberal theology for gen-

erations. As white seminaries produced ministers who did not accept

God's word as authoritative, white leaders across our nation became

severely divided between those who accepted the Bible's account of

creation and those who rejected the Bible in favor of science.

Although churches still had high regard for the Bible, most of the

white seminaries, which taught their pastors, rejected its authority as

God's Word.

Fundamentalists received their name because they defended Bible

doctrines that are fundamental (essential) to the Christian faith.

Unfortunately, many of their Bible-believing seminaries remained

segregated until too late, which alienated African Americans. Funda-

151

mentalists, when reacting to liberalism, also rejected the social gospel

that motivated liberal whites to provide educational opportunities to

blacks after the Civil War. White liberals could then easily equate fun-

damentalism with the Pharisees that killed Jesus.

These Pharisees, as you know, studied the Old Testament Law but

would show no mercy to those in need. Some liberals today go a step

further and equate the word "fundamentalist" with terrorists.

Since the name carries so much baggage, most whites who believe

in the Bible's fundamental, essential doctrines call themselves "evan-

gelical." As you know, the designation "evangelical" eventually became

a political label. Bible-believing Christians do not have a good way now

to describe themselves without liberals broadly stereotyping them.

Assisted White Liberals in Targeting Students with Deception

Saying they value intellectual freedom, white liberals strategi-

cally target college students. They use the classroom and academia's

open-minded environment in colleges and seminaries to intentionally

destroy faith in the Bible among young students. Even though evan-

gelicals can refute liberal theologians' same old arguments, the liberal

teachers' do not invite evangelical theologians to their classrooms to

defend the Bible's trustworthiness.*

In his autobiography, Proctor expressed gratitude to Sparks Melton,

the liberal white pastor who arranged a full scholarship to a liberal white

seminary. He also appreciated studying under white liberals who had

come from the most notorious liberal seminaries.

Proctor shared how liberal whites spoke at Virginia Union Univer-

sity during his college days there. Their presence is significant because

he described VUU as "a black Baptist school known for training minis-

ters." He told how his uncle who attended a liberal white seminary had

influenced him to consider a career in ministry.

____________________

*The Bible is God-breathed direct revelation from God given without error. Super-

naturally, the Holy Spirit used men and their normal human languages to write down

God's revelation. The Spirit gave, confirmed, and preserved the Bible so it has author-

ity to be believed and obeyed like no other book. He illuminates our hearts to receive

God's revelation as we hear or read the Bible. Therefore, the entire Bible as originally

given, including its words and grammar, is the inspired, trustworthy Word of God. 2
Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21

152

Proctor said that liberal church leaders associated with that semi-

nary were more enlightened than the many black pastors who revolted

him as "given to gaudy dress, unbridled egotism, and self-aggrandize-

ment; they exploited women willing to do anything to be close to the

`pastor.'"(28)

Instead of blacks carving out their own liberal theology, the truth

remains that Dr. Proctor, and black leaders who followed him, embraced

white liberal theology. He thanked the white seminary for delivering him

from the theology of black-governed churches. Whites had taught him

to see traditional black church doctrine as old, stifling, narrow-minded,

and anti-scientific.(29)

James Cone, Dr. Proctor's protégé, boasted how white liberals influ-

enced Dr. Martin Luther King to also reject the essentials of the Chris-

tian faith that he had received in the black-governed church.(30) As I

said, Proctor takes credit for helping King accept white liberal teaching

to change from truth that was believed in black churches.

Proctor failed to write that since his seminary days, the Lord has

been creating a movement of strong black evangelical leaders who re-

ject white liberal theology. He does not mention that white and black-

led churches that adopted liberalism are dying or dead. Evangelical

black-led churches are growing and increasing replace liberal churches

as community builders.

I am quite familiar with the Norfolk street where Samuel Proctor

grew up in Huntersville. I volunteered for 12 years as the athletic direc-

tor of the Huntersville Recreation Association. In the late 1980s, crack

cocaine created a deadly crisis for this historically black community.

During this crisis, evangelical Christians, both black and white,

joined me in taking great personal risks to intervene with families there.

Liberals do not acknowledge that many black and white evangeli-

cals reject past white oppression and now bring the radically changing

power of the true Gospel of Christ to neighborhoods that both had pre-

viously abandoned.

Accepted White Liberals' Integration-Without-Rights

Black nationalists warned African-American leaders to beware of

the "drug of integration" offered by white liberals in the place of giv-

ing full rights.(31) Unfortunately, Samuel Proctor and the black leaders

following his liberal doctrine failed to heed this warning. They did not

recognize that white people gave African Americans scholarships for

153

white interests.

Liberals intended for black leaders to champion their doctrine or

make their institutions more diverse and attractive to other African

Americans. Proctor accomplished both. He championed liberal doctrine

among historically black colleges and universities that train ministers.

Liberal theologians failed to empower him with the full spiritual

rights of the true Gospel. He achieved integration but lost the spiritu-

al right and mandate to fulfill Christ's true Commission. This failure

seems like the same limited racial uplift for which black and whites

settled during Jim Crow oppression.

As I said, God gave rights of equality and freedom, but racism

changed uplift into "better class" settling for unsuccessful attempts to

earning acceptance through progress and productivity. Likewise, black

liberal theologians settled for just earning status on earth through rea-

son, ethics, and social progress. Christ would have given them full rights

and the freedom to fulfill His Great Commission, meet social needs, and

bring God glory worldwide.

Yet, you may still exercise this right to empower Christians of all

races to make disciples for Christ. Bring Him glory through both indi-

vidual and social outreaches. Mobilize believers of all races to offer the

nations His free gift of personal salvation and to work towards ending

human suffering.

Championed White Liberals' System of Moral Destruction

Proctor's high moral standards were evident in his autobiography

and in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's testimony about his mentor's values and

lifestyle. However, moral decline was the unexpected results of the

white liberalism that he championed.

Liberalism rejected the Bible's authority and its absolute moral

standards. Liberalism teaches that each interpreter's reason and culture

become the authority that determines what is morally right or wrong

instead of God's standards in the Bible's morals.

Then in the 1960s, American society went through a cultural revo-

lution and split into many cultures with conflicting morals. Without the

Bible's absolute standards, liberals could not provide a moral compass.

With so many moral compasses to choose from, liberals could not deter-

mine right from wrong.(32)

Children of many white liberals began rejecting their parents' mor-

als, churches, and denominations in the 1960s. Proctor's doctrinal lib-

154

eralism, which seemed liberating to him, helped destroy our nation's

moral compass.

When Proctor championed the social gospel's disregard for the Bi-

ble's teaching on personal sin and replaced it with addressing only so-

cial sins and justice, he opened the theological door for other leaders

who followed after him to tolerate sexual immorality.

Although extremely politically incorrect to point out, the unspoken

reality is that sexual immorality is one of the most destructive problems

in the inner city. In the neighborhood where Proctor grew up, children

grow up hurting without their fathers, watch their mothers shack up with

other men, live in poverty, become sexually active, degrade girls, and

memorize sexually explicit songs with the N, B, and F-words.

The fact that sexual immorality destroys families with full accep-

tance of too many in their church and political systems points out the

social injustice caused by the loss of moral leadership in their homes,

schools, churches, and government systems. Often children's moms

and some of their teachers and athletic coaches shack up. One of the

greatest threats to family stability is that men and women can shack up

and be members in good standing in churches, schools, sports, and gov-

ernment structures that follow the social gospel's philosophy of allow-

ing individual immorality. Parents who never married raise more than

8.5 million children in America. More than two million of these children

are white and almost four million are black.(33)

With liberal theology's license to commit individual sins, young

people in the `60s replaced traditional morals with widespread sexual

permissiveness and drug use that devastated families. Today, more than

20.5 million children live without their biological fathers in their homes.

Fifty-nine percent of African-American children do not live with their

biological fathers. Children in father-absent homes become more likely

to live in poverty, have emotional/behavior problems, die in infancy or

have health problems, commit crimes as juveniles, become incarcerat-

ed, engage in premarital sex and get pregnant as teenagers, are abused,

abuse drugs and alcohol, suffer from obesity, and underachieve academ-

ically.(34)

White liberal theology contributed to our nation's moral decline that

destroys families and traps children in the poverty cycle. It now lacks

the necessary moral absolutes to correct the family breakdown that un-

dermines real progress.

The problem of failed moral leadership is not in Dr. Proctor's indi-

155

vidual faith but in the system that he taught and implemented. I have

seen enough scandals go unconfronted and pastors' wives hurt by sexual

immorality to convince me that the social gospel destroys lives on this

earth. This destruction dehumanizes women, even though liberal black

leaders accuse white fundamentalists of subjugating women. Of course,

fundamentalist leaders commit adultery, but if true to God's Word, their

system must not tolerate it.

When I started in ministry more than 30 years ago, the government

welfare system created "mother's day" every month when men would

show up at mothers' homes to get part of their welfare checks.

Now after welfare reform, men can avoid paying child support by

shacking up with their children's mothers. Abortion became birth con-

trol because of the immorality condoned in church and government

systems built upon the social gospel's tolerance of individual sins. In

supporting Planned Parenthood's call for women's rights, black liberal

pastors remain silent about its continued use of abortion to control black

populations in inner cities.

African-American leaders have judged white Christians and pro-

nounced them guilty for silent neglect during black struggles for free-

dom. They say that silence and non-involvement gives assent to the sta-

tus quo. Whites who remained "apolitical" were also judged as giving

their assent to social injustices.(35)

Yet African-American leaders have remained silent while white

dominated organizations murdered one-third of the African-American

population. Black liberals condemn white fundamentalists for silent ne-

glect, but they also remain silent as these white-controlled organizations

kill unborn children for economic reasons.

Where is their revolt? Do not black Christian leaders know that

abortion is morally wrong? Are they paying too steep a price to align

with liberal whites for political gain? Will not Christ judge them with

the same standards used to condemn whites' silence and oppression?

Are they giving assent to the murder of millions of their unborn

children in exchange for political power? Ironically, the worst kind of

white-imposed disenfranchisement must be the loss of potential voting

rights by the 13 million African Americans who were murdered by the

white-controlled abortion industry.

In contrast, remember that Drew, on the fundamentalists' narrower

road, used sound doctrine to better lives by creating a system that im-

pressed a Bible-based moral compass on individual hearts while imple-

156

menting community development. Dr. Proctor had this same biblical,

personal moral compass, but the white liberals' church and government

systems that he championed among African Americans surrendered it to

white liberalism.

Championed White Liberals' Bogus Commission

Proctor also championed the white liberal attempt to change the

focus of the Great Commission. Instead of making disciples of Jesus

Christ through evangelism, he taught salvation by good works and

community development. This teaching created a church structure that

eliminated many black churches from fulfilling Christ's true mandate of

proclaiming the real Gospel worldwide.

Accepting Jesus as the only way to receive salvation, and eternal life

makes the difference between Drew and Proctor's community develop-

ment. Proctor's liberal world-mission amounted to "building a global

community" that accepted the teaching of all religions.(36)

As a result, traditional black church leaders influenced by Proctor

and his legacy forsook Christ's command for world evangelization and

promoted white liberal theology that they made their own.

Regarding Christ, Proctor championed the idea that sustaining a

"global community" required finding God in Jesus' moral integrity rath-

er than making a distinction between religions. He believed that univer-

sal moral ethics, which he said expand across different religions, and

not the fear of God, make up the core practical theology of a global

community.(37)

He viewed Christianity as one small community among many in a

larger global one that includes many other religions and communism.

Drew, in contrast, stressed Jesus' moral integrity and His deity as

God the Son. He believed in the Bible's absolute ethics. He put his faith

in Christ as the one and only true way to find real community with the

Father and with other people. (John 14:6)

Brought White Heresy to HBCUs

You deserve to know that God has been calling African Americans to

missions, but many black theologians, like Samuel Proctor's protégés,

have rejected Christ's deity and the Gospel of the Great Commission.

Again, reacting to white oppression, they mix white liberal theology

with Black Power thinking to conclude that the Great Commission is a

white doctrine.

157

In review, this white liberal theology came about when theologians

put their trust in evolution's theory instead of the absolute authority of

the Bible as God's miraculously inspired Word. They fail to believe that

God gave the Bible without error and preserved it to remain completely

trustworthy.

They disrespect Christ's virgin birth, His death, and resurrection as

a substitute to pay the punishment for our sin and any of the Bible's

miracles. Some allow the Bible to contain the Word of God, but they

make themselves the authority on what to keep and what to disregard.

Their religion makes mankind the center of the universe instead of God.

Loving their fellow man became their way to earn heaven instead of sal-

vation received freely through faith in Christ as a free gift. (Ephesians

2:8-9) Their belief in doing good deeds for salvation became known as

the social gospel.

