Monday, January 20, 2025

Spiritual Formation and the Prayer Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.




I teach spiritual transformation at Payne Theological Seminary. Here are my notes on the prayer life and spiritual formation ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr.


It is a mistake to portray King as a great leader while leaving out his Christian theistic spirituality and deep prayer life. Such things were foundational to King, in his own mind.


SPIRITUAL FORMATION & THE PRAYER LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

All quotes unless otherwise cited from Lewis Baldwin, Never to Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

See also:



Prayer as a conversational relationship with God.

  • King defined prayer as “the human response to God.” (1)
  • Prayer is a daily conversation and walk with God. (2)
  • King honored his slave ancestors by practicing prayer as “talking with God.” (21)
  • For King prayer was “communion with God.” (28) Because of this prayer is far more than “inspired speech or religiously informed rhetoric.” (28)
  • King described prayer as “intimate conversation with God.” (32)
  • Sometimes God’s communication to the praying person comes as “prophetic revelation.” (33)
  • Sometimes the praying person is given “mystic insight” into the being and nature of God. (34)


If you don’t have a prayer life you have no business being a pastor.
  • “King was thoroughly convinced that it took fervent and persistent prayer to pastor a church, and his own life bore the stamp of that conviction.” (54)
  • King believed that “the need to develop a prayer practice or habit and indeed a vibrant prayer life was axiomatic for the both the pastor and the congregation.” (59)

If you don’t have a prayer life you have no business preaching.
  • King never engaged in prayer-less preaching or prayer-less sermonizing. (6)
  • King was a praying preacher who approached the act of preaching in a prayerful spirit. “Indeed, prayerful preaching is the key to understanding King as a master pulpiteer, and it explains much of the power and creativity he brought to his sermonic discourse and to his art as one who proclaimed the Word as revealed in Scripture.” (39)
  • King was convinced that the ability and energy to preach came from God. Therefore “King made prayer an all-commanding factor in his sermon preparation.” (40)
  • King “prayerfully surrendered to God” as he prepared his sermons. (40)
  • King was “intentional about praying in the privacy of his home, church office, hotel room, and other relatively isolated places in which he found a greater measure of peace, silence, and solace.” (40-41)
  • King depended on “’preparatory prayer’ in thinking through and writing his sermons.” (41)
  • “King never engaged in prayerless sermonizing and/or preaching.” (44)
  • King “literally lived by prayer. Prayer pervaded every corner of his life.” (50)


Prayer as abiding in the presence of God.
  • Prayer became King’s way of expressing himself to God, of experiencing God’s presence and companionship, and of witnessing on behalf of others. (28)
  • King’s “pastoral prayers at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church moved people and were effective because he spent quality time with his parishioners in what he called “the valley” of life.” (58)
  • For King “prayer… was the source of and pathway to a grace-filled life.” (59)

Intellectual ability is not enough.
  • King combined a deep personal piety with intellectual ability and a profound social vision. (1)
  • King never separated intellectual ability, moral responsibility, and social praxis from deep personal spirituality and piety. (5)
  • For King “prayer became a matter of invoking the supernatural and an expression of his humble submission before the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent God, without whom the preaching becomes a meaningless play of words.” (42)
  • For King, “the preacher had to pray for guidance to ay what needed to be said and to proclaim what needed to be proclaimed… The thought of sermons having the same effect as water on a duck’s back, which is easily shaken off, bothered King immensely.” (44)
  • “King understood that his seminary training and intellectual gifts, though necessary and significant, could not guarantee what was called in clack church circles “power from on high.” This view helps explain why King, in both his private and public lives, mastered prayer as the art of pastoral conversation with God.” (54)
  • Once King received a phone call at midnight from a racist who verbally degraded him, and threatened to kill him and “blow up” his home. This deeply disturbed him, and he was unable to sleep. “Knowing that the theology he had studied in the corridors of academia could not help him and that he had nowhere else to turn, King had a face-to-face encounter with what he, in the tradition of his forebears, called a “Waymaker,” exposing his fears, insecurities, and vulnerablities with sincerity and humility. Great comfort came as an “inner voice” spoke to King, reminding him that he was not alone, commanding him to stand up for righteousness, justice, and truth, and assuring him that “lo, I will be with you, even to the end of the world.”” (69)



