Can You Name Any African American Church Founding Fathers?
In American culture, we tend to learn a lot about the white founding fathers of our government. However, we tend to learn much less (or nothing) about the founding fathers of the Black Church. Today we learn from three men who were each instrumental in the founding of the free Black Church.
Reverend Lemuel Haynes: An Epitaph Worth Living For—Hebrews 12:2-3
We begin our American history lesson with the Reverend Lemuel Haynes. Rev. Haynes offers a remarkable example of African American ministerial modeling. Born at West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1753, of a white mother and a black father, Haynes lived his entire eighty years in Congregationalist New England. He completed his indenture in time to serve in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Privately tutored, Haynes became the first African American to be ordained by any religious denomination. Upon ordination, Haynes then served white congregations for more than thirty years.
Among other accomplishments, he achieved notoriety for a sermon entitled Universal Salvation that defended orthodox Christianity against the threat of Universalism. For this work, he happily accepted the title “Black Puritan,” indicating his depth of biblical theology.
Before his death, he wrote his own epitaph—the wording he wanted on his tombstone. His personal epitaph tells us much about how he lived his life and where he placed his focus.
“Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner, who ventured into eternity trusting wholly on the merits of Christ for salvation. In the full belief of the great doctrines he preached while on earth, he invites his children and all who read this, to trust their eternal interest on the same foundation.”
The Rev. Lemuel Haynes pointed not to himself, but to Christ. Haynes epitaph is yet another reminder of the theme for this blog series: Look to Jesus! Haynes points us back to the message of Hebrews 12:2-3:
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
We can summarize that message like this:
The great cloud of past Christian witnesses ultimately point to the greatest Witness and the greatest reason for enduring suffering—Jesus Christ! The result of earthly witness is to point to the Heavenly Witness so that together we will not grow weary and lose heart. Jesus is the Faithful Witness (Revelation 1:5).
Reverend Absalom Jones: God Sees and Frees/Saves—Exodus 3:7-8
The Rev. Absalom Jones provides another example of a founding father of the Black Church who points us to God the Father—the God who sees and saves. Absalom Jones was born in slavery on November 6, 1746, in Delaware. At age sixteen he moved to Philadelphia, and by age thirty-eight he was able to purchase his freedom. Along with the Rev. Richard Allen, Jones was the founding father of the first free black church in America.
On January 1, 1808, Rev. Jones preached a sermon entitled “A Thanksgiving Sermon on Account of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.” His sermon parallels American slavery, the bondage of the Jews in Egypt, and God’s personal and powerful exodus rescue of His people.
In this sermon, Jones communicates the same message highlighted in Psalm 13—God invites us to pray that He would see with compassion and act with power on our behalf. In fact, Jones repeated thirteen times in this one sermon the phrase:
“He has seen!” “He has seen!” “He has seen!”
Thirteen times. Can you hear it? Feel it? Imagine it? For a people in bondage for 400 years—the Jews in Egypt and African Americans in America, it is a sustaining and comforting reminder that God has not forgotten. “He has seen!” Here’s one example:
“Our text tells us that He has seen their afflictions, and heard their cry: his eye and his ear were constantly open to their complaint: every tear they shed was preserved, and every groan they uttered was recorded, in order to testify at a future day, against the authors of their oppressions.”
When life’s a mess, we need to know that God sees and cares. But we also need to know that God acts and is in control. So, four times Pastor Jones repeats the phrase:
“He came down!” “He came down!” “He came down!” “He came down!”
Here’s an example from Rev. Jones’ sermon:
“But our text goes further: it describes the Judge of the world to be so much moved with what he saw and what he heard, that he rises from his throne and he comes down from heaven in his own person, in order to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians. Glory to God for this precious record of his power and goodness.”
Are you feeling enslaved to something physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually right now? Believe that God has seen and that God will come down. Ask God to see and come down—to look on your trial and tribulation and to act mightily to set you free indeed! God sees and frees!
Reverend Daniel Alexander Payne: A Manly Man of God—Daniel 1
When we worship a God who sees and saves, we then find His empowerment to live courageous lives. The Rev. Daniel Alexander Payne is an example of just such a life—the life of a manly man of God.
Rev. Payne was a remarkable man—and incredibly productive. He was the first historian of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a pastor, bishop, educator, author, and evangelist. In his 70s, in the Jim Crow south of the 1870s, he traveled the south mentoring younger pastors.
On one particular trip, the white train conductor insisted that Payne go to the back of the train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the white authorities on the train, Rev. Payne said to them:
“Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”
Payne notes that after he left the train:
“The guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.” Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep South.
Payne literally walked the talk.
Payne was the Rosa Parks of his day. In fact, Rosa Parks worshipped at an AME church. During youth Sunday School she learned the history of the AME Church, including the history of one Daniel Alexander Payne. And it was Rosa Park’s refusal to move to the back of the bus that in part helped to motivate the early ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr. Thus we can trace the Civil Rights movement from Daniel Alexander Payne, to Rosa Parks, to Martin Luther King, Jr.
How did such Christian manhood develop? Payne credits his father who started him on his purposeful life.
“I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.”
So, let’s take it a step further, we can trace the Civil Rights movement from the prophet Daniel, to Daniel Alexander Payne’s father, to Daniel Alexander Payne, to Rosa Parks, to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Join the Conversation
What does it say about us, that most of us can’t name a single African American spiritual founding father?
Of the three spiritual founding fathers we were introduced to today, which one’s life message most impacts you? Why? How?
