The Stew versus Melting Pot Ministry: Multicultural/Ethic Urban Apostolic Partnership

The church today has an opportunity to explore opportunities of culturally and ethnically diverse apostolic missional partnerships. Is it possible that vanguard and strategic concepts of multicultural/ethnic church planting models are contextualized and expanded within the urban setting? Is it possible that such modalities may serve not only towards the unification of believers, but also provide a means of connectivity to empower the community as a whole? The assertion is there are connecting points of evangelism and church growth opportunities found within such strategic and intentional multi-ethic/cultural models of apostolic partnerships

Martin, Ghana, and Global Legal Studies

This brief essay uses global legal studies to reconsider Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.\u27s activism after Gayle v. Browder. During this undertheorized portion of King\u27s career, the civil rights leader traveled the world and gained a greater appreciation for comparative legal and political analysis. This essay explores King\u27s first trip abroad and demonstrates how King\u27s close study of Kwame Nkrumah\u27s approaches to law reform helped to lay the foundation for watershed moments in King\u27s own life. In To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr., renowned civil rights scholar and author, Adam Fairclough, offered penetrating and important assessments of Dr. King\u27s civil rights activism from 1957 to 1959. Fairclough asserted that the Montgomery Bus Boycott captured the world\u27s imagination, with King becoming a figure of national and international significance, easily overshadowing the South\u27s other black leadership. Yet after the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s decision in Gayle v. Browder, Fairclough rightfully notes, King attempted, but was unable, to spark Montgomery-style, mass protests elsewhere. The minister\u27s newly established Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) also had serious difficulty in sustaining a formidable political agenda. King\u27s inexperience with organizational management, and more importantly, the organization\u27s loose, top-down structure undermined the SCLC\u27s effectiveness and eventually led to the group\u27s decline. The late 1950s, in Fairclough\u27s view, were the civil rights leader\u27s fallow years. In the wake of Gayle, the racial icon traveled the globe. In 1957, King flew to Accra to celebrate Ghana\u27s independence as a guest of Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah. But King\u27s first trip abroad took him far beyond the festivities in Accra. The minister\u27s itinerary was stacked with other foreign capitals. King trekked across West Africa, stopping over in Monrovia, Dakar, and Kano, and he crisscrossed Western Europe, exploring Lisbon, London, Paris, Rome, and Geneva. In 1959, King made a pilgrimage to the land of Gandhi at the request of India\u27s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. And again, King used the foreign leader\u27s invitation as a chance to tour the world. Before King returned to the United States, he ventured to Karachi, Athens, Beirut, Jerusalem, and Cairo. King\u27s overseas travels allowed him to participate in major global events, provided him respite from the day-today toils of the Southern struggle, and gave him the ability to forge stronger transnational ties with other liberation movements. And while King\u27s foreign stays are underappreciated, his close study of these nations\u27 legal and political systems are even more so. These travels created new opportunities for the recently minted Ph.D. to examine foreign law and affairs and apply the lessons he learned abroad to the burgeoning civil rights at home. Martin, Ghana, and Global Legal Studies is part of a larger project which details King\u27s interest in comparative law and politics. This brief essay examines how King used Nkrumah\u27s early approach to constitutional politics in the former Gold Coast to frame his own commitment to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Such a reappraisal of King\u27s experiences in Ghana, in turn, offers a fresh understanding of King\u27s fallow years

Global Church Growth Through Multicultural Mission Teams

The globalization of ministry outreach is emerging as the church is expanding its reach beyond the local community. As a result, many congregations have embraced multicultural mission team development. As models of leadership are capturing opportunities to develop strategic liaisons globally with various nations politically, educationally, financially, and socially, there appears to be an opportunity to implement or receive initiatives that mutually benefit both the hosting country and the serving organization. These opportunities are available to the local church or a consortium of local churches. The growth of the church and its impact is readily observed through the implementation and utilization of multicultural mission collaboration

Planning and Implementing Successful Pastoral Succession

The senior pastor serves as the visionary catalyst for the local church congregation. Cultural, ethnic, and theological traditions define the pastor’s role, often determining how the pastor plants a church, leads people, and transitions once the pastoral assignment is completed. None of these responsibilities is easy. However, the matter of pastoral succession brings concerns, sensitivities, and challenges that are unique within any discussion of ministerial success. Center of Praise Ministries in Sacramento, California, provides several examples of paradigms, challenges, and mores that one must address when facilitating healthy transition. This article explores how intentional and strategic pastoral succession planning provides a means by which a church develops healthy constructs that facilitate the possibilities of growth and expansion

Of Protest and Property: An Essay in Pursuit of Justice for Breonna Taylor

In March 2020, Louisville police officers fatally shot Breanna Taylor in her apartment while executing a no-knock warrant. There was great outrage over the killing of the innocent woman, and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron led an investigation of the officer-involved shooting. Activists protested in Louisville after Taylor\u27s killing, and when Cameron\u27s investigation appeared stalled, these activists even conducted a sit-in on Cameron\u27s front lawn. They demanded immediate justice for Taylor. Cameron sharply responded, lecturing the activists on how to achieve justice. He contended that neither trespassing on private property nor escalation in tactics could advance the cause of justice. Cameron\u27s bold assertion invites a discussion of how civil rights activists have and continue to use trespassing and escalation to pursue justice. This Essay explores the relationship between civil rights and property rights and finds parallels between the sit-in movement of the 1960s and the Black Lives Matter Movement. This Essay also finds parallels between Cameron\u27s criticisms of the Black Lives Matter Movement and criticisms of the sit-in movement of the 1960s. The Essay concludes by suggesting paths forward in the struggle to find justice for Taylor

The Stew versus Melting Pot Ministry: Multicultural/Ethic Urban Apostolic Partnership

The church today has an opportunity to explore opportunities of culturally and ethnically diverse apostolic missional partnerships. Is it possible that vanguard and strategic concepts of multicultural/ethnic church planting models are contextualized and expanded within the urban setting? Is it possible that such modalities may serve not only towards the unification of believers, but also provide a means of connectivity to empower the community as a whole? The assertion is there are connecting points of evangelism and church growth opportunities found within such strategic and intentional multi-ethic/cultural models of apostolic partnerships