Dear Friends
I still remember those words of a friend
of mine. "I believe you are the man for this church."
Spoken in 1972 by Dick Armstrong, who was
the interim pastor of a church in Philadelphia Pa., those words forever
changed my life.
Dick was the vice president of
Princeton Seminary and a friend of mine whom I had come to know through
seminary and through our mutual involvement in the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes.
He was the interim pastor of an inner-city
church in Philadelphia, Pa.
After having asked me twice about exploring
the pastorate at the Cedar Park Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia where
he was temporarily serving and having previously said no on both
occasions, I finally said yes, and that decision radically changed my life and
my ministry.
At 28 and with no previous experience in urban
ministry, let alone inter racial ministry I found myself pastoring an inner-city
church in the midst of a predominately black community besieged by white
flight.
In five years, the community had gone from 90
percent white to 85 percent black, and many of those white members had
fled to suburban churches.
How could we keep our white members from
leaving while encouraging our black brothers and sisters to start
coming?
God gave me a plan for what we needed to do
and what an integrated church might look like. I believed the way to get the
community into the church was to get the church into the community, and so for
seven years we did just that. We offered everything we could to serve our
community.
Any program that we thought might
benefit the neighborhood, we sought to offer it, and slowly we watched our
church reach our predominate black community while at the same time attracting
white members from suburban communities who desired to be a part of an
integrated church.
As a result of our God's direction and our
church's efforts, Cedar Park became one of the few fully integrated churches in
the city of Philadelphia. As a result, our members had the opportunity to
share their story and provide hope to other churches going through racial
transition.
Seven years later I said a tearful goodbye to
those friends in the most exciting church I had ever pastored, but I could
never forget them and the ministry we fashioned and created together with God's
gracious direction.
Whenever I reflect on that ministry that Jean
and I and our family enjoyed in the decade of the 70's, I am eternally grateful
for saying yes to my friend Dick Armstrong's encouragement.
Never have I learned as much about myself and
about ministry as I did those seven challenging but transformative years.
To this day I remain forever grateful for the incredible experience of working
with and learning from so many of my black brothers and sisters.
On this Martin Luther King Day, I think of Dr.
King's words: "People fail to get along because they fear each other; they
fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other
because they have not communicated with each other."
Dr. King was right. We can't love each other
without first getting to know each other. The racial divide in our country
grows wider and deeper, and it breaks my heart.
Whenever I think of those years
ministering alongside my black brothers and sisters, some of whom are still
living and with whom I stay in touch to this day, I continue to be
grateful for their love and friendship.
I thank God for knowing those dear friends and
learning from them. I am grateful that they helped me overcome my fears, my
distrust, and my hidden and deep-seated prejudices of which I was unaware.
We may look different on the outside, but on
the inside all of us possess hearts that long for the same things:
acceptance, understanding, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
In a world today that is torn apart by
polarized views, each one of us must dig deeper to find the common humanity and
aspirations each of us holds.
We need to listen to one another and learn
from each other. We need to care for one another and work together to break
down those dividing walls of hostility that Jesus died to destroy.
It won't be easy, for as Dr. King once
said, "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but
comes through continuous struggle."
Let each of us deliberately choose to join
that struggle and what better day to start than today?
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
P.S. Some words of Dr. King to remember:
"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it
is a permanent attitude. "
"Let. no man pull you so low. as to hate
him."
"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates
it."
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