Remembering Dr. King 2022 - Part 1
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Part 1: The Letter from Birmingham Jail and Reflections
MLK Day, established in 1983 as a federal holiday to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday and first observed in 1969 by the King Memorial Center in Atlanta, is a day to pause and reflect, not only on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, but on our response to his mission as Christian brothers and sisters. The Grow Center for Church and Mission, an organization that helps promote and grow entrepreneur skills for the Gospel, hosted a two-night event January 17-18 to honor Dr. King and included a fantastic line up of guest speakers who shared on the weight of his words today.
For the first night, viewers who streamed the event, were greeted by their host Jonathan Banks, the Chief Operation Officer of the Urban Outreach Foundation. Jonathan wonderfully weaved together the stories of the night to highlight the growing theme surrounding Dr. King’s letter titled, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” That theme, touched upon by the opening speaker Pastor Albert Tate of Fellowship Church in Monrovia, and repeated throughout the night, is that this letter is a letter for today.
Pastor Albert Tate with Host Jonathan Banks
Pastor Albert Tate dived in by asking what was missing from the room where they wrote the letter? They, referring to fellow pastors, who wrote a letter of criticism to Dr. King while he was sitting in a Birmingham jail cell, calling his mission unwise and untimely. Their letter sparked a response from Dr. King that is known today as the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Pastor Tate recounts three things that were missing from the room where they drafted their letter and what is missing today: Empathy, Sacrifice, and Love. Pastor Albert goes on to say Dr. King needed his brothers to come and sit with him is his burden, even if they don’t understand it, and have Godly empathy. “The ability to sit with Dr. King in the burden, in the crisis that he was carrying, the ability to sit with minorities as they navigate racial injustice and dynamics and struggles. The ability just to sit, not solve, not try to fix, not look for evidence, not show me receipts, not prove your tears, this is a moment to sit in the brokenness of the reality of the world and what I want from my Christian siblings is not an admonishment to try and find a way to protest that makes them more comfortable. I need empathy. I need someone to sit in the brokenness with me.” Pastor Albert powerfully points viewers to Jesus as he compares Dr. King’s fellow pastors to today. We need to have empathy, come alongside our hurting brothers and sisters in their burden
and love with a love that comes from Calvary. For that’s what Jesus did. He left his throne to come down to be with us, empathize with us in our humanness, sacrifice for us, and love us.
An A-List line up also joined the call to share on their reflections of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. including NFL HoF Anthony Muñoz and Michael Irvin, Dr. John M. Perkins, Crawford Loritts and Los Angeles’ rapper/singer/songwriter and producer Lecrae. Lecrae shared he “was most impacted at [Dr. King’s] humanity… a man who consistently acknowledged his flaws, consistently acknowledged the battle he was up against and was constantly dependent on God for wisdom.” Lecrae admired Dr. King’s unyielding trust in the true and living God and how Dr. King was able to overcome the darkness that would show its face as racism through wisdom that only God can provide. Lecrae left viewers with a prayer “for us all to seek the same wisdom that was good enough for Moses, was good enough for Joseph, was good enough for all the patriarchs in the Bible and was good enough for Dr. King. It’s good enough for us as well.”
Also representing Los Angeles was Kelry Kirschenmann, Program Director of Hollywood Prayer Network, who shared some of her own reflections. For her, Dr. King’s ability to say yes to the call no matter what, and his decision to say yes, every day of his life, was a powerful example of a man radically obedient to go after the mission and would not take no for an answer.
The final portion of night one’s stream was a panel discussion on the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Jonathan turned the mike over to Roy Patterson, Communications Relations Director of Moody Bible Institute, who facilitated an incredible discussion with panel members Shundrawn Thomas, Rev. Dr. Naima Lett, Pastor Albert Tate, and Skye Jethani. Roy asked the panel their thoughts on an excerpt from Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail:
There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.
– Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail
The resounding feedback from panel members is that these words are a call to action to the church still today. We are heavenly children, a family, and our focus should be the work of Jesus. As Skye Jethani put it, Dr. King understood the early Christian’s goal was to follow Jesus and cultivate his kingdom and if that just so happened to turn the world upside down and agitate things than so be it. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the thermostat, and we are charged with shining the light of the LORD forth until it changes society. Church, we cannot stay in comfort, we cannot let “disruption” or “agitation” cause us to stop short of living out God’s heavenly design and speaking out his truth. It should be our JOY to suffer for the Kingdom. It should be our JOY to sit in the burden with our brothers and sisters. Please, take a moment and read Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, reflect, and respond.
Summing up the evening, Pastor Albert leaves us with a final thought, a call for a fresh vision of discipleship. “Spend time with people who don’t look, think, or vote like you.” Spend more time at the table building true relationships and discipling racism out. Practice empathy, sacrifice, and love.