To the shame of segregated evangelical whites who believed the

true Gospel, liberal whites took radical steps to help African Americans

during times of their worst suffering. Following Christ's example of

love and mercy, some white liberals led or aided the abolitionist move-

ment and contributed resources for African-American education during

reconstruction.

They also promoted their social gospel among African Americans,

which only went as far as helping one's fellow man. These whites, un-

fortunately, introduced this liberal doctrinal framework that theologians

in traditional black denominations and historically black seminaries

eventually used to reject world evangelization as God's purpose for Af-

rican Americans.

As Dr. Proctor pointed out, after the Civil War, there has been a

"deep layer of black people who believed they had a place in society

and that sooner or later they would enter fully into the American sys-

tem."(38) White liberal philanthropists, home missionary societies, and

seminaries took radical steps to support young leaders from this layer to

achieve this vision.

In the 1960s, some African-American theologians, including many

in the seminaries and churches affiliated with historically black colleges

and universities, enthusiastically promoted Black Theology.

To support this false doctrine, they relied on liberal theology's ac-

ceptance of the Theory of Evolution and belief that their theology is still

evolving. This thinking used Black Power to elevate the "Black Experi-

ence" to even par with the authority of the Bible.(39)

158

By the time I entered the ministry in 1980, the doctrinal divide had

become quite racial. In the late 1970s, several Norfolk State Universi-

ty students came to the predominantly white evangelical church that

launched our work to request scholarship funds to attend Virginia Union

University's seminary. The pastor, who became my supervisor, called

the seminary and asked a dean whether they taught the Bible as the

trustworthy authoritative Word of God. The dean said that the seminary

would not make that theological decision.

Although the pastor allowed the students to hear this conversation

with the dean, they enrolled in VUU's seminary anyway. The students

indicated that the main, traditional black churches in our metropolitan

area usually hired pastors who studied there.

Enabled White Liberals' Segregation and Abandoned the Poor

When Starks Melton died in 1957, the newspaper's headline read,

"Norfolk's Pastor is Dead." An editorial described Melton as the

"spokesman for religion in Norfolk."(40) This designation as Norfolk's

pastor had been published several times before.

On Melton's 30th anniversary, the paper praised him for making

"life more tolerable for the weak and oppressed, that opened men's

minds and hearts to new vistas of sympathy, tolerance and understand-

ing." (41)

Yet as Norfolk's pastor, why then did Melton fail to open the doors

of his segregated church to the impoverished African Americans living

around it? The neighborhood surrounding his church deteriorated into

the slums on his watch. Why did he fail to accept these families as mem-

bers and empower them with better jobs and descent housing?

African Americans made up half of Norfolk's population then. If

Melton was the city's pastor, what about them? What about the children

who suffered in impoverished conditions? I have heard stories from

senior African Americans about blacks living near his church in houses

having dirt floors at that time. Parents with children suffered without

heat in thousands of dilapidated, one-room shacks that decayed on the

street adjacent to Melton's church while he pastored the city.(42)

For African Americans, deplorable living conditions in 1920 caused

the death rate for black adults to be more than twice as high than for

whites. The infant mortality rate was one out of six for African-Ameri-

can babies versus one out of 20 for whites.(43)

In spite of many requests by blacks and a few whites, Norfolk pro-

159

vided segregated beaches and 21 segregated recreation parks for whites

in 1926, but none for blacks.(44)

As I said earlier, in 1924, Melton's congregation became shocked

when a Methodist church on its street prepared to sell its building to

African Americans who had moved into the area. Melton's church took

steps to buy the Methodists' building to prevent its sale to blacks and

considered moving out if blacks acquired it.(45)

Since Melton's Baptist church became the mother of others, its

daughter churches followed suit. Most maintained liberal doctrine

and refused to welcome African Americans when their neighborhoods

changed from white to black and from middle class to low-income.

These churches defiantly remained segregated until their congre-

gations dwindled to the brink of extinction. Generations of African

Americans grew up around these buildings and watched elderly whites

arriving on Sunday mornings demonstrating racism's bigotry through

intentional segregation.

When did Melton, as the liberal spokesman of religion in Norfolk,

challenge social injustices against the City's blacks? Racial discrimina-

tion prevented African Americans from getting good jobs and most were

underemployed. For example, in 1921 when the Ford Motor Company

opened a plant in Norfolk, it immediately barred blacks from employ-

ment.(46) When other employers hired them, they treated black workers

disrespectfully.(47)

In 1920, like the book and movie, The Help, 81.9 percent of all Nor-

folk black women worked as domestic servants. When they threatened

to strike for a guaranteed salary of one dollar per day, the Norfolk police

chief ordered his officers to arrest them as "loafers" and "slackers."(48)

He took this same action against black oyster shuckers to also pre-

vent their strike but did not arrest white workers for striking at oth-

er times. I wonder how many African-American women worked at all

hours for Melton's church members while neglecting their own children

and trying to survive.

Since Melton had joint services with a Norfolk rabbi, I wonder if

he preached against white discrimination in Norfolk that forced Jewish

merchants to open their stores, and saloons, in the black business dis-

trict. These Jewish stores competed with fledgling African- American

businesses and helped prevent blacks' dollars from staying in their com-

munity.(49)

From Samuel Proctor's autobiography, The Substance of Things

160

Hoped For, I conclude that he grew up in the black middle class. Proc-

tor's parents graduated from Missions College in Norfolk.(50)

An elderly black pastor once proudly told me how African Ameri-

cans founded this college themselves by walking through their neigh-

borhoods asking families to contribute one dollar. This pastor said that

the college became the forerunner to Norfolk State University. During

World War I, Proctor's father took a job at the Norfolk Navy Yard. They

lived in Norfolk's Huntersville community, which would have been

considered as housing a mix of both working and middle-class families.

Proctor's grandfather and uncles where ministers of large churches.(51)

I also conclude that his book reveals how extensively uplift ideol-

ogy shaped Proctor's thinking. Proctor wrote much about accomplish-

ments that distinguished him and his family from lower class African

Americans. He emphasized his family-background, education, self-help

achievements, hard work, high moral character, conservative preach-

ing style, manhood, economic status, church members' professions, and

property ownership. Proctor's uplift thinking comes across in his para-

graph about two black social classes:

Looking back it is now clear to me that two strata of blacks in Amer-

ica had been solidly entrenched. Those who had been shut out and

lived on subsistence wages, in cheap tenements or rural shacks along

unpaved back roads, far removed from any talk of black destiny. By

contrast, those who made it through the open door of Reconstruction

felt that their faith was being validated; they were leading lodges

and churches, some had professional careers, and they were in the

forefront of organizations dedicated to black education and black

liberation.

In his autobiography, therefore, Proctor provided evidence that he

aspired to achieve the higher, second stratum that he called the "heirs of

the missions schools."(52)

Another indication of Proctor's uplift thinking is that he seemed un-

sure about how to enter into a personal relationship with Christ. Uplifts

put so much emphasis on productivity and ethics that accomplishments

replaced the true Gospel's salvation by grace through faith in Jesus

Christ. For example, Proctor made water baptism the focus of his con-

version rather than becoming born again.(53)

By taking Melton's seminar scholarship opportunity, Proctor height-

ened his status and earned the respect of influential white and black

people. Like when Booker T. Washington accommodating whites' seg-

161

regation, Proctor became an accommodationist to his white benefactors'

liberal doctrine. Instead of enabling Jim Crow laws like Washington,

Proctor enabled white liberal churches' racist, segregationist structures

to continue unabated.

He preached at Melton's church after his death and perhaps showed

black middle class progress. Yet to this day, black families continue to

suffer from poverty in Norfolk while still being rejected by these en-

trenched churches. Of course, abandoning black lower class residents

in Norfolk also included failing to mobilize them with true discipleship

to fulfill Christ Great Commission. I know of some white clergy who

became radical enough to break out of these segregated church systems.

My father was one of them.

The Broad Road White Money Paved

In 1930, John D. Rockefeller, the wealthy oilman and a good friend

of Sparks Melton, provided funding for HBCUs and other causes. He

also financially backed the cause of liberal theology. He funded efforts

to attack the Bible as the Word of God, destroy faith in the true Gospel,

change Christ's Great Commission, and criticize fundamentalists who

defended all three of these truths.

Rockefeller funded the distribution of a book that denounced funda-

mentalists.(54) To change the Great Commission into a global strategy

based on the white liberals' agenda, his money brought them together

for a study of missions that promoted the social gospel. He funded their

analysis of the progress of world missions in the previous 100 years that

followed Carey's death. They found fault in the extra-biblical structures

of missionary societies.(55)

They questioned missionaries' colonialist motives and their fail-

ure in general to turn over governance to local leaders. Seeing how the

world was becoming more secular with the rise of communism, these

leaders proposed making theological changes in missions. They reject-

ed the Bible's teaching of the true Gospel and started a new, but false,

missions system that accepts the teachings of all religions as equally

true. They de-emphasized the teaching of sound doctrine and changed

the true meaning of evangelism.

White church leaders involved in this study invented this new con-

cept of missions that viewed the world as a "global community." In this

global community framework, missionaries would work to improve the

lives of people overseas without needing to share Christ's Gospel of

162

salvation. According to this unbiblical system, missions would instead

research social problems, provide schools for social workers, and work

with businessmen, labor unions, and communists in efforts to bring

about social change.(56)

Since many white seminaries that respected the Bible as God's

Word remained segregated, African-American men who would become

national leaders attended schools that attacked the Bible. These leaders

also brought white liberals' rejection of the Bible and world missions to

the HBCU's seminaries and made it their own.

Again, Dr. Samuel Proctor, for whom the seminary at Virginia Union

University is named, was a strong proponent of liberal theology and re-

jected the Bible's authority. He taught the white heresy that missions

should only better the global community without sharing the Gospel of

salvation from sin. Therefore, he promoted African-American involve-

ment in missions when it focused on meeting social needs, but without

introducing Christ's plan of personal salvation.(57)

About 20 years ago, black and white ministers from across our

Hampton Roads attempted to unite and mobilize together for inner city

ministry. A year of prayer meetings did not solve the problem that pas-

tors could not agree on whether the Bible is God's Word. This doctrinal

disagreement, from what I understand, ended the effort to unite our wit-

ness for Christ.

Since a vanguard defends from the front by taking down strong-

holds,defend and confirm the true Gospel and the authority of God's

Word. Choose the less-traveled doctrinal road and lead into spiritual

warfare with the Bible's absolute truth as your armor.

Remember that a call by God to a minister is also a call to prepare.

Determine to study the Bible formally under professors who respect its

authority as God's inspired Word. You will not find this kind of sound

doctrine in college religion classes.

As you plan out your academic training, include taking Bible insti-

tute classes or attending a seminary that teaches sound doctrine. When

I graduated with my MBA, I felt exhausted and done with school at age

24. Yet praise God that a Christian leader took me aside and challenged

me to take Bible institute classes. He advised me correctly that I did not

know what God had in store for me in the future and that I needed to

prepare by formally studying God's Word.

I took one or two Bible classes a semester for five years while work-

ing full-time in inner city youth outreach. This difficult investment

163

transformed my life and ministry. In this high-tech age, free online re-

sources provide opportunities for you to begin your Bible training while

still in college.

In conclusion, strategically make Christ and His Commission known

on your campus as you defend and confirm the Gospel with sound doc-

trine. Introduce many to discipleship that begins with personal faith in

Him as the foundation for acting justly and extending mercy.

Proclaim God's Word. Celebrate your right and freedom to make

His truth known regardless of false opinions. Do not sweat anyone who

tries to belittle you as close-minded. Through your vanguard commit-

ment, stand for truth and holiness. May many students discover in Jesus

the life and purpose that they miss out on.

The Lord transforms the hardest path into victory's highway. He will

empower you to run spiritually hard and healthy on the narrower road so

you lead God's army strongly. Go forward under the high calling of be-

ing a deliverer and defeat every form of evil by the power of His grace.

(58) (Psalm 18:36-37)

Chapter 14 provides insights into the background and thinking of

white Bible-believing missionaries, so you may balance opposing opin-

ions and deploy a unified missionary force. Chapter 15 then explains

how missionaries with diverse races and backgrounds may build up one

another to increase effectiveness and overcome unnoticed hurdles that

hinder mobilization.

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165

Chapter 14

Understand America's White Christian Mindset

A Vanguard Skillfully Unites His Forces

Uniting black and white American missionary forces will be one of

your greatest challenges in light of past unresolved hurts. Accept this

glorious vanguard calling and learn to skillfully address this contradic-

tion: Many good white missionaries sacrificially gave their lives for the

Gospel overseas while most white American Christians remained silent

during segregation and Jim Crow violence.

Can you vehemently denounce white racial violence and silent ne-

glect while bringing healing, encouraging forgiveness, teaching sensi-

tivity, honoring sacrifice, and uniting God's racially divided people in

the United States?

For example, when mobilizing a unified missions force, how would

you address the racial contradictions of white Christians that occurred

at the same time in the late 1950s? On December 1, 1955, Montgomery,

Alabama police arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat in

protest against segregated city buses.

Weeks later, on January 10, 1956, the Interstate Commerce Com-

mission forced carriers to integrate interstate buses and their waiting

rooms. In the next month, on February 26, 1956, Virginia Senator Harry

Byrd called for massive resistance against school integration. His call

led to laws authorizing Virginia's governor to close Norfolk's schools,

and elsewhere, to prevent integration. Montgomery officials indicted

Martin Luther King, Jr. on that same day in February for inciting the

bus boycott.(1) All the while, most Bible-believing, missionary-send-

ing Christians remained silent and segregated.

In contrast to this racial segregation and during these very same

months of turmoil in America, on January 8, 1956 five white mission-

aries sacrificed their lives attempting to meet and live among Ecuador's

Waodani Indians.

On January 30, Life Magazine published a 10-page article covering

the deaths of Jim Elliot and the four other pioneering missionaries. This

moving article captured their self-sacrifice and willingness to integrate

with these people of color.(2) These missionaries arrived unarmed,

wanting to connect for the first time with the Waodani. The Indians felt

166

threatened and killed them with spears.

The Lord honored the sacrificial love of these missionaries and their

families. In addition to bringing many of these unreached people to

Himself, the Lord used their deaths and the startling testimony of this

Life Magazine article to rally many more white missionary laborers for

the world harvest.

In fact, these men mobilized thousands of white missionaries

through their sacrifices. Their published diaries and family legacies in-

spired many for service. The following entry from Jim Elliot's diary

instilled the eternal significance of their sacrifice in many Christians

coming after him: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain

that which he cannot lose.

I grew up in the next decade with the advantage of reading this quote

and seeing a picture of him slain and partly submerged in a river, which

today still strongly impacts my values. I remember my dad referring to

their willingness in his sermons as he called for more missionaries to go

overseas. In 2006, the movie, The End of the Spear, told this story and

challenged yet another generation of white missionaries to make the

theme, "Go and Preach the Gospel," the precept they follow as well.

Unfortunately, white segregation's divisive effects prevented Jim

Elliot's mobilizing sacrificial love from making an impression on you.

In this same racialized historical context of the mid-1950s, my

father's action against segregation and his vision for mobilizing Afri-

can-American missionaries failed in South Carolina. How would you

explain the motivation of white missionaries who gave up their lives to

integrate with Indians while evangelicals Christians segregated them-

selves from African Americans in the South?

Similar to when someone changes their Facebook "in a relation-

ship" status to "complicated," the racially divided relationships among

American believers needs revision. Instead of taking one of the extreme

positions in the black-white debate, step outside the drama with me to

see the complexity of the emotionally charged issues that divide us all.

If we understand what each side is thinking, then maybe progress can be

made to mobilize everyone together.

A vanguard charged with mobilizing and leading a united missions

force might benefit from analyzing white Christians' motives and think-

ing. For example, in Norfolk, many African Americans require that any-

one who enters the presence of others must verbally greet everyone in

the group. Failing to speak first and give a greeting is considered a disre-

167

spectful insult. Not greeting someone is tantamount to communicating

anger or superiority. I have known African Americans who held grudges

against a particular neighbor who failed to greet them on one occasion.

Children who enter a room without addressing black adults receive a

loud rebuke in the form of a question, "You can't speak?!"

White people seem to have no idea about this tradition. Most of our

parents raised us to "only speak when spoken to." We walk silently into

church like going to the mall. Many whites might consider it rude to

enter a room and greet people who are already engaged in conversation

without being invited to do so. Do you see the problem?

When whites fail to give this greeting, some blacks assume that they

are uppity racists who think that they are better than them. Likewise,

some whites jump to the conclusion that black people hate them because

the whites receive undeserved "attitude" from African Americans when

they first cross paths. This cultural misunderstanding opens old wounds

from past malice and racism. What other misunderstandings still demo-

bilize us?

Twentieth-Century White American Missionary Motives

Research shows that white American missionaries in the last century

have remained consistently strategic in fulfilling their mission. Most

remained focused and sacrificially fulfilled Christ's Great Commission.

Unfortunately, they addressed social and political structures only

when they interfered with this one missional purpose for going out.

They worked within existing structures that were compatible with their

goals of making disciples.

For instance, European colonialist governments often required them

to work within unjust structures that missionaries could not individually

control. Yet many white missionaries courageously laid down their lives

to fulfill their mission from Christ. Without confronting social injus-

tice, they tried to strategically convert oppressive European structures

while staying on task.(3) As I said, white missionaries did not include

the objectives of social justice and the global mobilization of people of

African descent in their otherwise-biblical reasons for serving.

Today, 90 percent of overseas missionaries believe evangelical doc-

trine. Most white evangelical missionaries hold with unwavering con-

viction to the Bible's teaching that Jesus Christ will return again. Those

I know believe its warnings that unbelievers, as individuals, face eternal

punishment for sin. They believe the Bible truth that all believers will

168

appear before Christ and give an account for obedience to His Great

Commission.

Faith in Christ and these essential doctrines motivated thousands of

missionaries to obey and preach the good news of His salvation to the

ends of the earth. His love and these truths compelled most American

missionaries to willingly risk their lives to love and save the lost.

In his diary, my grandfather mentioned that eight from his mission

had already died in Africa before his arrival. He went anyway to attempt

the same evangelism assignment as theirs, which eventually cost him

his earthly life. As a young widower in 1916 who had already lost a

wife and child in the States, my grandfather left Brooklyn on a freighter

heading to East Africa. His diary testifies of but one reason for leaving

family and going across the ocean to risk his life:

Even tho I am sailing away from native land, from loved ones, &

friends, yet - I am happy, oh! so happy, because I am in the service

of the King, & because he has chosen me to take the message of sal-

vation to those who are in the depths of sin in Africa. I want my life

to count for Jesus. "He MUST increase, but I MUST decrease."(4)

Almost all of the missionaries whom I have met in my life go to

the field to unselfishly bring lost people to Christ or to support those

who do this work. Missionaries proclaiming the Gospel's good news

of salvation make great sacrifices as acts of love for people who have

never heard. Many other missionaries died for this cause. Consider my

grandfather's diary entry as he traveled to East Africa:

Thursday August 10, 1916

"Go ye into all the world & preach my gospel to all nations" I praise

God that he has put the response of "Here am I, send me" in my

heart to this command & today I am on my way to preach the Gospel

to the African.

Even though my grandfather gave his life as Christ's ambassador,

African-American liberal church leaders would say he failed because

he did not also bring about social justice and liberation for the Africans.

Let me review the reasons for this difference in thinking.

What White Fundamentalist Missionaries Think

In defense of the Gospel during the controversy caused by the lib-

erals' attack on the Bible since the Civil War, many white Christians

169

refocused on Christ's Second Coming, on living controlled by the Holy

Spirit to pursue holiness, and on fulfilling Christ's Commission.

With high regard for God's Word, they believed the Bible's teach-

ing in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is God-breathed, including the

words and grammar. Believing that God supernaturally used men and

human language to provide His written direct revelation, fundamental-

ists interpret the Bible in a normal, literal way that makes God's Word,

not the theologians, the authority. Therefore, passages may only be tak-

en figuratively when the Bible, itself, justifies doing so.

Many fundamentalists believe, therefore, that Jesus Christ will bodi-

ly return before He establishes a literal 1000-year reign on earth. This

timing of the Second Coming of Christ is called pre-millennial. For in-

stance, when responding properly to this belief, white fundamentalists'

mindsets remain centered upon Jesus' imminent return.

Instead of being optimistic about global social progress, pre-millen-

nial fundamentalists expect the opposite to occur. They anticipate world

civilizations becoming more ungodly as Christ's imminent return gets

closer.(5)

Most fundamentalists believe, therefore, the Bible's teaching that

progress in our world must come on an individual basis as Christ trans-

forms each heart. Salvation from the punishment of one's individual sin

is necessary to become God's child and to have a personal relationship

with Christ.

Taking personal responsibility to obey Christ and pursue His holi-

ness are discipleship requirements after salvation, not the means to earn

acceptance from God. Eternal life is a free gift accepted by faith through

grace and not by taking social action. The highest form of love in action

is to introduce someone to this personal relationship with Christ. This

thinking focused on bringing individuals to Christ is also reflected in

these quotes from my grandfather's diary:

Monday Aug 21, 1916

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart & lean not unto thine own under-

standing. Pro. 3:5 Had another pleasant day today - altho tonight is

quite windy & stormy looking. The weather is much cooler. We had

a prayer meeting tonight for the salvation of our unsaved loved ones.

Ethel among them. We are expecting to hear of salvation coming to

them as a result of. As the Lord has promised "If two of you agree

on earth as touching anything I will do it." Matt. 18:10. Praise him

for his ability & willingness to keep his promises. If he would not, I

would not venture to go to Africa.

170

Wednesday August 30, 1916

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in

me though he were dead, yet shall he live. John 11:25 I praise God

today that I saw & set foot on for the first time my future home &

field of labor "Dark Africa" . . . I am glad that I am the messenger of

such a Gospel to Africa. And I pray that God may in all ways make

me a faithful proclaimer or herald of this good news & hence forth I

say: I live, nevertheless not I, but "Christ" liveth in me" I labor, nev-

ertheless not I, but "Christ" laboreth thru me. I love, yet nevertheless

not I, but "Christ" loveth by me.

March 2, 1917

Arrived in Busea four thirty [sic] today after a hard walk part of the

way through mud & water half way to the knees, & in a tired condi-

tion, but nevertheless enjoyed the safari. We had had an opportunity

to see vast multitudes of villages all without any workers for Christ

at all & it gave me a sense of the bigness of the field God has called

me to labor in. And I pray that during my stay in Africa I may have

the opportunity to preach Christ to many of these same people &

also that in the near future if Jesus tarries we may see many work-

ers in these fields. Surely the need is great but the laborers are few.

Found the workers here well & happy in spite of the fact that for

two years they were shut in from outside communications because

of the war.

Unfortunately, fundamentalists overreacted when denouncing the

social gospel's view that God only cares about institutional sins and

unjust social structures. Before the 1920s, fundamentalists led signif-

icant social outreaches. However, since then and until the late 1960s,

fundamentalists not only denounced the social gospel, they went too far

to reject social outreach all together.

For many decades they lost the good doctrines that Christ is glori-

fied and His true Gospel is advanced through social outreach, justice,

and mercy. Confronting institutional injustice became replaced with si-

lent neglect. Fundamentalists wanted to prevent social outreaches from

distracting from their mission of inviting people to have personal rela-

tionships with Christ.(6)

I conclude that the goal of changing hearts with the Gospel guided

white fundamentalist thinking when they remained silent during Jim

Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. This silence, regardless of evan-

gelistic motives, must be denounced because it enabled cruel violence

and other injustices to continue on.

For example, white evangelist D.L. Moody (1837-1899) preached

171

the Gospel to millions of people at evangelistic crusades held around

the country and in England. He was somewhat like a Billy Graham

of his day. Moody focused on saving souls but addressed social issues

only when personal repentance could be preached. I assume, therefore,

that he believed lynching could be stopped by introducing each racist to

Christ.(7) He knew that white southerners would not attend his revivals

in the South if he condemned lynching or segregation.

Moody, I assume, kept silent during Jim Crow oppression wanting

Christ to individually change the hearts of white racists through his

Gospel preaching. I agree with an African-American social activist who

accused him of caring more for the future of white people's souls than

the life of the African American being lynched in his day.

Although hard to imagine, I can also believe Moody kept silent pur-

posefully in an attempt to change each racist, brutal heart with the Gos-

pel at his revivals.(8)

Analyzing the choices Moody made would make a good case study

on how to effectively mobilize a unified missions force. How would you

have challenged him on lynching and missions, if you were a vanguard

leader during his lifetime? If he were alive and holding crusades today,

would you want Moody to preach against abortion for the sake of the

thousands of babies being murdered each week? Would you expect him

to take a stand against these murders even though he would alienate

many members of a political party?

Would it matter that those alienated would never receive the Gospel

from him after he took his stand against abortion? To stop abortion,

should he try to change the hearts of the individual mothers seeking

them or should he use his international platform for political activism?

Would you speak up and burn bridges along with him or remain silent?

