NEWS PROFILE: God’s `new thing’ brings black minister to white pulpit

c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ As the Rev. Alvin O’Neal Jackson stood in the pulpit of National City Christian Church for the first time, his freshly minted Los Angeles Marathon medal hanging around his neck, he could not resist a pastor’s penchant for metaphors. Jackson, until recently the senior pastor of the predominantly […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ As the Rev. Alvin O’Neal Jackson stood in the pulpit of National City Christian Church for the first time, his freshly minted Los Angeles Marathon medal hanging around his neck, he could not resist a pastor’s penchant for metaphors.

Jackson, until recently the senior pastor of the predominantly black 8,000-member Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tenn., had just become the first African-American pastor of the mostly white 500-member National City Christian _ a church frequented by presidents and others of power, sitting not far from the White House near Washington’s Thomas Circle.”Don’t you sense that God is poised to do a new thing in this place?”Jackson, 47, asked in his Palm Sunday sermon.”If we’re going to make a new witness in the city … we’ve got to go the distance. Yes, if you will, we must all be marathon runners.” The tall, bespectacled Jackson, while finishing one race, was now ready to plunge into yet an entirely different meaning of the term _ his denomination’s grappling with race itself.


The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a largely white, mainline Protestant denomination with about 910,000 members, is in the midst of what it terms a”discernment process”on race relations. Its Georgia regional board, for example, has just voted to take anti-racism sensitivity training following reactions to its decision not to appoint an African-American man to its top regional post.

At the same time, the denomination has also seen the recent appointments of an African-American man as a Northwest regional minister and, now, the appoint of Jackson to his new pastoral position.”The Georgia situation, on the one hand … shows that we maybe are not as far along as we’d like to think we are in the denomination. But on the other hand … there are hopeful signs around that we are maybe making some progress,”Jackson said during an interview in his spacious office.”But without a doubt, there’s still a lot of work to be done.” In the cavernous sanctuary of the denomination’s national church _ whose architect also designed the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art _ some of that work seemed to be accomplished just with Jackson’s arrival.

About 85 percent of National City Christian Church’s members are white. But at his first service in the sanctuary that resembles the U.S. Capitol, the usual attendance of 275 blossomed to nearly 900 and appeared to be evenly divided racially.”This is a wonderful sight, to see all of you, a beautiful rainbow of colors,”Jackson said from the pulpit, clearly pleased with the turnout.

When the hourlong service concluded, Jackson spent close to half an hour greeting the array of congregants that had gathered to welcome him, new and old, black and white.”There’s something about the way he delivers the word and the way he wants you as an individual to take on your individual role with God and to make that a part of your life,”said Tandra Williams, 23, a former member of Jackson’s Mississippi Boulevard congregation who joined National City that day.

Jennie Milster, a 91-year-old member of National City, said she could remembered when the church”went from segregation to integration.”Now, she thinks it’s ready for Jackson.”We’ve got to get used to change,”she said.”I think it’s time.” Rodney Gould, chairman of the church board and a member of the selection committee that chose Jackson, calls the appointment a”great leap forward”for the denomination, which is 94 percent white.”It was a predominantly white congregation saying we wanted the very best person and that very best person happened to be black,”Gould said.

The Rev. Richard Hamm, Disciples’ denominational president, called both Jackson and the congregation”courageous.””They don’t know exactly what it’s going to mean,”he said of Jackson’s selection.”They know it’s going to mean change though, and they’re stepping up to the plate on that. I just feel great about it.” Hamm said Jackson’s ability to expand the Memphis church _ which now encompasses one-fifth of the entire denomination’s black membership _ and his nontraditional approach to ministry has set an example for other Disciples congregations.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)”He’s not a renegade,”Hamm said.”He’s a solid Disciple.” While making his Memphis congregation mission-minded to help the local community, Jackson also found a way to mix traditions within the walls of the church, Hamm said.”He has brought the best of Euro-American tradition together with the best of African-American tradition,”he said.”It’s a stunning combination so that when you go to his worship services at Mississippi Boulevard, whether you’re black or white, you appreciate it. You understand what’s going on. It’s just a very powerful kind of thing.” The Palm Sunday service at National City did a similar sort of blending, opening with a black woman soloist singing the spiritual”Ride On, King Jesus!”but also including an anthem accompanied by trumpets and organ.


(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Clergy who knew Jackson in Memphis expect him to apply some of the same techniques he used there in Washington.”His key strength is his preaching ability,”said the Rev. William Bouknight, pastor of Memphis’ Christ United Methodist Church.”Beyond that, his philosophy is to recruit good staff people at a church and to develop lay leadership. That was his formula for success here and I’m sure it’s the one he will follow in Washington.” Bouknight’s predominantly white church and Jackson’s mostly black church jointly sponsored an Easter service in a downtown Memphis arena last year that drew an interracial crowd of more than 16,000.”The combined service has had a huge impact on the city of Memphis in terms of promoting reconciliation,”Bouknight said.”Ripples of influence from that service have been rolling across our county.” The Rev. Melvin Charles Smith, pastor of Mount Moriah East Baptist Church in Memphis, said Jackson gained a reputation for working publicly and behind the scenes to build relations across racial and ecumenical lines.”He never set out to be in the limelight,”said Smith.”That just happened because of his ability as a great preacher.” Jackson, who describes himself as a”quiet, retiring and reticent person,”is not a stranger to prestigious pulpits _ from his denomination’s general assembly to a preaching series at Texas Christian University to New York’s Riverside Church.

In a diary chapter he wrote shortly before a private audience with Pope John Paul II last summer, Jackson reflected on his hopes for building a multicultural congregation in Washington with both international and interdenominational dimensions.”I see a growing, thriving Hispanic community and I see myself learning the language that I might be more directly involved with that community,”he wrote, noting his desire for times when English and Spanish-speakers could worship together.

His aim to change church and society while wearing clerical robes is a turnabout from his youthful aim of wearing judicial robes.”I grew up in … the delta of Mississippi in the ’50s and ’60s and things were pretty rough in Mississippi during those years and I felt law was a way to bring about change,”Jackson recalled.”During the days of segregation, I never saw what a new textbook looked like until I was in college because we always got books that had been handed down from the white schools.” But while he was in college, a favorite professor introduced him to the Old Testament prophets _”Micah and Hosea and Amos and all those guys”_ and he turned to the ministry.

Now, Jackson can’t imagine doing anything else.

His new church was in its prime in the 1950s, when it had 1,500 members and race riots had yet to cause the congregation to dwindle.

And he can imagine a new future for that congregation _ a diverse congregation the size of the Memphis church in three to five years.”I think that this is just the perfect kind of setup for building a multicultural ministry,”he said.”The nation’s capital, an international city, all kinds of folks. It can happen here very easily.”

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