MLK
MLK
By: Eric Laverentz
During this week that we celebrate the life and memory of Martin Luther King Jr., it’s important that we remember he was first a pastor—albeit an imperfect one.
Just like all other pastors.
Some heart-wrenching texts came from a pastor friend last Friday night.
“It’s clear I’m on my way out. Sooner or later.”
I tried to encourage as best I could, but the conversation ended with his declaration, “Just tired of being the only one held accountable.”
I have lost count of the number of times in the last six months I have had this conversation with pastors and others serving on church staffs.
These are hard times to work in a church.
I call it the three P’s—pandemic, politics and paranoia.
The pandemic is unprecedented in the last 100 years and requires detailed, headache-inducing decision-making that runs against the instincts of the people-loving personality of most pastors.
Our politics are divisive and uninformed by Christian witness that has chosen to remain silent on most things political since the Civil Rights movement. We are divided into two camps—neither of which represents a complete picture of the Kingdom of God.
Paranoia is the excessive suspicion of others. We are a people gripped by the conviction that we are not being told the whole truth and that a conspiracy is behind everything. This is true for the right and the left. We trust our ideological allies more than the plain facts.
Even though most pastors haven’t seen 3/5 of our people since March, we see this. Like Paul, who had his own struggles, good pastors “feel anxiety for the daily pressure of all our churches.”
My friend and seminary classmate, William Vanderbloemen, wrote last week for Forbes that 2021 will be the year of “The Great Job Churn.” William is the founder and CEO of a firm that specializes in hiring church staff.
These are hard times to be pastor.
The Reverend Dr. King was no stranger to hard times as a pastor. When you read his personal letters and papers, particularly in his early years when he was thrust into the international spotlight of leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott while pastoring Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, you see a man who was pulled in many directions who consistently had to say “No.” In his remarks to his congregation in the 1957 Annual Church Report he said, “I face the frustration of feeling that in the midst of so many things to do that I am not doing anything well.”1
Letter after letter to friends and colleagues begins with the declaration, “I must apologize for being so tardy.”
He was constantly attacked by critics from every corner—near and far. He even responded to a few like Mrs. Sally Canada of Huntington, West Virginia who called him a “lunatic” and accused him of hating white segregationists. To her he replied that he totally disagreed with her position and does not hate those who believe in segregation. Yet, he closed saying “Thank you for your interest and willingness to correspond with me.” 2
Still, there were times when King pastorally missed the mark. In a regular advice column he authored for Ebony magazine, a woman lamented that her husband, “one of the pillars of the church” was “a complete tyrant at home” who “hate(s) me and my children.” King’s advice to her began with these words, “I would suggest that you analyze your whole situation and see if there is anything within your personality that arouses this tyrannical response from your husband.” 3
It’s well documented that King battled other demons in his life as well.
When we elevate someone to the status of myth (in the largest sense of the word) their life easily becomes an empty sack into which we pour all our best and noblest ambitions. When that happens, we lose all nuance of their unique, God-given meaning.
Martin Luther King Jr. was first a pastor and an imperfect one. This does not diminish his leadership of the Civil Rights movement or the courage, resilience, vision and faith he demonstrated throughout his life. King suffered much to change our world and his challenge was only heightened by his imperfections.
For our pastors today, who also face significant challenges (although unequal to King’s), we need not compare them to the picture of any perfect man, whose true life is obscured by historical greatness. We need not hold them up to impossible standards unmoored from reality.
In short, Christians, your pastors and church staffs in the midst of a battle against the 3 P’s for the soul of the Church need your love, prayer, and realistic expectations for their flawed humanity.
Part of King’s success was because the congregation of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church were unwavering in their support for their imperfect pastor. And King was grateful. More than once when King detailed his struggles meeting his obligations as their pastor, he thanked them for their love and support.
At moments when I have lagged behind in my church responsibilities you have refused to complain. You have carried on in my absence in a manner pleasing to God Himself. When I, along with my family, face moments of great physical danger you were always at my side. When my critics, both white and Negro, sought to cut me down and lessen my influence, you always came to me with encouraging words: “We are with you to end.” For all the expressions of moral support and Christian love, I am eternally grateful. These are things that come to bring a little light to the all too many dark moments of leadership. 4
Could King have endured those nerve-wracking years of pastoring a church, caring for his young family, and leading a national movement with an unsupportive, unloving congregation?
It’s doubtful. We rightly celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and his transforming leadership and vision, but we do well to recognize the congregation who loved their imperfect, distracted pastor and supported him to greatness.
May the same be said of our congregations today. Your imperfect pastors need you.
Martin Luther King Jr., “Annual Report, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, presented on 23 October 1957” 1 found in The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Volume IV (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000) p. 289.
Martin Luther King Jr., “To Sally Canada” found in The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Volume III 2 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997)
Martin Luther King Jr., “Advice for Living, November 1957” found in The Papers of Martin Luther King 3 Jr. Volume III (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), p. 305.
