LCMS BLACK MINISTRY NEWSLETTER SPRING 2019 PLANT SEEDS TODAY… AND SEE WHAT GOD GROWS THROUGH CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH he narrative of the Ascension of Christ ➤ A young Lutheran pastor who saw firsthand tells us a lot about what the disciples the awful consequences of segregation at his REV. DR. ROOSEVELT GRAY, JR. were thinking. “So when they had come first call to Holy Cross Lutheran in Camden, Ttogether, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this Ala., where a horn sounded every Saturday …the power of the Gospel time restore the kingdom to Israel?” at dusk telling blacks to get out of town, went in the lives of God’s people has on to lead churches and schools in Mont- turned the world upside down He said to them, “It is not for you to know times gomery and Chicago, teach in the seminary or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own and universities and serve in civil rights among African-American authority. But you will receive power when the Lutherans. movements to bring justice and freedom to Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be African-Americans in his mercy works — my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and and through His Word; Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (ACTS 1:6–8). ➤ A 15-year-old Lutheran student at Ala- The men who were concerned about the bama Lutheran Academy in Selma, in 1965 kingdom of Israel are the same people who, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with the preaching of the Gospel in the power and whose grandfather Walter Hill started of the Holy Spirit, turned the world upside Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church and down. “These men who have turned the world School in Tait’s Place. Today her work is laud- upside down have come here also” (ACTS 17:6). ed in National Geographic while she serves and sings at Trinity Lutheran and is active From 1877 to 2019, 142 years, with LWML; the power of the Gospel in the lives of God’s people has turned ➤ Young men and women today hearing the the world upside down among Good News of the Gospel and sharing their African-American Lutherans. We faith through High Impact Ministries in will never know the full extent of Hot Springs, Ark. and preparing to attend the impact on the lives of blacks the LCMS National Youth Gathering this and black communities the LCMS summer. has impacted. The full impact of our ministry is only known by We see this in the lives of the indi- God. What will the future hold for the LCMS in viduals in this issue of TimeLine. serving ethnic communities as we show Witness, Mercy, Life Together® in Christ for the Church ➤ A 10-year-old Lutheran and the world? elementary school student in Southern California intro- Only God knows, but we know that God calls TOP: Students of High Impact Ministries in Hot Springs, duced to the drums in 1957, us to carry out the work of the Gospel with Ark. BOTTOM: One of the graduates of Immanuel who at 72, after a successful Seminary and College honored at the LCMS Black witness, mercy and life together through the Family Ministry Convocation. Rev. Dr. James Marshall music career, is back in his Church, Christ’s bride, you and me. to the left and Rev. Dr. Bryant Clancy to the right. home community and church sharing the Good News; TIMELINE NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 PHOTOS: EILEEN ELLARS/REV. MEREDITH JACKSON LUTHERAN DRUMMER COMES FULL CIRCLE: HAROLD RAY BROWN: HIS MUSIC & MISSION Who knew it would lead to a band called WAR and playing with Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and Jim Morrison. ust like the shape of his beloved ming to local youth, plays music during around him; he’s even called me up in the drums, Harold Ray Brown’s life has worship and walks through the neigh- middle of the day just to tell me he loves come full circle. A professional borhood of this Long Beach community, me, and he is always offering to pray for J musician, Brown has returned to his sharing his “good vibes” on faith. people. home — southern California — and his childhood church, First Lutheran, now “Harold is a gift to our church and our “I’d say his ‘official’ title is Missionary to called The Gathering, as music teacher, community,” said Pastor Kyle Blake, who the City. Though it’s not on any business church musician and faith-sharing friend was called to the 114-year-old Lutheran card, it certainly describes his life.” of a diverse community. church in 2015 and is now planting a new Lutheran church, The Gathering, to better Brown was a 10-year-old