What does one do when you are in your 50th year of Ordained ministry? Being ordained was not the “beginning” of my “church work”. My parents were “Charter Members” of Ascension Lutheran Church, Toledo, Ohio. We were the second mission start by Rev. Allen Youngblood. Allen had already started Annunciation Lutheran Church, [now Grace, Philadelphia], before moving to Toledo.

My Baptist Father and AME Mother alternated Sundays in which I attended with them. About the 3rd grade they decided to become a one church family when approached by Pr. Youngblood about becoming a part of a new mission. My pianist father was quickly on board as the church’s organist and my seamstress/culinary artist mother found her niche in the Altar Guild and Kitchen as they were charter members resurrecting a new mission in neighborhood that had gone through racial transition. Along with my cousin / my father’s brother’s son who lived 2 blocks from the church, we anchored the Acolyte corps.

So, I’ve been a part of this faithful response to Luther’s teaching since age 8. Helping to organize a scout troop, going to church camp, Mowana, and eventually starting Luther League in our church among the youth. In my late teens I became the Treasurer of the Toledo Federation of Luther Leagues, attended Luther League conventions and in the Late summer of 1962, attended the constituting convention of Luther League, LCA. Around thanksgiving of that year [my freshman year of college at Wittenberg] I was elected the Luther League executive board.

Two years on Executive Board led to two terms as President of Ohio Luther League, then election to the National Luther League Executive Board, along with Harold Echols, the older brother of James Kenneth Echols, who later was a colleague at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

In my fifth year at Wittenberg, I completed undergraduate studies and began seminary at Hamma School of Theology. One key element did not change, Dr. Karl Hertz, a sociologist was both my undergraduate advisor and my seminary advisor as I moved to the graduate school. Little did I know at the time that he was the great grandson of the first missionary to the African American community in the southern tier of the United States, John Doetscher.

In being asked by Grover Wright in 1974-75 to consider writing and researching African/American history of Lutheranism, I was not aware that it would be a career long effort extended into what is now my retirement. Yet the information gained has been shared with others on my continuing research, occasional lectures and this year in light of the pandemic [2020-21] I have been asked numerous times to share what I know to a wider and wider audience.

During this February month “Black History Month” I chosen to ‘tell my story’ and share some of the research I have collected over the years of the response of the US Lutheran church [Primarily the history I’ve gained regarding ALC and LCA as I’ve wandered through libraries and documents that have passed through my hands as I clear out the boxes, that need to no longer be in my possession, but in the archives of the church as one person who has served for 50 years in expressions of the church that bear the initials ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Your responses are appreciated.

Richard N. Stewart, Retired ELCA Pastor – Previous church bodies: United Lutheran Church in America; Lutheran Church in America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

From Professor Richard Stewart’s Blog: This post is the third and final individual response to the Position Paper written by the Parish Council of Holy Family Lutheran Church, Chicago, IL. The first response is by Lee Wesley. The second response is by Massie L. Kennard. It is also Professor Stewart’s first general publication not written for a class or a grade.

LUTHERAN QUARTERLY Nov. 25, 1967 – 3^rd Response

Richard Stewart, First Publication

BLACK Power is the organization of the American Negro as a bloc to gain economic status, to exert political power, and to become the “new immigrant” force in America. It must also be understood that this is not the only definition for these two words.

Black Power can easily be misinterpreted by defining it in terms of violence. With this as a definition both Negro and white find themselves worried about the possible consequences of open conflict. There is a tendency to feel threatened by change. One know what effect there will be on his position, his life, or family and friends. People are forced to face challenges, but they do not think about the presence of God in today’s historical events. Black Power has been and still is challenging to Negro and white.

The social and political issues, brought forth by Black Power advocates, are the same issues that the Negro has asked before to be solved (education, employment, housing, and economic independence). The powers, which could have brought about a change, are the same ones which are now making slow progress. The church has been a definite part of that power wielding group, then and now. The people, who are the body of the church, have set standards by which other members are looked upon, and the church then takes on the characteristics of its members in thought, word, and deed. The church gathers its identity from the peer group, rather than from God, the eternal Father.

Our church must break out and look at all people as part of the community of God. Those events which surround all people, like Black Power does today, must be analyzed and concrete actions taken to respond out of love to all people and their situations. Right now we must interpret Black Power and speak out about its challenges, and, if possible, we must give resolutions for the settlement of problems. We must become twentieth century prophets.

Being a Christian in the Lutheran church, a theological student, and a Negro forces me to view Black Power from different colored glasses than those of my contemporaries. To put my views on a practical plane, I refer to three points used in an address delivered by Cameron Wells Byrd, pastor of Christ United Church of Christ, Detroit, and Executive Director elect of the Ecumenical Center in Roxbury, Inc., Roxbury, Mass., to the Youth Division of the National Council of Churches in the United States, meeting in Detroit, Michigan, October 27-28, 1967.

1. The Strategy of Impoliteness – through the word. It is assumed that the institution of the church has been polite in its ministry. The church has forgotten its role as a misfit. The church’s marching orders come from God, not the society in which it finds itself. The church must give all the cold hard dirty facts just as they are; tell it like it is. Camps, conferences, youth meetings, conventions, and retreats should be included with the Sunday worship experience as a place of being impolite.

2. The Strategy of Imposition – on present standards of today’s Christian society. The church must use its corporate strength to challenge the institutions of society that smother the humanity and creativity of all human beings. The church may not be loved for its impositions into everyday life, and there may be some Christians persecuted. Yet, that is nothing new.

3. The Strategy of Christian Conspiracy – to live an example of Christ’s commandments to the church in a natural way. The church must aid people in realizing that this is a multiracial world, that dialogue can be achieved in an unstructured way, and that all are children of God and members of the community on earth.

Black Power can be a method of giving a larger stock to the cause of human engineering.

RICHARD N. STEWART
Hamma School of Theology
Springfield, Ohio