“Annual Report, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, presented on 23 October 1957,” p. 289.
Just like all other pastors.
Some heart-wrenching texts came from a pastor friend last Friday night.
“It’s clear I’m on my way out. Sooner or later.”
I tried to encourage as best I could, but the conversation ended with his declaration, “Just tired of being the only one held accountable.”
I have lost count of the number of times in the last six months I have had this conversation with pastors and others serving on church staffs.
These are hard times to work in a church.
I call it the three P’s—pandemic, politics and paranoia.
The pandemic is unprecedented in the last 100 years and requires detailed, headache-inducing decision-making that runs against the instincts of the people-loving personality of most pastors.
Our politics are divisive and uninformed by Christian witness that has chosen to remain silent on most things political since the Civil Rights movement. We are divided into two camps—neither of which represents a complete picture of the Kingdom of God.
Paranoia is the excessive suspicion of others. We are a people gripped by the conviction that we are not being told the whole truth and that a conspiracy is behind everything. This is true for the right and the left. We trust our ideological allies more than the plain facts.
Even though most pastors haven’t seen 3/5 of our people since March, we see this. Like Paul, who had his own struggles, good pastors “feel anxiety for the daily pressure of all our churches.”
My friend and seminary classmate, William Vanderbloemen, wrote last week for Forbes that 2021 will be the year of “The Great Job Churn.” William is the founder and CEO of a firm that specializes in hiring church staff.
These are hard times to be pastor.
The Reverend Dr. King was no stranger to hard times as a pastor. When you read his personal letters and papers, particularly in his early years when he was thrust into the international spotlight of leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott while pastoring Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, you see a man who was pulled in many directions who consistently had to say “No.” In his remarks to his congregation in the 1957 Annual Church Report he said, “I face the frustration of feeling that in the midst of so many things to do that I am not doing anything well.”1
Letter after letter to friends and colleagues begins with the declaration, “I must apologize for being so tardy.”
He was constantly attacked by critics from every corner—near and far. He even responded to a few like Mrs. Sally Canada of Huntington, West Virginia who called him a “lunatic” and accused him of hating white segregationists. To her he replied that he totally disagreed with her position and does not hate those who believe in segregation. Yet, he closed saying “Thank you for your interest and willingness to correspond with me.” 2
Still, there were times when King pastorally missed the mark. In a regular advice column he authored for Ebony magazine, a woman lamented that her husband, “one of the pillars of the church” was “a complete tyrant at home” who “hate(s) me and my children.” King’s advice to her began with these words, “I would suggest that you analyze your whole situation and see if there is anything within your personality that arouses this tyrannical response from your husband.” 3
It’s well documented that King battled other demons in his life as well.
When we elevate someone to the status of myth (in the largest sense of the word) their life easily becomes an empty sack into which we pour all our best and noblest ambitions. When that happens, we lose all nuance of their unique, God-given meaning.
Martin Luther King Jr. was first a pastor and an imperfect one. This does not diminish his leadership of the Civil Rights movement or the courage, resilience, vision and faith he demonstrated throughout his life. King suffered much to change our world and his challenge was only heightened by his imperfections.
For our pastors today, who also face significant challenges (although unequal to King’s), we need not compare them to the picture of any perfect man, whose true life is obscured by historical greatness. We need not hold them up to impossible standards unmoored from reality.
In short, Christians, your pastors and church staffs in the midst of a battle against the 3 P’s for the soul of the Church need your love, prayer, and realistic expectations for their flawed humanity.
Part of King’s success was because the congregation of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church were unwavering in their support for their imperfect pastor. And King was grateful. More than once when King detailed his struggles meeting his obligations as their pastor, he thanked them for their love and support.
At moments when I have lagged behind in my church responsibilities you have refused to complain. You have carried on in my absence in a manner pleasing to God Himself. When I, along with my family, face moments of great physical danger you were always at my side. When my critics, both white and Negro, sought to cut me down and lessen my influence, you always came to me with encouraging words: “We are with you to end.” For all the expressions of moral support and Christian love, I am eternally grateful. These are things that come to bring a little light to the all too many dark moments of leadership. 4
Could King have endured those nerve-wracking years of pastoring a church, caring for his young family, and leading a national movement with an unsupportive, unloving congregation?
It’s doubtful. We rightly celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and his transforming leadership and vision, but we do well to recognize the congregation who loved their imperfect, distracted pastor and supported him to greatness.
May the same be said of our congregations today. Your imperfect pastors need you.
Martin Luther King Jr., “Annual Report, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, presented on 23 October 1957” 1 found in The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Volume IV (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000) p. 289.
Martin Luther King Jr., “To Sally Canada” found in The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Volume III 2 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997)
Martin Luther King Jr., “Advice for Living, November 1957” found in The Papers of Martin Luther King 3 Jr. Volume III (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), p. 305.
“Annual Report, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, presented on 23 October 1957,” p. 289.
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