For generations, fundamentalists avoided politics altogether be-

cause they anticipated societies becoming hopelessly more ungodly.

They considered secular government programs as hapless attempts to

solve society's problems. They disliked watching social gospel ideals

being implemented by liberals in government, but remained silent, de-

tached and stayed out of politics until the `80s.(9)

In addition, 20th-century missionaries accommodated colonialist

governments but viewed their selfish interests as unrighteous detriments

to the Gospel. Their avoidance of politics meant that they seldom spoke

up against social injustices that they observed. This silence resulted

from the priority missionaries place on only preaching the true Gospel

172

to bring lasting change. They believed that when individuals came to

Christ, social justice would naturally follow.(10)

In addition, fundamentalists respected government authority as

God-appointed rule. Many chose to work within an unjust system to

convert it one person at a time rather than openly confront it.

For example, you might know about the eight white Birmingham,

Alabama pastors who wrote an open letter in 1963 to African Americans

calling on them to end their civil rights demonstrations.

The pastors challenged the activities of outsiders and called on the

black community to instead take up their cause in the court system.

They meant Martin Luther King, Jr. when they referred to outsiders.

At the time when these white pastors wrote the letter, King was in

jail for civil disobedience. He responded with his famous letter from

Birmingham that explained a Christian's moral obligation to disobey

unjust laws and work tirelessly for social change.(11)

Take your vanguard opportunity to end the divide between Afri-

can-American leaders and white missionaries. Can you imagine what

would have happened if black civil rights leaders and white missionar-

ies had joined forces in the 1950s? Picture thousands of Bible-believing

missionaries risking their lives in the Civil Rights Movement to end

segregation in the South.

What if white Christians boycotted buses with Rosa Parks and

Martin Luther King, Jr.? See church buses from white congregations

offering rides to African Americans during the bus boycott! Imagine

someone like Billy Graham holding a prayer crusade for King outside

of the Birmingham jail. What if King rallied black college students for

mission service in Ecuador to overcome with love the killing of white

missionaries? What if black students arose like the Freedom Riders to

join with white students and together they win spiritual freedom for the

Waodani Indians?

Of course, we cannot turn back the clock to make this happen. Yet,

you can lead this unified force today.

Understand white missionaries' evangelism motives, challenge

them to speak up for justice, and muster them for social causes, as well.

Learn to pioneer from their examples of personal sacrifices so all may

build each other up in Christ and accomplish His mission. Chapter 15

will explain how to rise above existing black/white structural hurdles

and lead Christ's freedom forces in a global missionary uprising.

173

Chapter 15

Add Dynamics of a Successful Uprising

A Vanguard Revolutionizes Structures

As vanguard change agents, design your student ministries so mis-

sions-mobilization begins and progresses on your campuses. Empow-

er Christian students with ministry qualities, called "dynamics," which

bring change and cause progress to occur. Equip them to add these three

dynamics of a successful missionary uprising to their cultural frame-

works: expectation, investigation and edification.

Before providing more details about these three catalysts for change,

this chapter must first introduce how structural sins undermine the Gos-

pel's credibility and why most white people do not notice them.

Society's Structural Sins and the Gospel

During my adolescent years, my father's ministry took me outside

of the white-Christian structural box. His commitment to equip Afri-

can-American pastors placed me under the leadership of a black Child

Evangelism Fellowship missionary whom he mentored.

In this context and from age 12 to 14, I learned much from African

Americans about white society's structural issues. A number of them

used examples from their personal experiences to reveal the existence

of systemic, structural sins to this young white teenager in their midst.

In this diverse context with my dad and this black missionary, I

learned how to explain the true Gospel. I began exercising my spiritual

gift of personal evangelism during outreaches they organized.

Additionally, I folded together my experiences with African Ameri-

cans and evangelism to combine two issues that divide many Christians.

I learned to accept the necessity of confronting unjust structures and

the unquestionable spiritual need for personal salvation through faith

in Christ. For instance, in the summer of 1970, an unchurched Afri-

can-American senior adult schooled me on white structural sins when

I attempted to explain the Gospel to her. Our missionary leader had

brought us to her impoverished rural black community in Currituck,

North Carolina, as an outreach from our church's teen camp. I met her

at a retirement home while making "door-to-door" visits to introduce

people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

174

Unfortunately, my African-American Currituck teacher gave only

her first name. I felt uncomfortable using it then and cannot recall her

name to use it now. Yet her lessons came to me from firsthand experi-

ences. These experiences dated back to the days of Jim Crow oppression

and the era of prominent African-American leaders like J. W. E. Bowen,

Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois.

She allowed me to spend time visiting with her on two occasions.

We talked as she sat in a row with other residents on the front deck

of their meager retirement home. Feistier than the rest, she controlled

our discussions there. This strong but aged woman addressed me like a

school teacher who had just graded my work as "unsatisfactory."

I explained the Gospel on my agenda. She told me about the frustrat-

ing hurts on her heart and mind.

At least while I visited with my Currituck teacher, my prayerful

witness failed to persuade her that acceptance by God and salvation

from sin came by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. She stubbornly

remained convinced that salvation must be earned with good deeds. As

a result, she refused to believe that God would accept her because she

chewed tobacco.

My education about structures began when this elderly woman in-

troduced herself by her first name. Immediately after her introduction,

she told me how slaves had adopted their owners' family names be-

cause the slaves had none. Aggravation in her voice convinced me that

something bothered her about her last name. I tried to imagine what life

would be like if my own name and identity brought me hurt.

Then she launched unhesitatingly into a discussion on how white

men had raped African-American women. Her declaration of "y'all

messed up our blood" made her accusations personal. She asserted

that in the past, all African Americans had the same color. She invoked

"y'all" several times and made quite an impression on the 13 year old

she lectured.

I discerned no malice directed personally toward me, but I sensed

the resentment she held against whites and Christians. I believe that her

inability to protect herself and other black women caused the hurt that

she expressed. She resented the white religious systems that condoned

rape through silence and degraded women with blame.

I recognized three systemic injustices that distorted her perception

of Christ and His Gospel. These injustices impact my present percep-

tions about structures. First, she found no identity in the Christian's

175

system. Second, she felt unwanted for chewing tobacco in a structure

founded on good works theology. Third, she resented how local white

Christian systems condemned her tobacco use but had condoned white

rape of black women.

Her lessons inadvertently taught a teenage evangelist how Christian

systems may rape the Gospel and soil the sacrifice of Christ's blood.

To mobilize, the vanguard must organize God's missions forces

strategically. The rest of this chapter equips you to rise, unhindered,

above race-related demobilizing structures.

Why Many White Christians Do Not Recognize Structures

Most white fundamentalist Christians reacted to the social gospel's

focus on social structures by shifting the paradigm in the opposite direc-

tion. They somehow, in my opinion, eventually adopted a world view

that assumes no structures exist at all. Most middle-class white fun-

damentalists think in terms of individuals and do not recognize social

structures in government, schools, neighborhoods, and civilizations.(1)

Most do not recognize how their church structures maintain status quo

racial divides.(2) In the same way, they would not see any structural

barriers to African-American mobilization for world missions.

Until relatively recent times, fundamentalist Christians avoided

politics and political structures to emphasize evangelism instead. My

grandfather's diary comments reflected this focus. He showed no re-

gard for government or commercial interests in Africa. He went to Af-

rica during World War 1 but scarcely mentioned it in his diary. He never

mentioned the major political changes that occurred in Tanzania after

this war (named Tanganyika at that time).

For instance, the League of Nations transferred colonial rule from

the defeated Germans to England, which completely changed Tanza-

nia's system of government.

Like most missionaries, my grandfather's motives centered only on

the high calling of proclaiming the Gospel and bringing spiritual peace

with God, as shown in this entry:

Wednesday Aug. 16, 1916

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ev-

erlasting life. Passed the Equator during the night of Tuesday & land

now down in new regions. Sea is a little calmer today. Saw another

freighter today possibly on its way to South America. There is an

176

American consul on board going to Port Elizabeth, but my position

is greater than his, he only represents a country, but I represent the

King of Kings & Lord of Lords. I am His ambassador carrying the

Gospel of Peace to those bound in the chains of sin & darkness.

Praise God for the privilege.

Sociologists have studied the values, norms, attitudes, and social

structures of white evangelical Christians who have the same funda-

mentalist beliefs about obeying the Great Commission. These sociol-

ogists show how white evangelicals form their identities by bundling

together their race with norms, attitudes, and ideologies from being an

American and Christian.(3)

Evangelical Christians are also more likely to believe that their

whiteness is important to their identities than other American whites.

Racial identity is usually hidden to most whites but is real and important

to white evangelicals who try to preserve their racial and cultural iden-

tities.(4) White evangelical Christians highly value personal relation-

ships and individual responsibility.(5) Most also believe that African

Americans have the same opportunities as whites.(6) White evangelical

Christians are more likely to reject any explanations about the black-

white racial and economic divides that are based on social structural

influences and inequalities.(7)

As a result, most white Christians attempt racial reconciliation by

seeking to introduce blacks to a personal relationship with Christ, by

repenting of personal prejudice, and by getting to know and love indi-

viduals of the other race.(8) They do not perceive any structural barriers

dividing black and white Christians.(9)

In addition, two particular researchers show how white evangelical

Christians negatively stereotype African Americans as a group while

taking for granted their own hidden advantages when judging them.(10)

Many white evangelicals believe that blacks, as a group, do not take

enough personal responsibility, especially for racial reconciliation.

Most whites think that everyone in America has equal opportunity

and may become successful if they work hard.(11) The well-researched

conclusions are that white evangelicals have strong desires to maintain

the racial status quo and do so with their superior economic positions.

(12) Many white Christians wanting unity expect African Americans to

assimilate into white culture. Many also believe that blacks cause the

racial divide by sticking to themselves.(13)

To this research I add my observation that many white evangelicals

177

take for granted an all-white American missions force. I believe they

bundle their white missionary identity with their white American Chris-

tian identity. Whites do not miss African Americans on the fields nor

perceive any structural barriers preventing black mobilization.(14)

These results became real to me recently after a campus ministry

meeting where I had been invited to speak about racism. A white student

respectfully expressed, almost word for word, the exact sentiments that

these researches describe.

This research about the structures of white Christian systems sup-

ports my case for revolutionizing the missionary system that my grand-

father's generation implemented. I conclude that many whites and

blacks take for granted that full-time American missionaries are white.

I believe that our norms and structures preserve this perception in mis-

sions systems.

Demobilizing structures in missions maintain the status quo divides

in missions between black and white Christians. As a vanguard missions

leader, recognize and act against these structural injustices.

Take the opportunity to correct and edify white evangelical Chris-

tians with your sensitivity to social injustice and heritage of social activ-

ism. Receive from the history of white missionaries their commitment

to sacrifice everything for Christ when obeying His global mandate.

Had we lived a hundred years ago, we might have edified my grand-

father, and he could have inspired us with how he suffered for Christ's

mission. He recorded specific injustices and cruelties that European co-

lonialism had inflicting upon Africans at the time. Naming them "civ-

ilizations without God," my grandfather wrote a page of indictments

against the occupying countries.

My grandfather accused Germany, in its rule of German East Africa,

of doing nothing for the natives. He reported that officials "held native

women" and used cruel "kipoko" whips to rule the people. These whips

were called "kipoko," which is the Swahili word for "hippopotamus,"

because they were made out of strips of hippopotamus hide. Kipoko

whips could cut and bruise with one stroke.(15) Also, he referred to a

"trail of blood in war" apparently caused by German rulers.

Regarding the Belgian Congo, my grandfather complained that Bel-

gian rulers were losing control over the Africans because of the immo-

rality of white officials. He reported that automobiles were used more

for carrying prostitutes than soldiers. He also accused Belgian soldiers

of stealing women during the war. He did not document or resist the

178

many cruel social injustices that the Belgian government inflicted upon

Africans during this same time period.

Devastated by Germany in World War I, Belgium partnered with big

businesses to exploit the Congo's resources for its own economic recov-

ery. Belgium colonialists used high taxes to force Africans to work on

plantations located on ancestral lands that they stole from them. They

used natives to beat or imprison other Africans for not paying the taxes.

Therefore, Belgium received the benefits of forced labor and tax

revenues from Africans who became impoverished because they had no

time to raise their own crops. Additionally, Belgium enticed business

investment by giving away large land grants in the Congo. The govern-

ment appointed corrupt chiefs and left village life demoralized. They

called their worst exploitative policy "Total Civilization" and insisted

that it helped lazy Africans learn how to work hard.(16)

My grandfather wrote of a British lieutenant who received a letter

from his home office asking if the natives were occupying any large

tracts of land in German East Africa that would be suitable for white

settlers. He witnessed England's expanding colonialism in South Africa

and several injustices that must have paved the way for apartheid.