Prayer and Solitude
  • Solitude, getting alone with God, just you and God, was important for King. (69)



Prayer and Personal Transformation
  • King’s prayers highlighted the necessity for the transformation of the soul and uniting the soul with God in heaven. (31)
  • King believed in the power, potential, and possibilities of prayer as a “life-transforming force.” (36)
  • For King, one must “sustain a life of prayer.” This involves “a profound surrender of the self to God, not prayer rooted in self-pride, self-righteousness, and self-centeredness.” (54)
  • “King had a deep appreciation for contemplative prayer and of the potential of the Christian inner life… [He also had] an intense longing for the simple presence of God, a deeper understanding of God’s Word and commandments, and the will and capacity to listen to and obey God. In this regard, solitary prayer was as important to King as communal or group prayer.” (56)
  • In being interested in contemplative prayer King was not stepping outside of his tradition, “for there is a contemplative trajectory in the black prayer tradition that is not ecstatic and theatric.” (57)
  • For King the worship experience also involves “silent communication with God.” (57)
  • “For King, the lives of the ancient Hebrew prophets and of Jesus highlighted the essentiality of contemplative prayer. He say that the prophets and Jesus withdrew at times to quiet places to communicate with God, thus becoming a model for every sincere believer. King also understood that periods of quiet prayer and meditation were necessary for him and his church folk because of the pressures of black life I the South and the hectic pace and rapid change of modern life in a noisy world.” (57)
  • Because “prayer can change the very fabric of reality… prayer was a catalyst for positive change in one’s self and one’s circumstances and that the promises of God are met largely through prayer.” (59)


Prayer and Social Transformation

  • Prayer has a unique role in any serious and legitimate effort to achieve social transformation. (4)
  • “Prayer and praying became for [King] powerful resources in the effort to transform civic and political culture and in the quest for a new nation and a new world order.” (65)
  • Prayer is connected to God’s work in the world. (67)
  • “King made prayer central to the struggle for civil and human rights.” (67-68)
  • King saw himself as essentially involved in a “spiritual movement,” and not simply a struggle for equal right, social justice, and peace.” (68)
  • Because the root, basic struggle is about a total way of life, without prayer’s connection to God “the quest to redeem and transform the moral and political spirit of the nation and of humanity as a whole would ultimately prove futile and perhaps even counterproductive.” (68)
  • “King believed that the more praying there was on the part of committed persons, the stronger the force against evil and the greater the opportunities for creating a better society and world.” (73)
  • “King taught the people of Montgomery that the weapon of prayer was ultimately more powerful and effective than any gun or bomb.” (75)


In prayer, the self gets exposed.
  • In prayer as intimate conversation with God the self gets exposed in all of its nakedness and with all of its perplexities, struggles, and temptations. (32)

Prayer and Healing
  • King saw and practiced prayer “as a dimension of healing ministry.” (59)
  • King “believed… that prayer embodied infinite possibilities for healing.” (59)
  • King lived in a church culture where people “believed that prayer influences God’s dealings with humanity and in which a frequently heard remark was that “prayer changes things.”” (59)
  • Prayer can change the very fabric of reality. (59)

Prayer as a weapon of warfare.
  • Prayer has a place in the struggle against hatred, intolerance, and war.” (35)

Effective prayer
  • King was “convinced that the power of prayer, much like that of preaching, is largely affected by the character and conduct of the person who prays.” (49)
  • “Prayer and a clean spirit are the preacher’s best and most durable weapons when faced with the perilous and capricious nature of life and human existence.” (50)
  • “King was effective because his praying and preaching were effective. True leadership in his case made prayer and preaching indispensable.” (50)

