The purpose of the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri

Purpose

Commitment means that it is possible for [a person] to yield the nerve center of his/her constant to a purpose or a cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to [that person] than whether he/she lives or dies.

Howard Thurman

At the organizational meeting of the AACCMM, bidding Christian Education scholar, the Rev. Carolus Taylor recalled the history of previous mid-Missouri/Columbia clergy associations—four such attempts to be exact—that started and are now defunct. He closed his remarks with a poignant question, “What will make this organization different from past attempts??” In response to the question several remarks came forward from those gathered. Some suggested that the difference is that this attempt is comprised of new people with a new desire for action and fellowship. Others stated that this group is different because of the social, political, and spiritual urgency before us evidenced by Ferguson, MO. While I think these comments are helpful and on point, I offer the following as a response—a commitment to the purpose will make a difference. A commitment to its purpose will make this attempt to organize qualitatively different from previous attempts. Purpose will sustain its efforts to be an effective and transformative coalition. Knowing the purpose moves an organization towards being an organism of action as opposed to being a mere organization. Purpose guards against focusing on personalities and personal agendas and motivates the living organism to grasp as much as it can out of the infinite.

The African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri is dedicated to being intentionally purposeful in the following manner.

1)      Our purpose shall be to position ourselves in such a manner that we may speak ‘truth to power’ for the wounded and weary who are inside and outside our church walls that cannot speak for themselves. We must renew relationships with God’s people and in doing so, we begin to know, instead of knowing of, the people for which we speak. No longer may we assume that we have permission and authority because of our titles. This is the crux of the Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. critique of the article by Dr. Eddie Glaude entitled, “The Black Church is Dead.” Dr. Smith was pointing to the fact that the life and vitality of the Black Church is found not in the observational position of the academic, but the ontic—lived--position of the front-line, Marine Corp-type, Christian cleric who stands like a soldier in battle against the enemies of the people: racism, sexism, homophobia, economic disenfranchisement, and systemic alienation/dehumanization. On the front lines it is clear that the Black Church is alive and as African American clergy we realize that our prophetic work is of vital importance.

2)      Our purpose shall be to further equip the clergy to better equip the people of God. Contemporary circumstances demand that to be a faithful proclaimer of the good news requires more than a sense of “calling.” Christianity in the 21^st Century desperately needs trained clergy to meet the needs of God’s people. Our purpose will be to better equip the clergy for the task at hand. We will help clergy by insisting that academic institutions in Mid-Missouri start to take seriously the educational needs of African American clergy by providing opportunities to acquire theological training at a reasonable cost. We will assist clergy in acquiring 501c3s for their churches, expose them to mental health resources, avenues to obtain financial expertise to better their people and the wider community, just to mention a few tasks. Our people need us to not only know how to ‘whoop’ and dance, but also how to make substantial and qualitative differences in their lives.

3)      Our purpose shall be to tear down the walls that divide us. The fact is that the oppressor has fooled us into thinking that there is more to divide us than to unite us. The Black Church is one house with different rooms: Baptist, Methodist, Non-denominational, Interdenominational, etc., etc. We all share a faith born in struggle, bruised by racism, and battered by the dark forces of economic prejudice, social exclusion, and political xenophobia. Yet we are still here. Jesus warned us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. We must come together and be one house with one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. The Evil One knows that if we come together we are an unconquerable force. Let our battle cry be—“we are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.”  

The Rev. Clanton C.W. Dawson, Jr., PhD

President, the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri

A messeage from Dr. Clanton C.W. Dawson, Jr, President of the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle suggests that all rational human activity is aimed toward some goal. In agreement with that idea, on September 20, 2014, some brave, faithful, and rational servants of the Kingdom gathered together at historic Fifth Street Christian Church in Columbia, MO to organize the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri. It is an activity aimed toward a goal of excellence.

Why organize an African American Clergy Coalition? In spite of the current state of affairs in Missouri and America as a whole, many people think we live in a post-racial society where race and racism really do not exist. They claim that to mention racial terms-African American, Black, etc.--is race-baiting and further fuels the fire of racism, causing well-meaning people to believe in the reality of a phenomenon that does not exist. Some have stated that we must move beyond racial designations and think more about integration, inclusion; not activities that create separatism? And still others assert that being African American has nothing to do with Christianity. The goal of all Christians—black or white-- should be trying to get to heaven. Anything that moves our focus toward something else-- like racism, sexism, and social justice-- is wrong and perhaps even demonic.

For instance, Eddie Glaude, Jr, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, has already informed us that the Black Church is dead. Why organize with a name that so unabashedly asserts the existence of an African American Christianity, Church, theology, and the like given the nonexistence of the Black Church?  Syracuse University Professor of Philosophy, Linda Alcoff, asserts in Visible Identities that we will never engage in meaningful dialogue about race until we move beyond the Black/White binary that shackles racial conversations in this country. And of course, too many of our clergy and churches are only concerned about prosperity gospel, entertaining worship, and filling the money coffers rather than the needs of the people of God who attend their worships and hear their preaching.

We disagree with those who insist that forming the African American Clergy Coalition is an exercise in folly, or promotes racism, and/or is non-Christian. The fact is that the Black Church, that Church born of struggle, does exist. It started with Phillip and Mark before the Jerusalem Council, was active before we came here in 1619, and continues in the present. Has it gone through transitions? Yes, but it still exists. Across denominational lines it continues to be a cultural vehicle, an institution of moral education, and a reservoir of survival history and soul force. We have organized because the fundamental issues that affect the Black community can still be best addressed by the male and female clergy of the Black Church. We, the clergy, are the ones that hear our peoples’ prayers, christen/baptize their young, visit the hospitals and jails, and bury our community’s dead. We affirm our Christian heritage that has denied and/or dismissed by too many white, Western European, Anglo-American theologians and preachers; and, by too many black materialistic pulpiteers who keep our people in bondage by blinding them with visions of ‘glory, glory after while.’ We are not the curse of Ham, we are the blessing of Abraham.  We insist that the call of Christ on the Church is to be instrumental in making human relationships of all kind ‘on earth as it is in heaven.

Every goal has a purpose. Next time we will discuss the mission and intentional purpose of the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri.

The Rev. Clanton C.W. Dawson, Jr., PhD

President, the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri