Hi First Presbyterian Church,
It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! Many of you have been asking about my first Doctor of Ministry residency that I completed at the end of June. I’ve shared with you some of what I’ve been learning about discipleship, evangelism, and revival, especially as it relates to the missionary work of John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield. However, I want to share with you another incredible moment of learning I experienced while in Georgia. One day of the residency, we travelled to Savannah to retrace the steps of some of the early Christian pioneers. One place we stopped was the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, the oldest black church in continuous existence in the United States. Their church has an inspirational history and is a vibrant community of faith today, serving the people of Savannah with the ministry of the Gospel. Their Associate Pastor Derrek Curry gave us a very informative lecture about the history of the church, and I’d like to share some parts of their history with you now.
George Leile was a black slave born in Virginia in 1750. While a slave in Georgia, he was converted to Christianity in 1773. Soon after, he was licensed to preach and eventually ordained as a Baptist minister. Over the next eight years, his preaching to the slaves among the plantations of Georgia resulted in many people coming to faith in Christ. In 1781, as British forces were leaving the Georgia coast, Leile left for Jamaica to be a missionary to the people there. Rev. Andrew Bryan, who had become a Christian under the ministry of Rev. Leile, would assume the responsibility of leading this new community of Christian slaves. On January 20, 1788, the First African Baptist Church was organized with 67 members.
During the lecture, two events stood out to me as demonstrating the remarkable resiliency of the members of the First African Baptist Church. In the early years after the church was organized, the pastors and members of the church were severely persecuted by white neighbors and yet continued to preach the Gospel to slaves, grew, and even thrived as a church. The church’s first official pastor, Rev. Andrew Bryan, was so severely harmed from persecution that the left side of his face was disfigured. In the church building today, the first six pastors of the church are depicted in stained glass displayed behind the church’s pulpit. Rev. Bryan is the only person whose face is not displayed frontally and is instead displayed in profile, hiding the left side of his face. The church wanted to remember him for his strong and faithful pastoral leadership, instead of the hardship he endured at the hands of his white persecutors. He embodies the words from 1 Peter 4:16, “If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.” His pastoral leadership inspires me to be likewise committed to Christ and the Gospel ministry with undaunted focus.
The other event that stood out to me was how the church obtained its current property in 1832 and built the original brick building that still stands today. The church wanted a property of their own, and in April of 1832, the white Baptist Conference agreed to allow them to purchase a property in Savannah. There was a problem, however. The Conference told them they could only purchase the property if they could come up with $1,500 in 6 months! In today’s value, that’s approximately $60,000. How could slaves come up with $60,000 in just 6 months?! The story is truly remarkable. They went to their slave-owners and asked them to liquidate the equity they had earned toward their freedom, and, in effect, re-enslaved themselves all over again. Rev. Curry told us, “Those slaves would rather have a church of their own, even if it meant remaining slaves for the rest of their lives!” That tells you something about how important their faith in Jesus was and how vital they understood the community of faith to be! After purchasing the property, the slaves got to work building a new church building for themselves. After working all day on plantations, they would come to the church and work throughout the night making bricks by hand. They would go down to the Savannah River to collect clay, making, drying, and setting each brick for their building by hand. Structural engineers today say that that brick building is one of the most structurally sound buildings they’ve seen, even after 190 years!
The Christians who made up the membership of the First African Baptist Church in those early years have so much to teach us today. They refused to let white, so-called Christians discourage and deter them from having a vibrant relationship with Christ, and they demonstrated such courage and strength in loving God and serving one another despite persecution. I pray that I and all of us at First Presbyterian Church would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to have such singleness of purpose, faith, courage, and determination. This Doctor of Ministry program is becoming such a boon to my faith and leadership, and I’m so grateful to be part of it. I hope you are encouraged, too, as I share with you all that I'm learning.
Peace to you,
Pastor Aaron