He reported that "20,000 die of white man's vices, drink, etc." as

200,000 British immigrants arrived in Johannesburg each year. He indi-

cated that one in every three natives there contracted tuberculosis from

the British.

Since Britain ruled where he served in Tanganyika, I believe that my

grandfather missed opportunity to protest against these social injustices.

Britain acquired Tanganyika about the same time that my grandfather

arrived there after World War I. The League of Nations gave this colony,

of defeated Germany, to England in 1922 as a spoil of the war.

England's government instituted three policies in Tanganyika that

created structural injustices. First, the government implemented a vague

principle called "Trusteeship." Feeling superior, England justified impe-

rialistic colonialism saying that Africans could not stand on their own

two feet and needed a trustee to oversee their government.

Second, the British government instituted an "interventionist" form

of the Doctrine of Indirect Rule. To manage African populations, En-

gland appointed administrators who created "tribes" and oversaw select

native inhabitants who ruled them.

Third, the British intentionally slowed progress in Africa during the

years after World War I.(17) I doubt that white missionaries were sen-

179

sitive enough to recognize systemic injustices, in general, and regard

these as exploitative.

My grandfather seemed to take for granted that the Europeans

would rule in Africa and be needed to control the indigenous people.

He recorded civilizations' godlessness but did not denounce their unjust

subjugation of Africans. He did not grieve oppressive commercial and

government systems. He ministered to the Africans within the confines

of these oppressive structures. He wanted to save the Israelites without

confronting the Pharaoh.(18)

His diary indicated that colonialist governments subjugated my

grandfather as well. Also, he lacked opportunities to take action in the

States. He had raised financial support to only travel to the field but not

enough to return home. I heard stories of how my uncle and aunt had

become seriously ill but could not get medicine. A missionary doctor

wrote back to the States pleading for money to get them home for med-

ical care.

Also, my grandfather died because he could not return to the States

before his appendix burst. When in pain, he would get off of his motor-

cycle and lie on the side of the road. An African pastor prayed for him,

and he would continue his safaris that lasted weeks in dangerous con-

ditions. He even expressed frustration that the local government would

not give him a marriage license and delayed his wedding.

I am sure that he believed that European oppression forced him to

minister under oppressive systems that he assumed were beyond his

control. Instead of protesting social injustice, my grandfather sacri-

ficed his life to preach the Gospel and translate the Bible for Africans

who had never heard of Christ. Yet my grandfather did not write any

prayers grieving injustice. In the diary that criticized godless civiliza-

tions, he did not plead for God to reconstruct the social institutions that

oppressed Africans. His sincere sacrifice to convert individuals, without

confronting oppressive social structures, demonstrates how many white

fundamentalist missionaries usually think.

For instance, my grandfather did not join Christian Africans in their

resistance against colonialism. His diary showed no support for African

believers seeking equality. He made no references about Africans break-

ing off from missionary-planted churches in the 1920s to form their own

churches and speak up for justice. This independent church movement

grew to become more than 10,000 denominations that spread across

Africa and now exist on other continents.(19)

180

Some historians show that missionaries like him tried to convert the

colonialist structures that they worked under. I assume that my grand-

father recorded these injustices because he wanted to convert colonial-

ism one official at a time. Seemingly undistracted by consequences of

unjust social structures, he expressed no concern that oppressive white

governments might undermine the credibility of a Gospel.

He did not discuss how the indigenous people had responded to

God's Word coming from the lips of white men who looked like the

ones who whipped, raped, and exploited them. I noticed from his diary

how his high expectations of a having a great spiritual harvest in Africa

noticeably diminished after his ministry started there.

American missionary-sending institutions failed to mobilize African

Americans to go with my grandfather. Black and white missionaries

could have edified each other to advance the true Gospel with social ac-

tion. African Americans brought to the missions field higher sensitivity

to colonialism's structural injustices and more support for African resis-

tance. About 10 years before my grandfather arrived in Africa, William

Sheppard, an African-American Presbyterian missionary, had already

exposed Belgium's violent exploitation of Congo natives. Sheppard

and a white missionary, resisting together, caused worldwide protests.

Additionally, they successfully defended themselves against a def-

amation lawsuit brought against a company affiliated with Belgium's

king. Their legal victory gave them an international platform to protest

against colonialism's exploitation in the Congo.

Use this awareness in your vanguard leadership to expose how

structural issues in historically white missions systems demobilize us

all. Yet, give hope for a united, reconciled, global Christian witness.

Step up and reach your potential to mobilize all races together. Pro-

claim the Gospel of personal salvation from sin while recognizing de-

mobilizing structural barriers in missions. Be strong in the Lord and His

mighty power. Mobilize for the true Gospel, social justice, community

development, and freedom.

Three Structural Dynamics of a Successful Missionary Uprising

Based upon my observations of black and white structures in mis-

sions, I offer the three dynamics that I deem critical to the success of

your vanguard missionary uprising. Note that I summarize informa-

tion from previous chapters about black and white missions structures

that demobilize. Please address both sides in your vanguard leadership.

181

Expectation

With vanguard skill, teach from God's Word how Christ expects

His Body to obey His Great Commission without discrimination as one

spiritual race. Recognize wrong assumptions about race in missions as

you revolutionize structures through a unified missionary force. Again,

many whites in missions have been assuming that they possess, as the

dominant race, the God-given duty, right, and privilege to implement,

govern, and finance the fulfilling of His purposes in the world.

For instance, while my grandfather served in German East Africa,

eight colleagues from his missions agency attended the 1917 Christian

Occupation of Africa conference in New York City. They reported need-

ing 50 missionaries to serve in German East Africa. Yet, when reading

the traits they desired in potential missionary recruits, it becomes obvi-

ous that they assumed that all their candidates would be white.(20)

Today, most white and black Christians do not notice that African

Americans remain missing in world evangelism. Likewise, most Chris-

tians, black or white, do not feel concerned when someone points out

this disparity. Recognize when low expectations for missions fosters

this lack of concern.

Invoke Christ's authority to mobilize disciple-makers for all people-

groups worldwide. Correct wrong assumptions about black limitations

caused by inferior discipleship, discrimination or fear.

For instance, many white and black Christians assume incorrectly

that extensive African-American ministry is supposed to be limited to

reaching only other blacks. Both expect blacks to minister to other races

only as exceptions to the norm and not extensively.

These wrong perceptions enable whites to maintain the segregated

status quo. Perhaps this traditional paradigm helps blacks feel comfort-

able and find their identities as black missionaries to people of Afri-

can descent. White people, in contrast, keep independent, expansionist

identities as world missionaries who assume that their race is called to

minister to the ends of the earth.

In addition, African Americans who maintain survival mentalities

in missions set demobilizing limits on themselves, as well. Up to this

point, most have preferred going to established missions stations rather

than taking on more dangerous pioneering assignments.

Ironically, after millions of black people died because of their skin

color, Harr concluded rather harshly that African Americans limited

themselves in missions trying to save their own skins.(21)

182

As you revolutionize the traditional expectations behind missions

structures, claim God's promise in 2 Timothy 3:16: His inspired Word

remains profitable for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteous-

ness. With short-term missions experiences, true discipleship, and

prayer raise expectations for mobilization.

For instance, consider bringing students with you to the GLOBE

Center in Jamaica to discover this critical dynamic.

Investigation

Inspire students to become spiritual detectives. Again, to change sta-

tus quo structures in missions, equip students to investigate the Scrip-

tures, missions history, ministry structures and their hearts. Empower

them to test doctrine, making the Bible's ultimate authority their litmus

test of what they believe and do.

Lead the study of missions history. As I described in previous chap-

ters, systematic racial discrimination, existing between black and white

Christians, brings with it unnoticed devastating spiritual consequences.

These consequences demobilize us all before Christ, who commissions

us as His one body. I broke my silence on many sensitive race issues to

get you started in your own analysis of missions history.

Continue to investigate the spiritual consequences of Christians' ra-

cial discrimination as you lead a unified uprising beyond the structural

and doctrinal hurdles they created.

Teach students to analyze the race divisions in their ministries. With

identities grounded securely upon who-they-are-in-Christ, mobilize a

movement that navigates students above and beyond any segregated

ministry structures. For instance, many American whites maintain past

ministry structures that preserve racial segregation that was founded

upon feelings of superiority. Economic advantages and these systems

maintain their status quo segregated way of life and privilege.

Usually, this status quo maintenance and its destructive consequenc-

es are hidden from them in the norms, values, and structures of their

ministries. Most evangelical Christians disregard, ignore, or consider

extreme the white leaders who confront the status quo racial systems.

The more white leaders have to lose, the more likely they will not be

willing to speak up.(22)

Historically, white-controlled missions agencies have looked for

"above average" African-American candidates who could "meet their

standards."(23) I believe that African Americans do not fit in the iden-

183

tity mix that many white leaders bundle together for their missionaries.

Take inventory of social and economic class discrimination in your

hearts and ministries. Check for the influences of retained unbiblical up-

lift ideologies. If African Americans divide world missions efforts along

class lines, then they risk repeating uplift ideology's failures, demobiliz-

ing themselves, and enabling whites to maintain status quo structures in

world missions. I believe that this uplift thinking enables whites, who

may not make a black class distinction, to continue segregated missions,

believing that the black middle class is responsible for solving their own

"problem."(24)

Challenge middle-class African-American Christians to "take fear-

less moral inventory" to make sure that they do not view mobilizing

blacks for missions as only their responsibility as a social class. They

must be certain that missions is not their attempt to show progress, prove

manhood, be productive, gain status, or earn respect.

Before Christ, they must repent of prejudice against "lower" class

peoples of any race, including their own. They must take a hard look at

their own church structures to see if they favor the middle class.

They must check their perceptions of the "lower" class masses to ap-

preciate and affirm their potential to fulfill Christ's Commission. Subtle

uplift ideology and structures may become hidden to black middle-class

Christians like status quo segregation structure are to whites.

Now that you know the need to revolutionize status quo missions

structures, keep your head on a swivel as you go forward. Watch out for

structural factors that demobilize. As a vanguard, mobilize creatively

to help other believers see them as well. Organize diverse but unified

missionary-sending systems to advance your spiritual uprising.

Edification

In your analytical leadership, create a culture of mutual edification

between Christians of different races. Since edification means to build

up members of the Body of Christ, use diversity to build up believers for

cross-cultural missions outreach.

With this mutual edification dynamic between the races, change

structures that hinder progress in missions for all. For example, encour-

age black Christians to rethink the use of two missions strategies. I call

one strategy "black power demands" and the other "congregation." I

present reasons why they enable whites to maintain status quo segrega-

tion in missions and neglect mutual edification.

184

Black Power Demands. With good intentions to change the status quo

in missions, Christian African Americans may use race to mobilize

blacks or to present black-poweristic demands to whites. For instance,

they may insist that only blacks govern blacks in ministry and then im-

plement separate-but-equal ministry systems.

Unfortunately, when African Americans separate themselves in re-

action to white domination in missions, I believe they enable whites to

blame blacks for racial division and preserve racial segregation.

Both sides might feel more comfortable with this segregated status

quo, but the old paradigm of racial division will continue to demobi-

lize them. Historically, many Christian African-American leaders have

used nationalistic race-talk to rally stratified black social classes, in-

crease business opportunities, or provide a united front to racist whites.

Some black evangelical middle-class leaders now imply that they want

to create a separate black missions movement for African Americans.

Instead, embrace a Biblical model that mobilizes a united missions

force without regard to race or class. Be careful when using race to mo-

bilize African Americans so you do not create a separate-but-equal mis-

sions structure that perpetuates injustice. Exercise your Biblical right

to enlist the support of the entire Body of Christ to send missionaries

without racial discrimination.

Black leaders have been legitimately concerned that African Amer-

icans remain invisible in white-dominated structures when a "raceless"

vision is pursued.(25) On the other hand, settling for a segregated mis-

sions force, to get more black missionaries, enables injustice.

Would not a vanguard refuse to settle for a segregated missions

force just because it might be better than our predicament of having

only a few African Americans?

Black leaders made this kind of choice in the 1930s during Jim Crow

segregation of Norfolk's beaches.(26) For eight years, I worked under

African-American church leaders who had endured Jim Crow segrega-

tion. They preferred to baptize at an isolated and unused beach on the

Chesapeake Bay called "City Beach."

I learned that this obscure shoreline was once the segregated "black

beach." Before the 1930s, Jim Crow had prevented African Americans

from swimming at all of Norfolk's beaches. Black leaders enlisted the

help of elite whites to open this beach for blacks. After a two-year po-

litical struggle, city leaders allowed blacks there because of its isolation

from potential white real estate development.