Prayer and Obedience
  • Prayer needs to be combined with intelligence and responsible, positive action. “King wanted his people at Dexter to know that genuine prayer is never an opiate but rather a life-giving power that stimulates effort and energizes the believer for a courageous and persistent engagement with life’s struggles… [King] also repeatedly reminded them that God should never be regarded as some “cosmic bell hop” to be called on for every trivial need and desire.” (61)

Prayer and Theology
  • For King prayer “was a theological activity, or in more precise terms, an exercise in practical theology.” (64)


*****
For King to pray is to engage in a rational activity, a natural activity. Prayer comes out of “a throbbing desire of the human heart.” (34)


“Praying as an act of selfishness was repulsive to King.” (35)

The Source of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Social Activism

Image result for lewis baldwin king

(I'm re-posting this to keep it in play.)

In George Orwell's book 1984 the main character, Winston Smith, has the job of eliminating politically unwanted ideas, documents, and words, by throwing them down a "memory hole." To rewrite history is to forget history. To do this is "Orwellian."

An example of current Orwellian activity comes from the Freedom from Religion Foundation (Stephen Pinker, Richard Dawkins, et. al.). On their website they write:


The history of Western civilization shows us that 
most social and moral progress has been brought about 
by persons free from religion.

Unbelievable. The social activism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is but but one powerful counterexample to this unsupportable claim.

Sadly, we will see Orwellian unthinking in today's celebration of Dr. King's  birthday. Which means we will not see the true sources of his social activism.

It is my privilege to teach spiritual formation in one of the nation's oldest African American theological seminaries, Payne Theological Seminary. In my classes I have taught on the prayer life of Dr. King. 

As our nation pauses to honor Dr. King, we will celebrate his great civil and political influence. But we will hear nothing of his own understanding of the source of that influence. The fire burning deep in King’s soul was his relationship with God, fanned by his constant prayer life. Few scholars have attended to this, says King scholar Lewis Baldwin of Vanderbilt University, in his book Never to Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King. Our secular media has thrown King's spiritual life down the Orwellian memory hole. Baldwin corrects this.

I remember reading, for the first time, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” I knew King was a Christian, but his spiritual life was never talked about in the media. We saw film and photos of King praying in the city streets, but were not told how much this meant to him. His “Letter” greatly moved me. I saw that King was an intellectual, a genius, a brilliant writer, and most importantly,  a fundamentally spiritual being. The social activism of Martin Luther King, Jr., was a function of a life grounded in God and prayer, which he defined as “conversing with God.”

Prayer was more than a theory or some religious thing for King. King had an actual prayer life, contrary to many religious leaders who talk about praying but don’t find time to do it. He saw it as necessary for changing his own life and the prevailing culture. Baldwin, the great King scholar, shows us that King never separated moral responsibility from a deep personal spirituality and piety. Prayer, for King, was conversation with God.

Once King received a phone call at midnight from a racist who called him a “n-------,” threatened to kill him, and “blow up” his home This deeply disturbed him, and he was unable to sleep. He discovered that all the intellectual things he learned in the university and seminary could not help him overcome this. Baldwin writes that King turned to God in prayer, and had a face-to-face encounter with what is, in the tradition of his forebears, called a “Waymaker.” This God-encounter exposed his fears, insecurities, and vulnerablities. He found great comfort as an “inner voice” spoke to him, reminding him that he was not alone, commanding him to stand up for righteousness, justice, and truth, and assuring him that “lo, I will be with you, even to the end of the world.”

It is important to understand King’s position on spiritual things if we want to grasp his societal accomplishments. King, who earned a PhD at Boston University, knew that intellectual accomplishments were not enough to transform self and society. God was needed, and prayer was able to “invoke the supernatural.” Baldwin writes that “King taught the people of Montgomery that the weapon of prayer was ultimately more powerful and effective than any gun or bomb.”

