Title: Ministers urged to be grounded in Christ
Date: March 10, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
99b-15
NASHVILLE (DNS) -- Images of being rooted and grounded in Christ and sustained by living water permeated addresses to persons attending the 25th Black Minister's Retreat here March 1-4.
The more than 200 African American Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) ministers convened around the theme "A Revelation for the Revolution: Rooted and Grounded in God." The delegation met at the (National) Baptist World Center here.
Clergy today are constantly moving, yet getting little done, said the Rev. Stephanie Crowder, Nashville, in an opening address. Ministers need to be grounded and nourished -- both literally and spiritually. "We need to dig deep roots into God's soil. We need to be rooted and grounded."
The Tennessee associate regional minister urged them to let Christ "establish permanent settlement in your life. The result of Christ setting up shop in you is more security in him," Crowder said. Without that security or grounding, "we're always ready to quit." Likewise, without good roots pastors cannot get the nourishment needed to carry out their ministries.
"All life needs water to live. . . . Water is synonymous with life," echoed the Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, executive director, United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, Cleveland. "We're in need of deep watering that not even a lawn care service can provide."
"If we will open ourselves up to Jesus . . . and pour out those feelings of ineptitude and envy, then Jesus can fill our pitchers," Jackson said. The water Christ gives lasts beyond the trouble church officers can cause or the pain a teetering marriage can bring.
Drinking that water, however, means "we have an obligation to see that others may drink," she added. "There are many, many sisters and brothers we have lost to the streets. We have an obligation to use that water for the revolution."
If every black church in America would use that living water for revolution, for economic development and for political empowerment, then there will be a revelation, Jackson said.
In other activities, ministers participated in workshops on clergy misconduct and internalized racism. In addition, Homeland Ministries recognized persons who had been ordained 50 years or more.
Recognized for 50 years of ordained ministry were the Revs. A.M. Cogdell, Hempstead, N.C.; K. David Cole and William K. Fox, Sr., Kansas City; Benjamin F. Fleming, Phoenix, Ariz.; E.L. Griffin, Flint, Mich.; R.E. Hancock, Louisville, Ky.; J.L. Melvin, Goldsboro, N.C., Zellie M. Peoples, Indianapolis; Earl W. Rand, Marshall, Texas, and E.B. Washington, Summerville, Texas.
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