185

Ironically, African-American leaders joined with elite whites and

used race to encourage Jim Crow segregation. To the black leaders back

then, a distant segregated beach was better than none at all, even if their

efforts "enabled"* injustice to continue unchallenged.(27)

If you invoke race to heighten your cause of mobilizing African

Americans, be sure to preserve your full spiritual right to mobilize all

races together without discrimination. Worse consequences may come

if black leaders limit Christian African Americans' spiritual rights, in

fulfilling Christ's Commission, in order to further power-broker-type

agendas. In the past, sacrificing people's rights to accomplish one's own

agenda has brought demobilizing consequences in other ways.

For example, NAACP lawyers won a state Supreme Court decision

in 1940 that gave Norfolk's black teachers the legal clout to demand

equal pay. Yet, several black leaders convinced these teachers to settle

for much less. These leaders wanted to use this court victory to push

their own agenda with city officials.

The NAACP lawyers called the city's offer to the teachers "dis-

graceful."(28) World War II prevented these black leaders from getting

what they wanted from the city officials.(29)

Empower all believers to exercise their spiritual rights to mobilize

with the entire Body of Christ. Be prepared to avoid racialized agen-

das that may undermine this mobilization process. In the 1960s, Af-

rican Americans implemented the "Negro Strategy" that used black

group-unity to negotiate for improved balance of power.(30) However,

Scripture and history bear witness to how power struggles among Chris-

tians demobilize us all.

____________________

*I mean "enabling" in the sense of helping continued self-destructive behavior by

removing consequences. The enabler does not cause nor is responsible for the destruc-

tive behavior, but helps it continue. In interventions with people addicted to drugs, I

learned the necessity of carefully confronting enabling behavior without blaming the

victims. One enabling behavior is to react in a dysfunctional way, which a drug abuser

uses to shift blame to the enabler. When someone nags, fights, or reacts disrespectfully,

substance abusers use these reactions to shift the problem's focus onto the enabler's

behavior. Transferring blame to the enabler removes the consequence of being held

responsible, so the drug abuse continues. I believe this same kind of enabling occurs in

America's dysfunctional Christian family between black and white Christians.

186

Let me adapt W. E. B. Dubois' criticism of Booker T. Washington's

self-help ideology that denied blacks their rights, equality, and oppor-

tunity at the beginning of the 20th century. I dare to take great liber-

ty when paraphrasing his words to apply them to black leaders today

who limit African Americans' rights and opportunities to fulfill Christ's

Great Commission:

Some black leaders' doctrine has tended to help whites shift the bur-

den of black missions mobilization to the African American's shoulder

and stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact

the burden belongs to the entire Body of Christ, and the hands of none of

us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting the great wrongs that

undermine black rights, equality, and opportunities in making disciples,

for the Lord Jesus, of all nations.(31)

Congregation. In the early 20th century, urban African Americans

coped with white segregation by transforming it into "congregation."

They used segregation's structural barriers as opportunities to increase

their community and autonomy outside of white control.

This autonomy provided power, though limited, to exercise free-will

within their culture and communities. Congregating produced the van-

guard organizations that worked to improve African Americans' home

lives. By being in community with other African Americans, they af-

firmed their humanity and rose above their status as second-class citi-

zens.(32)

In case you did not notice, African Americans still may group to-

gether to cope and find their identities. Beverly Tatum explained this

black identity-formation strategy that enables racial division between

black and white Christians. Tatum's book, Why Are All the Black Kids

Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, provides insights about how African

Americans help each other find their racial identities in white society.

Their subconscious objective for sticking together is to figure out

their black identities and roles in white-controlled systems.(33) These

insights seem relevant to my discussion on race and missions. I minister

in multi-racial contexts where I often see African Americans searching

for their racial identities in white-dominant environments.

From my observations, I believe that this congregating phenomenon

occurs when African Americans mobilize for missions. To sort out their

potential missionary identities, they turn to other African Americans for

input and discussion. Since missions is still segregated, I believe this

187

congregating strategy explains the reason African Americans sponsor

their own afro-centric missions ministries, conferences, prayer meet-

ings, symposiums, etc.

For my purposes here, Dr. Tatum's title could be rephrased to ask:

"Why Are All the Black Christians Sitting Together in World Mis-

sions?" It seems that when African-American missions mobilization

is addressed, African Americans congregate together under the Black/

African-American identity banner to have separate prayer meetings,

conferences, departments, panels, student ministries, movements, strat-

egies, schools, websites, etc. Dr. Tatum's book explains why this hap-

pens and why it is a good phenomenon. (I will not try to convince any-

one that I can relate to the experience of developing one's black identity

in white society).

Unfortunately, separate black mission's mobilization systems may

not achieve your vanguard mobilization results. I believe that mobiliz-

ing separately from whites will "enable"* white Christians to continue

negatively stereotyping Christian African Americans. Doing your own

"black thing" more likely reinforces the impression among whites that

African Americans cause the racial division among Christians.

When Christian African Americans separate missions under their

own black identity, they may leave whites feeling absolved of their own

responsibilities to send out people of African descent. Whites who feel

they have taken responsibility for their own, individual prejudice and

want to love and get to know African Americans may return to their

white-only view of missions, believing that African Americans must

want it that way.

Also, researchers say that whites become frustrated with reconcilia-

tion and believe that blacks are trying to be divisive when they conduct

separate black cultural events. I believe this frustration with reconcilia-

tion may also occur in missions.

For example, a white missions leader told me of his impression that

American black Christians carry a racial chip on their shoulders.

____________________

*Again, I am using the clinical definition of enabling where someone helps another to

continue self-destructive behavior by removing the consequences. The enabler does

not cause nor is responsible for the destructive behavior, but helps it continue. In

this case, the enabler reacts in a dysfunctional way to give a self-destructing person

reasons to shift the focus of the problem back on the enabler instead of taking respon-

sibility to change.

188

A comment like this would offend many African Americans, but if

you structure your vanguard movement separately from other races, who

will confront this kind of status quo thinking and mobilize a diverse, but

unified, Body of Christ? You did not cause white Christians' neglect of

African-American missions mobilization and you are not responsible

for their discrimination.

Yet, if you react by separating from them and other races, will

you not "enable" whites to maintain status quo segregated structures?

Would not a vanguard react in such a way that requires whites to take

responsibility for their segregated structures without allowing them

to shift blame for racial division onto African Americans and call it a

"black problem?"

Unfortunately no one has been explaining to white Christians this

need for blacks to process their racial identities. Instead, whites assume

that blacks who congregate separately do not want or need them, which

enables whites to carry on the status quo within their segregated mis-

sions structures.

Again, exercise your spiritual rights to mobilize the entire Body of

Christ and to be sent out by all believers without racial division or dis-

crimination. In the present paradigm, black and white American Chris-

tians frustrate and neglect each other while trying to fulfill Christ's

Commission in two-tier, racially segregated missions programs. Shift

this paradigm, as a vanguard leader, and mobilize a unified missionary

force and support base.

Offer the Biblical alternative to Christian ministries that try to use

congregation to grow their ministries through segregation. For example,

college ministries may capitalize on student congregation tendencies on

campuses to establish separate-but-equal, racially divided chapters. For

the cause of embracing ethnic and cultural diversity, they may also teach

that status quo racial division is Biblical.

They might support racial segregation by saying God divided the

races at the Tower of Babel in Genesis, people heard the Apostles speak

in their own languages at Pentecost in Acts, and every ethnic group will

worship before Christ as prophesied in Revelation.

I agree that these Bible precedents celebrate racial diversity but they

do not encourage segregation. If anything, these examples in Scripture

support integration of diverse races and cultures "built upon the founda-

tion of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief

cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth

189

unto a holy temple in the Lord." (Ephesians 2:20,21)

I acknowledge that ministries face circumstances that are unique to

their own contexts. Yet, dividing ministries by race to increase growth

in numbers, in my opinion, sets back racial reconciliation 50 years. Ho-

mogeneous growth strategies are impractical for mobilizing African

Americans in the existing race-segregated American missions system.

Raise this question as a standard: Does it work? I mean, how well

do segregated college ministry structures mobilize a diverse and united

missions force for campuses, communities, and the world?

If ministries divide by race to grow, then I guess it is OK to get racial

and ask: Where are the long-term African-American missionaries from

the separated-but-equals' systems?

When African Americans mobilize themselves under a separate

black banner, they enable white Christians to stereotypically group

them as a race. Whites may conclude, then, that blacks are mobilizing

separately for missions because they still carry the racial chip on their

shoulders. Separate black meetings allow white Christians to maintain

their segregated systems and put the blame on African Americans for

their failing to mobilize. White Christians individually confronting their

personal prejudices do not have to identify and change demobilizing

structures as they wonder why blacks cannot get over the past.

In addition, seek diverse worship experiences to prepare for glob-

al leadership. Enter God's presence and communion with Him through

many diverse cultural expressions. Those who segregate worship must

assume that God will limit your leadership to black people. Prepare for

world impact by locking hearts with believers of every ethnic group as

possible. Embrace their cultures as you serve to mobilize them. Doing

that, I am confident that you will never go back to separate-but-equal

discriminating attempts to glorify God. Since He gives you the nations

as your missions destiny, why imitate white ethnocentrism by embrac-

ing only the black culture and limit your global leadership expectations?

Make mobilization your vanguard priority and avoid token struc-

tures that might undermine fulfilling Christ's Commission. Whites may

promote a few African Americans to token leadership positions, a step

that maintains the status quo racially divided structures. Harr found also

that whites often treated African Americans like charity cases in mis-

sions. This structure and attitude threatens the vanguard leader's ability

to mobilize the masses.

Likewise, some African Americans protect the power they wield as

190

token leaders in white systems. They use this power to assist whites in

preserving demobilizing segregated structures.

Optimize whites' individualism to introduce them to new missions

structures. Usually, Christian whites attempt racial reconciliation on an

individual basis. For instance, they confess individual prejudice, try to

get to know specific African Americans, and want to show love through

personal relationships. Unfortunately, this individualized approach to

reconciliation may allow their status quo segregated missions structures

to remain unchallenged and unchanged.

Ask the Lord of the Harvest to use white Christians' individualism

to send them into His harvest as your co-laborers in a new missions

paradigm. When you welcome them into your new unified movement,

I believe you will find some willing to make great personal sacrifices.

Perhaps these white students will confront status quo structures bravely

like the ones who joined black student leaders as Freedom Riders.

Therefore, add expectation, investigation, and edification to your

new paradigm of change. Recognizing how often white Christians fail

to see structures, get a clear picture of demobilizing structures that you

must navigate and revolutionize to mobilize the masses.

Now take your turn to sacrificially pull students of different races

and socio-economic backgrounds into your movement. Lead them from

the front and bring freedom and justice to fulfill God's eternal purpose.

Make known His great glory, fame and majesty as vanguards of Christ's

missionary uprising.

Wherever your spiritual journey goes from here, I challenge you to

passionately fulfill Christ missions as His vanguard. Champion a spiri-

tual revolution where African-American students from across our nation

mobilize for God's great glory. Pioneer to unite racially and socioeco-

nomically diverse American and international Christians under the Lord

Jesus and His mission.

Lead God's masses as one people to finish the great global task that

Christ sent and authorized us to complete. Step up to the front lines and

mobilize us all with vanguard innovation. Then we will obey Christ to-

gether - free at last to fulfill such a Great Commission. Thank God, we

will be free at last!

191

Notes

Preface

1. W.E.B Dubois, Farah J. Griffin, The Souls of Black Folk, (New York: Barnes and

Noble Classics, 2003), xxii.

2. Earl Lewis, In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century

Norfolk, Virginia, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 187.

3. John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 15.

Chapter 1

1. Carlton Truax, "`Big Apple' Site Will House Bible School," The Columbia Record.

Columbia, South Carolina, Vol. LIX-No.44, June 16, 1955, 1-A, 9-A. "First Negro

Bible Institute to Open Here in September, The State, Columbia, South Carolina, July

15, 1955, 12-A.

2. "Vanguard." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 23 Jan-

uary 2012. <http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard>, 17 February 2012.

3."The Vanguard," The Free Dictionary, Farlex, Inc. <http://www.thefreedictionary.

com/vanguard>, 17 February 2012.

4. Douglas Egerton, "Douglas Egerton on the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint L'Ouver-

ture, and Jefferson," Africans in America Part III: 1791-1831, Resource Bank, PBS

Online,<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3i3130.html>, 30 July 2012.

5. Paul LaChance, "An Empire Gone Awry." Humanities. Vol. 23.Issue 6. November

2002.