King spent much time alone in prayer. He told students that if you don’t have a deep life of prayer you have no business preaching to others. King saw himself as essentially involved in a “spiritual movement,” not simply a struggle for equal rights, social justice, and peace.

King knew, existentially, that real, true prayer involves “a profound surrender of the self to God, not prayer rooted in self-pride, self-righteousness, and self-centeredness.” That becomes the kind of relationship with God that can transform the fabric of reality.

Leadership is influence. Therefore, King was one of our nation’s greatest leaders. Baldwin brings us to the source of that influence, which was: King’s own soul-receptivity to the powerful, transforming influence of God. “King,” writes Baldwin, “was effective because his praying and preaching were effective. True leadership in his case made prayer and preaching indispensable.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., and Political Amnesia

(Young W. L.'s hands)

True or false: Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of our nation's greatest and most influential social activists

True.

But, as Walter Fluker writes:

"Remarkably, few remember the role of the black church in the modern civil rights movement. Most forget, in fact, that Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor before he became a civil rights leader, and few have ever heard of Howard Thurman and many other illustrious leaders of this tradition who have shaped many of the basic institutions and laws of this nation." (Fluker, Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility, and Community, K 282)

The foundation of King's social activism was the ongoing activism of the Holy Spirit in the depth of his spiritual being. Our secular media, however, ignores this, striking King's faith from the historical record and creating a mass of politically correct amnesiacs. 

(Note: Yale University's Miroslav Volf, Flourishing: Why We Need Religion In a Globalized World.) 


Sunday, January 19, 2025

Be a Discerning (Not "Deciding") Church

 



(Grand Haven sunset)

(I preached on this, this morning, at Redeemer. Go HERE.)

Church leaders either:

1) Make decisions on their own, without consulting God; or

2) Meet with God to discern His good and perfect will.


When our church's leaders meet, we ask questions like these. 

"What is God saying to you, about you?"

"What is God saying to us, about us?"

"What is God doing in us?"

"What do you discern God is doing and saying?"

We are a discerning community, not a group of decision-makers. This is exciting, empowering, and non-striving. We are not trying to make things happen. 

Here are some things about discernment that are important to us.

Defining “discernment”
-      Discernment is the capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and the activity of God—both in the ordinary moments and in the larger decisions of our lives.
Discernment is different than “decision making.”

The word in the Presence-Driven Church is” discern,” not “decide.”
This is not about “decision-making.”
God makes decisions and leads; you and I are to  discern what God has decided.
Biblical examples of discernment.
1 Kings 3:9-14 – Solomon asks God to give him a “discerning heart” to govern God’s people, and to tell the difference between right and wrong.
Psalm 119:125 – The psalmist prays: I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.
Proverbs 18:15 - The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.
Daniel 2:21 - God gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
Hosea 14:9 - Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand.
The ways of the Lord are right;
    the righteous walk in them,
    but the rebellious stumble in them.
1 Cor. 2:14 - The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

How do I become a spiritually discerning person?
Cultivate intimacy with God. 

Discernment is a function of intimacy.

The rule is: The greater the intimacy with God, the more you have discernment.

“Discernment” is a fruit, an inevitable byproduct, of a presence-driven Life.

To discern the mind and heart of God: 
1. Meet regularly with God.
2. Engage with scripture.
3. Root yourself in a community that does the same.


If you don’t have time for this, you will not have spiritual discernment. Prayerless people dwell in the land of unfamiliarity.
There are three Greek words we translate as "discern." The first is in Rom. 12:1-2:


Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This includes not only the mind of each individual but also the corporate mind.