student at First At 72, Brown, a founding member of the reach the multiethnic community. “His Lutheran School when five minutes 1970s funk band WAR which won several passion for Jesus and people is infectious. changed his life. Principal Alvin J. Hahn gold and platinum awards, teaches drum- He is always encouraging the people brought instruments into the school gym Harold Brown in his studio at The Gathering. TIMELINE NEWSLETTER SPRING 2019 / PAGE 2 PHOTO: RAY BROWN one morning. “The snare drum was sitting A few years after Katrina cut through right in front of the stage,” Brown said. “He the city, Brown felt a tug back home, to handed me the drumsticks and gave me a California and to family. One weekend LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW, 5-minute lesson on how to hold the drum- while visiting the Lutheran church at Long sticks and how to play a quarter note. I SAW THE CROSS THAT STANDS Beach, the pastor came up to him after the OVER FIRST LUTHERAN WHERE service and handed him a book: The 100th “Just five minutes,” he said, his voice Anniversary of First Lutheran Church. choking. “Who knew it would lead to a I GOT THAT FIVE MINUTES THAT band called WAR and playing with Jimi “When I got to page 18, I see my parents’ Hendrix, Bob Marley and Jim Morrison.” SET THE COURSE FOR ME. AND I names: Clyde R Brown Sr., wife Icelo Carter Formed in 1969, WAR was a musical cross- THOUGHT: ‘GIVE GOD PRAISE — Brown and 5 boys and 1 girl. We were the over band which fused elements of rock, first black family to join and attend First Lu- funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues and I AM HOME!’ theran Church in Long Beach [where Brown reggae. Their albumThe World is a Ghetto was baptized and confirmed]. All six of us attended Sunday school. I was the acolyte at Harold Brown’s student identification the the dedication of the new church building in year he attended Lutheran High. He was a track star and awarded a full scholarship to was the bestselling album of 1973. 1959. It brought tears to my eyes.” Valparaiso University but decided to pursue music instead. Brown left the band in the 1980s, got a col- He felt the need to return, but housing is lege degree in computer science and landed expensive and hard to come by. The first in New Orleans, where he formed a new place he looked, an apartment on the 5th band, Low Rider, and gave tours of the city. floor of a local building, was ready to rent. He also worked with the Lutheran church “Looking out the window, I saw the cross through LINC, where he also taught youth, that stands over First Lutheran where I inspiring them to work hard toward real- got that five minutes that set the course izing their dreams. “It is far greater to have for me. And I thought: ‘Give God praise your name written on young people’s hearts — I am HOME!’” than to have it written in stone,” he said. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ray_Brown Harold Brown stands in the auditorium/gym of his former First Lutheran grade school (now The Gathering) holding the trophy he won at age 10 for good citizenship. “It’s a little beat up, just like me, but I treasure it,” he says. TIMELINE NEWSLETTER SPRING 2019 / PAGE 3 PHOTOS: THOMAS R. CORDOVA, LONG BEACH POST/COURTESY OF HAROLD BROWN THE ‘CURTAIN CALL,’ CIVIL RIGHTS FROM ALABAMA TO CHICAGO A LUTHERAN PASTOR REFLECTS hen Rev. Dr. William Griffin and member of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church IN MY LIVING ROOM AS A CHILD, his family wanted new draperies in Kannapolis, N.C., in the 1890s. His for their home in Montgomery, parents, Willie and Bessie Griffin, also MY PARENTS HAD A PLAQUE ON THE Ala.,W where he served as pastor at Grace Lu- attended Mt. Calvary. Griffin was born in theran Church, they called a highly recom- Kannapolis, N.C., the third of 14 children. WALL WHICH SAID, ‘ORA AND LABORA’ mended seamstress: Rosa Parks. There was no slacking in their household, and church was always attended. – PRAY AND WORK. THEY TRIED TO Not much later, they awoke to a phone call: their quiet, efficient seamstress had refused “In my living room as a child, my parents had INSTILL IN ALL OF US CHILDREN to give up her bus seat to a white man and a plaque on the wall which said, “Ora and had been arrested. A local black pastor, Rev. Labora” – pray and work. They tried to instill THAT WE WERE TO WORK AS THOUGH Martin Luther King, Jr., was calling for a in all of us children that we were to work as bus boycott, and local pastors were asked though everything depended on us and to EVERYTHING DEPENDED ON US AND to announce the plan.