6. Egerton, < http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3i3130.html>, 30 July 2012.

7. John M. Weiss, "The Corps of Colonial Marines: Black freedom fighters of the War

of 1812," Althea McNish & John Weiss News, 15 June 2012 <http://www.mcnishand-

weiss.co.uk/history/colonialmarines. html>, 29 July 2012. Paul Clancy, "On Tangier,

slaves could choose: Liberty afar or fight for British" Our Stories: A Look at Hampton

Roads History, The Virginian-Pilot, 8 July 2012, 3.

8. "Gabriel's Conspiracy, 1799-1800," Africans in America Part III: 1791-1831, Re-

source Bank, PBS Online, <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1576.htm,l>, 30

July 2012

9."Fort Gadsden and the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola," ExploreSouthernHistory.

com - Fort Gadsden Historic Site, Florida, <http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/

fortgadsden3.html> 30 July 2012. "Florida's Negro Fort, 1815-1816," Africans in

America Part III: 1791-1831, Resource Bank, PBS Online, <http://www.pbs.org/

wgbh/aia/part3/3p1643.html>, 30 July 2012.

10. Piper, 15.

11. Wilber C. Harr, "The Negro as an American Protestant Missionary in Africa: A

Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Divinity School in Candidacy for the De-

gree of Doctor of Philosophy," University of Chicago, March 1945, 89-91.

12. Ralph D. Winter, "Four Men, Three Eras, Two Transitions: Modern Missions."

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, 3rd Edition, (Pasadena: William Car-

ey Library, 1999), 254.

13. Leighton Ford, "Jesus the Transforming Leader," Evangelism Leadership Seminar,

Leighton Ford Ministries, 14 September 1989.

192

Chapter 2

1. Kevin Avruch, Culture and Conflict Resolution, (Washington, D.C.: United States

Institute of Peace, 2006), 13.

2. Carol Morello, "The Number of Biracial Babies Soars Over the Past Decade," Post

Local, The Washington Post, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/number-of-bi-

racial-babiessoars-over-past-decade/2012/04/25/gIQAWRiAiT_story.html>, 11 No-

vember 2012.

3. Avruch, 10.

Chapter 3

1. Bob Marley, "Bob Marley--redemption song acoustic." 26 September 2007. You-

Tube, http://youtu.be/OFGgbT_VasI. 29 January 2012.

2. Fredrick Douglas, Wikiquote, Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 14 February 2012, <http://

en.wikiquote.org/ wiki/Fredrick_Douglas>, 17 February 2012.

3. Linda J. Weber, Mission Handbook: U.S. and Canadian Protestant Ministries Over-

seas (2007-2009), (Wheaton: EMIS, 2007), 12.

4. "African-American/Black Market Profile: Drawing on Diversity for Successful

Marketing." <http://www.magazine.org/content/files/market_profile_black.pdf> , 30

January 2012. 11.

5. "Strategic Overview," Urban Discovery Ministries Strategic Game Plan. Urban Dis-

covery Ministries, 2012, 1.

6. George Liele, "Africans in America Part 2 1750-1805," PBS Resource Bank, <www.

pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p49.html>, 1 February 2012.

Chapter 4

1. "Brambleton Is In Eruption Again; Near-White Family Ordered To Move Out: Del-

egation of Residents Visits Newly Arrived Family At Night and Warns That Color

Bars Presence In Neighborhood," Norfolk Journal and Guide, 14 July 1923,1. "Bram-

bleton Bars Colored People," Virginian Pilot, 10 July 23. Lewis, 77.

2. Dubois, 146.

3. Ibid., 133.

Chapter 5

1. George Liele, "Africans in America Part 2 1750-1805," PBS Resource Bank, <www.

pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p49.html>, 1 February 2012.

Chapter 6

1. Stanley Nelson, "Freedom Riders," 15 May 2011, PBS Video. <http://video.pbs.

org/video/92557110/>, 30 January 2012.

2. Tatum, 83.

3. "Calling the Church Back to Integrity," Cape Town 2010 Articles, The Laus-

anne Movement, <http://www.lausanne.org/en/documents/cape-town-2010/arti-

cles/1386-calling-the-church-back-to-integrity.html>, 22 February 2012.

Chapter 7

1. Lecrae, "Beautiful Feet," Reach Records, Release Date: August 27, 2008. <http://

reachrecords.com/lyrics/show/Beautiful-Feetfeat.- Dawntoya> 13 June 2012.

193

Chapter 8

1. Piper, 26.

Chapter 9

1. Piper, 15.

2. Live Steez Research Team, Indiana Recorder, "Controversial Report: The Black

Church Has Received Over $420 Billion in Tax Free Dollars Since 1980?" 2 Febru-

ary 2011 <www.indianapolisrecorder.com/news/feature/article_7018f01d-a668-5cb6-

972dd3d45...> 29 January 2012.

3. "African-American/Black Market Profile: Drawing on Diversity for Successful

Marketing." <www.magazine.org/market profiles>, 30 January 2012, 10.

4. Dubois, 108.

Chapter 10

1. Dubois, 83,

2. Ibid., xx.

3. Ibid., 44.

4. Samuel D. Proctor. The Substance of Things Hoped for: A Memoir of African-Amer-

ican Faith, (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1995), 48.

5. Ralph D. Winter, "The Two Structures of God's Redemptive Mission," Perspectives

on the World Christian Movement, 3rd Edition, (Pasadena: William Carey Library,

1999), 229.

6. Eric Tranby and Douglas Hartmann, "Critical Whiteness Theories and the Evan-

gelical `Race Problem': Extending Emerson and Smith's Divided by Faith," Journal

for the Scientific Study of Religion, (2008) 47(3), <http://www.soc.umn.edu/research/

amp/Publications/CriticalWhitenessTheoriesandtheEvangelicalRaceProblem.pdf>,

13 April 2012, 346.

7. Harr, 77.

8. Ibid., 131.

9. Ibid., 80.

10. William E. Hocking. Re-Thinking Missions: A Layman's Inquiry After 100 Years,

(New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1932), 23.

11. Horance Russell, The Missionary Outreach of the West Indian Church: Jamaican

Baptist Missions to West Africa in the Nineteenth Century, (New York: Peter Lang,

2000), 1.

12. William E. Phipps, William Sheppard: Congo's African-American Livingstone,

(Louisville: Geneva Press, 2002), 135.

13. Bowen, 41.

14. Dana L. Robert, Converting Colonialism: Visions and Realities in Mission History,

1706-1914, (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2008), 57.

15. Russell, 3.

16. Edward B. Underhill, Alfred Saker Biography (London:Alexander and Shep-

herd, 1884) 36. 13 April 2010, <http://www.archive.org/stream/alfredsakermissi-

00unde#page/n3/mode/2up>, 10 April 2012.

17. Harr, 55.

18. Robert, 48.

19. "African-American Missions: A Chronological History," The Travel Team, <http://

194

www.thetravelingteam.org/historicalbasis/african-americanmissions>, 12 April 2012.

20. Robert, 241.

21. "Who Saved India for England?" Baptist Missionary Magazine, Volume LIX, No.

3, March 1879, 77.

22. "The White Man's Burden": Kipling's Hymn to U.S. Imperialism," History Mat-

ters: the U.S. Survey Course of the Web, American Social History Project / Center for

Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for

History and New Media (George Mason University), 10 April 2012, <http://history-

matters. gmu.edu/d/5478/>, 13 April 2012.

23. "Records of Baptist Missionary Society Collection 223," Billy Graham Center Ar-

chives. 6 August 2001, <http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/223.htm>,

10 April 2012.

24. Paul R. Dekar, "Jamaican and British Baptists in West Africa, 1841-1888," Bap-

tist World Alliance Heritage and Identity Commission Paper, July 2001. <http://www.

bwa-baptistheritage. org/dek.htm>, 10 April 2012.

25. Ibid.

26. Robert, 48.

27. Russell, 255.

28. Ibid., 265.

29. Mark Dawes, "How Race Ruined Missions in Nigeria," Jamaica Gleaner News,

20 January 2007, <http://jamaicagleaner. com/gleaner/20070120/news/news5.html>,

10 April 2012.

30. Harr, 78.

31. William Carey, "An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for

the Conversion of the Heathens," Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, 3rd

Edition, (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1999), 293.

32. Benny Crocket, "How Did William Carey Respond to Slavery?", The Cobbler,

Vol. 47, No. 9, William Carey College, March 27, 2003, <http://www.wmcarey.edu/

carey/supporters/cobbler/cobbler-march-2003.htm>, 13 April 2012.

33. Peter M. Bergman, The Chronological History of the Negro in America, (New

York: Harper and Row, 1969), 540-547, 10.

34. "Testimony to the Success of Missions," American Baptist Board of Foreign Mis-

sions, Vol. XIX, No. 12, December 1839, 292.

35. "Gabriel's Conspiracy, 1799-1800," <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1576.

html>, 31 July 2012.

36. Fariss, 123.

37. Carolyn E. Fick, Making Haiti: Saint Dominique Revolution from Below, (Knox-

ville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990), 93.

38. Mary Turner, Slaves and Missionaries: The Disintegration of Jamaican Slave So-

ciety, 1787-1834, (Kingston: The Press of University of West Indies, 1998). 148-178.

39. "Emancipation," This is Jamaica, Jamaica Information Service, 2009, <http://

www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/This%20Is%20Jamaica/emancipation.html>, 21

November 2012.

40. Dekar, 1.

41. Ibid., 1.

42. "Biography: Memoir of the Late William Garnon," The Missionary Register Con-

firming the Principle Transactions of the Various Institutions for the Propagating of the

195

Gospel with the Proceedings, at Large, of the Church Missionary Society, (London:

L.B. Seeley, 1819), 286.

43. Dubois, 19.

44. Dekar, 1.

45. Tatum, 83.

46. Harr, 131.

47. Jacobs, 20.

48. Christian Occupation of Africa, Appendix Table.

49. William E. Phipps, William Sheppard: Congo's African-American Livingstone,

(Louisville: Geneva Press, 2002), 132.

50. Ibid., 66.

51. Samuel W. Lynd. Memoir of Rev. William Staughton, Part 4, (Boston: Lincoln,

Edmonds and Company, 1834), 174.

52. David C. Laubach. "American Baptist Home Missions Roots 1824-2010," Ameri-

can Baptist Home Missions Society, <http://www.abhms.org/docs/Roots%20booklet.

pdf>, 9 April 2012, 4.

53. "Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery," Africans in AmericaBrotherly Love,

Part 3: 1791-1831, Public Broadcasting Service, 2012, <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/

aia/part3/3narr6.html> 11 March 2012.

54. John G. Turner, "A `Black-White' Missionary on the Imperial Stage: William

H. Sheppard and Middle Class Black Manhood," The Journal of Southern Religion,

<http://jsr.fsu.edu/Volume9/Turner.htm>,29 January 2012, 3.

55. Phipps, 11.

Chapter 11

1. "Remembering Tuskegee: Syphilis Study Still Provokes Disbelief, Sadness," NPR,

25 July 2002, <http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/>, 8

June 2012.

2. Kevin K. Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics and Culture in the

Twentieth Century, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 253.

3. Sylvia Jacobs, Black Americans and the Missionary Movement in Africa, (West-

port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982), 35.

4. Ibid., 225.

5. Christian Occupation of Africa: Proceedings of the Africa Conference Held in New

York City November 20, 21, and 22, 1917, (Committee of Reference and Counsel of

the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, 1917), 36.

6. Ibid., 56-59.

7. Proctor, 49.

8. Cone, 55.

9. Bowen, 230.

10. Willard B. Gatewood, Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880-1920, (Fayette-

ville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000), 303.

11. "Lincoln Birthday Offering Service, 1890," Freedman's Aid and Southern Ed-

ucation Society, Open Library, 13 April 2010 <http://openlibrary.org/books/

OL24130430M/Lincoln's_birthday_offering_service> 8 June 2012. 4.

12. The Student Missionary Appeal: Addresses at the Third International Convention

of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions Held at Cleveland, Ohio,

196

February 23-27, 1898, (New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Mis-

sions, 1898), <http://archive.org/details/thestudentmissio00unknuoft>, 20 April 2012,

162-165.

13. Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society, Freedmen's Aid and Southern

Education Society (1904), (Cincinnati: Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education So-

ciety of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1904) 10 March 2001 <http://archive.org/

details/freedmensaidsout00free>, 25 April 2012.

14. Bowen, 9.

15. Ibid., 216.

16. Don Fanning, "Eschatology and Missions," Themes of Theology that Impacts Mis-

sions, Liberty University Center for Global Ministry, 1 January 2009, <http://works.

bepress.com/don_fanning/16>, 17 April 2012, 2.