What is fundamentally needed is mind-renewing transformation.
We must live in the rivers of constant spiritual formation and transformation, in order to discern what the will of God is. This is what the whole "church" thing is about.
The Greek word we translate as "discern" in Romans 12 is ἀνακρίνω,v  \{an-ak-ree'-no} - anakrino
1) examine or judge  1a) to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinise, sift, question  1a1) specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an  investigation  1a2) to interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses  1b) to judge of, estimate, determine (the excellence or defects of  any person or thing 

A second Greek word is in 1 Cor. 12:10 - 


to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

Here the word is διάκρισις,n  \{dee-ak'-ree-sis} - diakrisis
1) a distinguishing, discerning, judging
A third word is in Phil. 1:9-11:
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Here the Greek word is δοκιμάζω,v  \{dok-im-ad'-zo} - dokimazo
1) to test, examine, prove, scrutinise (to see whether a thing  is genuine or not), as metals  2) to recognise as genuine after examination, to approve, deem worthy 

How to become a community of discernment.
Teach your people how to abide in Christ.
If you are a pastor, you must give up control. It’s not about you. It’s about what God is saying and doing in your people.
          
A Discerning Community is a Movement, not an Institution.

We discern what the Spirit is saying to us, and then move with the Spirit. 

Friday, January 17, 2025

When Is a Church Not an Actual Church?

 


Cardinals and a snowy window

Francis Chan knows it is possible for a church to not be a church. The name "church" doesn't mean it is what it says. In Chan's book Letters to the Church he writes, 

"If Muslims were advertising free doughnuts and a raffle for a free iPad as a means to get people to their events, I would find that ridiculous. It would be proof to me that their god does not answer prayer. 

If they needed rock concerts and funny speakers to draw crowds, I would see them as desperate and their god as cheap and weak. 

Understand that I am not judging any church that works hard at getting people through the doors with good motives. I spent years doing the same thing, and I believe my heart was sincere. I wanted people to hear the gospel by any means possible. Praise God for people who have a heart for truth! 
I’m just asking you to consider how this looks to a watching world. 

While our good intentions may have gotten some people in the door, they also may have caused a whole generation to have a lower view of our God. 

It is hard for the average person to reconcile why a group of people supposedly filled with God’s Spirit, able to speak with the Creator of the universe, would need gimmicks.

(Chan, Letters to the Church, pp. 95-96)

Then Chan asks, rhetorically:  

"Is there ever a point when a church is no longer a church?...  Just because you walk into a building with the word Church painted on a sign doesn’t mean God sees it as an actual church." (Ib., 96)

***
My leadership book is: Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Our Secure Foundation



The first time I heard God speak to me was in the spring of 1970. God said, "John, I love you." That moment set off a revolution inside me, that has never left me. I carry them in my heart every day. God's love, for me, is my secure foundation. His love protects me from my fears, anxieties, and uncertainties.

Henri Nouwen writes:

"When we start losing our money, our friends, or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our sense of security is rooted in these things. 

A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love."

God loves you. Post this truth on the temple wall of your heart.

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Should We Affirm Everyone's Worldview? (Reality Is Not Socially Constructed)

 

 

                                    (Sterling State Park, Monroe)

There are folks who do not agree with my Jesus-formed worldview. OK. If I have the opportunity to ask them, I say, "What is your worldview? Please explain."

Every moral judgment finds its residence in a pre-existing worldview.

Do not be intimidated by someone who doesn't like your worldview.

I've been studying worldviews for five decades. I see no reason to discard my Christian theistic worldview. What might I replace it with? There's nothing on the horizon (to borrow from Nietzsche), as I see it. 

I taught logic at Monroe County Community College for seventeen years. I used two logic textbooks: Hurley, and Vaughn. Both texts, indeed, all logic texts, are about evaluating and formulating beliefs. 

A belief is a statement that claims something as either true, or false. To claim that something is true, or false, is to say that a certain state of affairs obtains, or does not obtain.

For example, The window in my home office is now closed. That statement is true. Which means, it is true for everybody, whether they agree with it or not. This is called an"objective truth." 

