Post on 02-Apr-2015
Baptist HistoryLesson 29
Baptists and the African American Church
I. Slavery in America
A. Coming of the slaves
1619 Dutch ship at Jamestown
Samuel Sewell The Selling of JosephJohn Wolman and the Society of FriendsJonathan Edwards, Jr. (Mt. 7:14)
OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY
B. EARLY MINISTRY AMONG SLAVES
C. OPPOSITION TO EVANGELISM
John Elliot Cotton Mather
1. No soul; less than human2. Awkward to have slave as brother3. Couldn’t work on Sabbath!4. “Free in Christ” equals “free man”
D. CONVERSION OF THE SLAVES1. First Great Awakening
Samuel DaviesGeorge Whitefield
“He prayed that grace in ev’ry heart might dwell,
He longed to see America excell:
Take him, ye Africans, he longs for you, ‘Impartial Savior’ is his title due;
Washed in the fountain of redeeming blood,
You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to God.”
“Nearly 50 Negroes came to give me thanks for what God had done to their souls”
Phillis Wheatley
“Through Whitefield’s preaching . . . The slaves were given the resources for constructing their own slave religion in evangelical terms that eventually led to the creation of an autonomous black church”
Dr. David Calhoun
Preaching
Spirituals
Late 18th and early 19th centuries “The Dawn of a New Day”
How did this happen?
Carter Woodson “The History of the Black Church”
II. White Missions to Blacks
Charles C. Jones
“The Apostle to the Negro Slaves”
“The religious instruction of our servants is a duty. Any man with a conscience may be made to feel it. It can be discharged…it must be discharged” (emphasis author)
John Girardeau (1825-1898)
Zion Presbyterian Church
How do we sum up our views of the white Southern preacher?
1,000 black members250 white members
III. The Invisible Institution ‘the secret black church in the South’
Albert Raboteau
“White fo’ks have deir servic in de mornin’, an’ de (negroes) have deirs in de evenin’, a’ter dey clean up, wash de dishes, an’ look a’ter everything… .Ya’ see (negroes), lack (like) ta shout a whole lot, an’ wid de white fo’ks al’round ‘em, dey couldn’t shout jes’ lack dey want to”
Sarah Fitzpatrick, Alabama slave
Private “hush meetings”
Public camp meetings
Greatest gift: Spirituals
IV. Black Baptist Churches in the South
George Liele (c. 1750-1825/28)
Silver Bluff, SC 1773/74
First African American Baptist Church, Savannah 1778
Savannah First African Baptist Church
1783 Moves to Jamaica
Ethiopian Baptist Church
Andrew Bryan (1737-1812)
John C Jasper
(1812-1901)
Richmond - 1815 African American Missionary Society
1821 – Colin Teague & Lott Carey to Liberia
V. Methodist/Richard Allen (1760-1831)
Bethel M. E. Church, 1794
1815 – African Methodist Episcopal Church
Daniel Payne (1811-1893)
Lemuel Haynes
(1753-1833)
“When Paul and Barnabas were preaching at Antioch, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed….All the encouragement fro a minister to preach among a people, so far as the salvation of souls ought to be a motive, is the doctrine of election”
The African American Church after the War“From the balconyTo the floor,Then out the door”
•African Americans became leaders of their own churches
1865 – formation of first black state convention in NC
•Influence of Freedman’s Fund – established 32 colleges by 1894
1865 – Shaw University, Raleigh
•Church model in the South
90% Negro population prior to WWI
Pastor had little education but most in community
“Christianity answered to deeply felt needs of a people for whom emancipation had been a less than glorious boon”
Sydney Ahlstrom, pg 711
African American Baptist Denominations
1895 – Atlanta: The National Baptist Convention
1897 – Lott Carey Baptist Home & Missionary Society
1915 - The National Baptist Convention of America
E. C. Morris(1855-1922)
R. H. Boyd(1843-1922)
Condition of the African American Church 20th Century - oppressed
1954 Brown vs. Board of Education
Social progressive called for end of segregation – NAACP (1909)
1955 – Rosa Parks; Montgomery Bus Boycott
Martin Luther King, Jr(1929-1968)
‘Letter From a Birmingham Jail” ‘Shallow understanding from a people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute
misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejections’
1961 – Progressive National Baptist Convention THEOLOGY
White Baptist and Civil Rights
SBC leadership pressed for a resolution affirming Brown vs. Board of Education
Some prominent leaders opposed integration
WMU pushed for integration
1961 – MLK, Jr invited to speak at SBTS
1970’s - Walls of segregation finally breaking down
1968 – “The Church of the Open Door”
W. A. Criswell(1909-2002)
1995 – SBC officially repents for racism
Where are we today?
•Increase understanding of evangelical theology
•Definite movement to the Doctrines of Grace
Glory Road: The Journey of 10 African Americans Into Reformed Christianity
Thabiti Anyabwile
Dr. Tony Evans “The Urban Alternative”
Louis Love, Thabiti Anyabwile, Anthony Carter & Hensworth W.C. Jonas Eric Mason: Epiphany
Fellowship Church - Philly
YouTube - Shai Linne - My Portion
East Caribbean Baptist Mission:Home
Dr. Hensworth W. C. Jonas
Central Baptist Church - Antiqua