17. Robert, 4.

18. Alvyn Austin, "Discovering Livingstone: The man, the missionary, the explorer,

the legend," Christianity Today, 1 October 1997, <http://www.christianitytoday. com/

ch/1997/issue56/56h010.html>, 17 April 2012, 4.

19. Robert, 64.

20. Franz Lau, Ernst Bizer, A History of the Reformation in Germany to 1555, (Lon-

don: Adam and Clark, 1969), 6, 138-140.

21. Fanning. 24.

22. Avruch, 6-7.

23. Jacobs, 33.

24. Martin Summers, Manliness and Its Discontents: The Black Middle Class & the

Transformation of Masculinity, 1900-1930, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina

Press, 2004), 42,43.

25. Bowen, 230.

26. Gaines, 4.

27. Ibid., 31.

28. Winter, 283. George M. Marden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, (New

York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 87. Joseph C. Hough, Black Power and White

Protestants: A Christian Response to the New Negro Pluralism, (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1968, 42.

29. The Student Missionary Appeal, 21.

30. Ibid., 161

31. Ibid., 162.

32. Phipps, 5.

33. Ibid., 15.

34. Gatewood, 24.

35. Ibid., 26.

36. Ibid., 23.

37. Summers, 30.

38. Phipps, 11.

39. Ibid., XII.

40. Gatewood, 3.

41. Turner, 3.

42. Phipps, 14.

43. Bowen, 236.

197

44. Ibid., 233.

45. Ibid. 55.

46. Phipps, 27.

47. Bowen, 47.

48. Ibid., 42.

49. Yarbrah T. Peebles, "Philanthropy and the curriculum: The role of philanthropy in

the development of curriculum at Spelman College," International Journal of Educa-

tional Advancement, Palgrave Macmillan, 18 September 2010, <http://www.palgrave-

journals.com/ijea/journal/v10/n3/full/ijea201021a.html>, 16 July 2012.

50. Linda McMurry, George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol, (New York:

Oxford University Press, 1982), 53.

51. Gateway, 316.

52. Dubois, 41.

53. Gatewood, 316.

54. Dubois, 43.

55. Gaines, 39.

56. Amy Stamback, Faith in Schools: Religion, Education, and American Evangelicals

in East Africa, (Bloomington, Il., Board of Trustees Leland Stanford Junior University,

Stanford University Press, 2010), 45.

57. Jacobs, Marable Manning, 81-90.

58. Christian Occupation of Africa, 39.

59. Ibid., 23.

60. Jacobs, Manning 90.

61. Leslie M. Alexander, Walter C. Rucker, "Atlanta, Georgia, Riot of 1906," Encyclo-

pedia of African-American History, Vol. 1, (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 622.

62. Gaines, 51.

63. Gatewood, 329.

64. Summers, 242.

65. Ibid., 178.

66. Ibid., 275,284.

67. Ibid., 105.

68.Gaines, 159.

69. Ibid., 253-254.

70. Fanning, 25.

71. George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, (New York: Oxford

University Press, 2006), 87.

72. Hough, 183.

73. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. et al., Blow the Trumpet in Zion, (Minneapolis: Fortress

Press, 2005), 95.

74. Winter, 285.

75. Shriver, 73-76.

76. Avruch, 8.

77. Wright, 19.

78. Hough, 183.

79. Marden, 87.

198

Chapter 12

1. Proctor, 18.

2. "History," About Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, <http://www.newmtp.org/about.

htm>, 13 April 2012.

3. Proctor, 47-48.

4. Proctor, 28.

5. Ibid., 48.

6. Marsden, 119-120.

7. Hough, 184.

8. Martha Simmons, Frank A. Thomas, Preaching with a Sacred Fire: An Anthology

of African-American Sermons 1750 to Present, (New York: W.W. Norton and Co.,

2010), 806.

9. Lewis, 171.

Chapter 13

1. Shirley L. Poole, "Crisis Special Report: The Round Table's Response to Dubois'

"Damnation," The New Crisis, Nov./Dec. 2000, Vol. 107, No. 6, Crisis Publishing

Co., 11-13.

2. "The Pill," People and Events: Eugenics and Birth Control, PBS Online, 1999-2001

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_eugenics.html>, 25 October

2012.

3. Poole, 12.

4. "The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Upon Accepting the Plant Parenthood Fed-

eration of America Margaret Sanger Award," Planned Parenthood, 2012, <http://www.

plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/reverend-martin-luther-king-jr-4728.

htm>, October 25, 2012.

5. Walter B. Hoye II, "In Remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Alreda King's

Blog, Priests for Life, 4 April 2011, <http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/

blog/index.php/inremembrance-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr>, 24 October 2012.

6. Tom Davis, Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and its Clergy Alliances, (New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press: 2005), 27.

7. Ibid., 56.

8. "National Religious Summit 13 on Sexuality: The Church in a Changing World,"

Black Church Coalition, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, <http://www.

rcrc.org/programs/Blackchurch_Summit13.cfm>, 24 October 2012.

9. Table 715. Families Below Poverty Level and Below 125 Percent of Poverty Level

by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1980-2009, United States' Census Bureau, <http://www.

census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0715.pdf>, 4 November 2012. Table's

Data Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage

in the United States: 2009, Current Population Reports, P60-238, and Historical and

Detailed Tables--Table 4 and POV 04, September 2010. See also <http://www.census.

gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html> and <http:///www.census.gov/hhes/www/pov-

erty/data/historical/families. html>.

10. Table 101. Abortions--Number and Rate by Race: 1990-2007, United States' Cen-

sus Bureau, <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0101.pdf>, 4

November 2012. Table's Data Sources: R.K. Jones and K. Koolstra, "Abortion In-

cidence and Access to Services in the United States, 2008," Perspectives on Sexual

199

Reproduction and Health, 2011, 43 (1): 41-50, and unpublished data from Guttmacher

Institute.

11. "New York City Releases 2010 Abortion Data," NYC41Percent.com, Chiaroscuro

Foundation, <http://www.nyc41percent.com>, 24 October 2012.

12. "Whatsoever You Do...," Speech of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the National

Prayer Breakfast, Washington, DC, February 3, 1994, <http://www.priestsforlife.org/

brochures/mtspeech.html>, 4 November 2012.

13. Proctor, 31.

14. William L. Lumpkin, Dr. Sparks: A Biography of Sparks W. Melton, (Norfolk:

Phaup Printing Company, 1963), 28.

15. Ibid., 25.

16. Ibid., 40.

17. Ibid., 31.

18. Ibid. 56.

19. Ibid. 47.

20. Ibid., 138-145.

21. Ibid., 86.

22. Proctor, 43.

23. Harry E. Fosdick, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?": Defending Liberal Protes-

tantism in the 1920s," History Matters: the U.S. Survey Course of the Web, American

Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and

the Roy

Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (George Mason University), 10 April

2012, <http://historymatters.gmu.ed/d/5070/8/>, 15 April 2012.

24. Henry L. Gates, Evelyn B. Higginbotham, African-American National Biography,

Vol. 6, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 455.

25. James H. Cone, Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation

1968-1988, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999), 55.

26. Proctor, 24

27. Curruthers,10.

28. Proctor, 37.

29. Ibid. 48.

30. Cone, 55.

31. Hough, 7.

32. Marsden, 249.

33. Table C3, "America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2011," Families and

Living Arrangements, United States' Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce,

Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey, 2011, Annual Social and

Environmental Supplement. November 2011, <http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/

data/cps2011.html>, 06 November 2012.

34. "The Father Factor: Data on the Consequences of Father Absence," <http://www.

fatherhood.org/media/consequences-of-father-absence-statistics>, 06 November

2012.

35. Hough, 191.

36. Max L. Stackhouse, Apologia: Contextualization, Globalization, and Mission in

Theological Education, (Grand Rapids:William B. Eerdsman Publishing, 1988), 74.

A. Sapsezian, S. Airtham, F. Ross Kinslet, Samuel Proctor, "Theological Require-

200

ments of a Global Community," Global Solidarity in Theological Education, (Geneva:

World Council of Churches, 1981), 15-21.

37. Stackhouse, 75.

38. Proctor, 36.

39. Cone, 55.

40. Lumpkin, 126-127.

41. Ibid., 109.

42. "Shouldn't Tolerate Levee Camps Says Norman Thomas," 21 Jan 21 1933, Nor-

folk Journal and Guide, 2. Lewis, 133.

43. "Housing, Hygiene and Health," Norfolk Journal and Guide, 5 February 1921,

Lewis, 80.

44. "A Plea for Fair Play," Norfolk Journal and Guide, 4 August 1923, " City Hall

Still Mum on Parks in Colored Area: Administration `Sits Tight' on Purse Strings on

Project Favorable to Negroes, Bids on Willoughby Tract," Norfolk Journal and Guide,

15 May 1926. Lewis, 84.

45. Lumpkin, 86.

46. Lewis, 61.

47. Proctor, 33.

48. Lewis, 57. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 6 October 1917

49. Ibid., 43.

50. Proctor, 13.

51. Ibid., 15.

52. Ibid., 36.

53. Ibid., 39

54. Fosdick, 1.

55. William E. Hocking, Rethinking Missions: A Layman's Inquiry After 100 Years,

(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1932), 68.

56. Stackhouse, 75.

57. Proctor, 24.

58. Charles H. Spurgeon, "Psalm 18:37," The Treasury of David, Bible Study

Tools.Com, Crosswalk.com.,<http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/trea-

sury-of-david/psalms-18-37.html>, 09 December 2012.

Chapter 14

1. Bergman, 547.

2. "`Go Ye and Preach the Gospel'? Five Devout Americans in Remote Ecuador Fol-

low This Precept and Are Killed," Life Magazine, 30 January 1956, 10. <http://books.

google.com/books?id+gT8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA>, 30 January 2012.

3. Robert, 4.

4. "Journal of Thomas G. Marsh: Missionary under the auspices of Africa Inland Mis-

sion whose stations are situated in British & German East Africa, and N. E. Belgian

Congo," An unpublished diary with entries dated from 1 August 1916 to 2 January

1919.

5. Fanning, 28.

6. Marsden, 86.

7. Marsden, 85-87. Alfreda M. Duster, Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida

B. Wells, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1970), 112.

201

8. Marsden, 39.

9. Hough, 191.

10. Ibid., 183.

11. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter From Birmingham Jail: Public Domain Original

First Version of Martin Luther King's Letter From The Birmingham City Jail," Martin

Luther King, Jr. Online, <http://www.mlkonline.net/jail.html>, 18 April 2012.

Chapter 15

1. Hough, 184.

2. Tranby and Hartmann, 344.

3. Ibid., 348.

4. Ibid., 354.

5. Ibid., 345.

6. Ibid., 347.

7. Ibid., 351.

8, Ibid., 344. Hough, 184.

9. Tranby and Hartmann, 349.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid., 347.

12. Ibid., 342.

13. Ibid. 348.

14. Harr, 131.

15. Talbot Mundy, Joseph C. Coll, The Ivory Trail, (Indianapolis: The Bob Merrill Co.,

1919), 189.

16. Samuel H. Nelson, Colonialism in the Congo Basin, 1880-1940, African Series

Number 64, (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies-Mono-

graphs in International Studies, 1994), 142-178.

17. Robert D. Pearce, The Turning Point in Africa: British Colonial Policy, 1938-48,

(London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1982), 1-7.

18. Wright, 25.

19. "Unit Two: Studying Africa through the Social Studies Module, 7B: African His-

tory, the Era of Global Encroachment", Students Exploring Africa, Matrix, African

Studies Center, <http://exploringafrica. matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m7b/ac-

tivity4.php>, 16 July 2012.

20. Christian Occupation of Africa, 77, 160.

21. Harr, 134.

22. Michael O. Emerson, Christian Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and

the Problem of Race in America, (New

York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 166.

23. Harr, 91, 96.

24. Lewis. 135.

25. Ibid., 135.

26. "City Hall Still Mum on Parks in Colored Area: Administration `Sits Tight' on

Purse Strings on Project Favorable to Negroes, Bids on Willoughby Tract," Norfolk

Journal and Guide, 15 May 1926. Lewis, 84.

27. Lewis, 146. "Move to Abandon Beach Project is Defeated: Proposal of City Man-

ager is Voted Down Development of Site Too Costly, He Declares Opponents Active

202

City Council Retains Appropriation of $14,841 for Site," Norfolk Journal and Guide,

30 January 1932.

28. Lewis., 164.

29. Ibid., 173, Wertenbaker and Schlegel, Norfolk: Historic Southern Port, (Durham:

Duke University Press, 1962), 350.

30. Hough, 135.

31. Dubois, 46.

32. Lewis, 109.

33. Beverly D. Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?,

(New York: Basic Books, 2003), 83.

203

204