THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER ONLINE (12/30/04)

THE REVEREND DR. JOE DARBY RESPONDS TO THE EDITOR'S COMMENTS REGARDING THE MINISTERIAL TITLE OF, "THE VERY REVEREND":

I was catching on up my e-mail and saw your note about some AME clergy calling themselves "The Very Reverend." That raises a simple question - if those of us in ministry are called "Reverend" when ordained as Deacons, and are called "Right Reverend" when elected and consecrated Bishops, then what is the rite of ordination or consecration, or the ritual or rule of elevation in the AME Church that allows us to be called "Very Reverend?!?"

If it's in the Doctrine and Discipline, I guess I missed it! I suppose the question brings the traditionalist curmudgeon in me out - I still cringe when I choose to call myself "Senior Pastor" since regardless of the size of our churches, there is only one assigned pastor! That's why Morris Brown in Charleston, South Carlina has no "Assistant" or "Associate" Pastors - only members of the clergy staff.

Rather than borrowing from other traditions to sound and look "holy," we might do well to simply do and be what AME's are supposed to do and be in an efficient, effective and Spirit-led manner. In doing so, we'd be walking faithfully in the footsteps of Jesus. When someone was trying to curry Jesus' favor in Matthew 19:16-17 (KJV) by calling Him "good master," His response was, "Why to you call me good? Only God is good."

(Submitted by the Reverend Dr. Joe Darby)


THE A.M.E. CHURCH REVIEW SHOULD BE READ BY EVERY CLERGY PERSON IN THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND BY EVERY LAYPERSON WHO IS SERIOUS ABOUT BEING A MEMBER OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH:

Yesterday, I stopped by the office of the Reverend Dr. Dennis Dickerson, the Editor-Publisher, Historiographer and Executive Director, Department of Research and Scholarship. He handed me the current issue of The A.M.E. Church Review and I perused through it while we chatted. Every now and then I would interrupt him to share some tidbit of new information that I was picking up while perusing through "The Review." Each time I interrupted, I felt slightly ashamed of my bad manners because I thought that Dr. Dickerson must have felt that I was not paying full attention to our conversation because I know that interjecting unrelated issues in a conversation is bad manners.

Well, I kept on doing it because I was amazed at all of the great information that was in our A.M.E. periodical! I finally said to Dr. Dickerson, "All of our preachers should be reading The Review; this is great stuff!" And then he told me that The Review had less than 4000 subscriptions and that a lot of our pastors have not subscribed to The A.M.E. Church Review; and very few laypersons are subscribed to it. That should not be the case. In my opinion, The A.M.E. Church Review is the best denominational periodical that I have ever read.

I want to share with you some of the things that I perused as I scanned and am now reading The A.M.E. Church Review. Dr. Dickerson has put in a biographical profile of all of the newly elected bishops. All of them were successful pastors and all of them are seminary graduates; six of them have earned doctorates.

Some AME Church trivia picked up perusing The Review: We have had 5 bishops born in Africa; 4 bishops born in Mississippi; 8 bishops born in Alabama; 11 bishops born in Florida; and 2 bishops born in Texas. I wonder how many bishops were born in South Carolina? I learned from reading this edition of The Review that at least one bishop, John Mifflin Brown, was born in Delaware.

There are a number of great articles in theology, history, and from the contemporary perspective that could give foundation and relevance to our preaching and teaching. Of particular note to me is the article written by the late Eugene C. Hatcher. When I thought of Bishop Hatcher, I thought about a great preacher and the hymn, "The Storm is Passing Over." I did not realize that he was a scholar. If you read his article entitled, "Peter," you will be blessed. He was a scholar and theologian in addition to being a great preacher.

In the area of Biblical Studies, the late Bishop R.R. Wright, scholar - theologian, authored an exhaustive work entitled, "Jesus." He breaks down the titles, Son of David, the Christ, Son of Man, Son of God; and writes about Jesus' mission, death and the Second Coming. You want some "meat" for a sermon, Hatcher and Wright has it packed in their articles. They were "prime-time" bishops.

There are three great sermons by Bishops Belin, Kirkland and Adams. As I read those sermons, I began to experience some ambivalence for I thought, "If every AME preacher subscribed to The Review and read these sermons, then it would make it more difficult for those of us who read The Review to rework, tweak and preach some of the thoughts in these sermons.

Ever hear of Bishop John Mifflin Brown? I am sure that I have seen his name on the Quadrennial calendars with the pictures and names of our bishops, but I never paid attention to the name, John Mifflin Brown. I thought that every Brown Chapel AME Church in America was named after Bishop Morris Brown. And surely I thought that Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama was named after Morris Brown, but it wasn't. It was named after Bishop John Mifflin Brown, who was born in Delaware. Dr. Eldridge R. Ryan has penned and informative and an enlightening article about Bishop John Mifflin Brown. With February and Founder's Day approaching, the material in The A.M.E. Church Review would be a great resource of information. If you have not subscribed, I would suggest you do so.

Articles written by Bishops William DeVeaux, Preston W. Williams II and the other authors in the current issue of The A.M.E. Church Review offer a "banquet" of relevant articles that should be of interest to AMEs all over the world.

The Bookshelf gives us options of books that we might, and should, want to read. I got a sense that the Holy Spirit's was working in all of this as a read the book review of Reginald F. Hildebrand of Jeanette T. Johns' book, The Upward Journey: A Centenarian's Chronicle - Personal Stories of Bishop Decatur Ward Nichols, Revered Clergyman of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A couple of days ago I wrote about what that book and the life of Bishop Nichols meant to me and I did not know that the current issue of The A.M.E. Church Review was going to be dealing with Jeanette Johns' book on Bishop Nichols.

I am closing with the thought that every pastor and serious laypersons should subscribe to and should read The A.M.E. Church Review. Come to think about it, every applicant for ministry should be required to subscribe to, The A.M.E. Church Review! To do so just drop Dr. Dennis Dickerson a note: Whhbutler@cs.com or call his office: 615.248-0905.

And, to carry it further, we, AMEs should be subscribed to all of our periodicals. Our periodicals are ours and no one will tell our story better than we, ourselves, can tell it!

Please do not let it be said of us as A.M.E. pastors, "Put it in The A.M.E. Church Review (or our other A.M.E. periodical) and they will never see it."

I certainly hope, in addition to the Bible, pastors are reading other books. For preaching and counseling to be relevant, pastors must be well-rounded and well-read!