Objective truth is not socially constructed. Or, at least, an objective truth cannot be fully reduced to a social construction. Objective truth has nothing to do with whether or not people affirm or disaffirm it.

This is how scientists think. To claim that The Moderna vaccine has a 95% efficacy against the coronavirus is to say that a certain objective state of affairs obtains. Which is to say, it either does, or it doesn't, and this has nothing to do with the social construction of reality. Should we affirm everyone's belief about the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine? Of course not. The scientist is interested in What IS the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine? The answer to this question is unrelated to what people believe about the efficacy of the vaccine.

Vaughn has some nice sections on worldviews. A worldview is a set of beliefs. Vaughn writes:

"A worldview is a philosophy of life, a set of beliefs and theories that helps us make sense of a wide range of issues in life. It defines for us what exists, what should be, and what we can know. We all have a worldview, and our notions about morality are part of it." (P. 422)

Worldviews differ. Should we affirm everyone's worldview? Of course not. We should love people, of course. But we should not expect those who hold to differing worldviews to affirm (agree with? endorse?) differing worldviews. Here is why.

The statement We should affirm everyone's worldview is itself part of a worldview (perhaps postmodernism). This moral belief itself is not part of my worldview (Christianity), for example. It's also not part of a Muslim worldview. Nor is it part of a philosophical atheist's worldview. Over the years I have had numerous discussions with atheists. Not one of them has "affirmed" my belief that God exists.

Undergirding the false belief that We should affirm everyone's worldview is the belief that Reality is socially constructed. But if that were true, then the belief that Reality is socially constructed is itself socially constructed. If the belief that we should affirm everyone's worldview is itself socially constructed, then we need pay no attention to it.

Monday, January 13, 2025

Now Reading...

 


It's a cold, snowy day in Southeast Michigan. I'm in our upstairs office reading Rod Dreher's new book Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning In a Secular Age.

One of my sons gave it to me for Christmas. In a hard cover - yay!

Dreher is an author I follow. I've read his two previous books: The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians In a Post-Christian Nation, and Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. 

Seven Signs of a Move of God



When God shows up one should expect certain things. What are 
essential elements of a real move of God? 

I distinguish essential elements from contingent elements. For example, essential elements of "car" include wheels, motor, can be driven; contingent elements of car are attributes like red, four-door, convertible, and 450 hp. 

What will a real move of God look like? Will there always, for example, be people falling down under the power of the Spirit? The answer is no. "Falling down" is a contingent, not essential, attribute of a move of God. (This does not mean it is unimportant.)

Here's what I'm now thinking (with a little help from JB).

7 Essential Elements of a Move of God

  1. Proclamation and Demonstration of the Kingdom accompanied by the Presence of The Holy Spirit
  2.  People are transformed internally (identity, behavior, etc)
  3. Social transformation (reach out to lost, hurting, poor, etc.)
  4. Awe – (especially expressed in worship)
  5. A truth is restored or expressed in a new way (e.g., the. Father's love)
  6. Fellowship together and *disenculturation (unity, mission, prayer, etc.)
  7. Resistance and possible persecution

*Disenculturation - an examination of our culture through the lens of the Kingdom of God.

Friday, January 10, 2025

The Moral Argument for God's Existence: Some Resources

 


                                (Redeemer Church in Monroe)

The moral argument for God's existence is my favorite, among arguments for the existence of God. People have not stopped making moral judgments and pronouncements. But if these judgments are not grounded in the reality of a transcendent command-giver, and we are left with atheism, then they are mere subjective tastes.

To understand the moral argument, begin by reading "The Indispensability of Theological Meta-Ethical Foundations for Morality," by William Lane Craig.

Here are posts I have written on the moral argument for God's existence, and on moral-ethical issues in general related to this argument...


William Lane Craig's Moral Argument for God's Existence