5 Ways MLK Inspires Me to Be a Better Youth Pastor
This year will be the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” As a white student minister in Alabama, Dr. King’s work and writings have greatly shaped me as both a person and a pastor. As I reflect on Dr. King’s legacy this Black History Month, here are 5 ways he inspires me to more effectively minister to teenagers.
Image by Charles Thonney from Pixabay
1. His efforts in addressing racism were rooted in deep biblical convictions
Dr. King saw the racism that fueled segregation as a spiritual issue as much as a social one. From his knowledge of God’s Word, it was clear to him that racial division was not God’s will. It caused white people to reject African-Americans as people made in the image of God and to deny the most important commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Dr. King’s strategy to address this racial division (non-violent, peaceful protest) was also based on his reading of Scripture and the example of Jesus himself.
Sadly, Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour of the week. This tragic fact was not one that I cared about for much of my life. Thankfully, Dr. King and other minority brothers and sisters have helped me see that God’s word is not silent about segregation in the church (including in our youth groups). Scripture tells us that this is an issue God cares about deeply—so deeply that He had it in mind when Jesus died on the cross (Ephesians 2:11-22). As a student pastor, this conviction has led me to teach on tough issues of race and take intentional steps to help our student ministry be a place where all ethnicities are treated with dignity.
Many teenagers today are passionate about pursuing racial equality. If it is not talked about or dismissed, churches will (rightly) lose their credibility. Yes, issues of race can be controversial, but youth ministers should be convicted by God’s Word (not by politics or cultural pressure) to address them.
2. He courageously confronted others in a humble and gentle way
Every pastor in America should be required to read Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In his most famous work, he pulls no punches in calling out the sinful fear, prejudice, and indifference that characterized many white pastors of his day. However, another thing that strikes me in Dr. King’s letter is his humility. For example, he affirms that these pastors are still his brothers in Christ, shares that he has shed tears over their sin, and even asks for their forgiveness if he has been untruthful or too harsh in any of his words! [1] Dr. King believed that his cause could only be called righteous so far as he was imitating the humility of Christ.
In youth ministry, we must confront students (and occasionally, their parents) about their disobedience to God and unrepentant sin. Some of our students even struggle with the sin of racism and look down on other ethnicities. God has called us as pastors to confront these people and urge them to repent. For me, these times of confrontation are the aspect of ministry I dread the most. It requires courage to confront, and Dr. King inspires me to not shy away from it. At the same time, he also reminds me that my motivation for confrontation must always be tearful love (2 Cor. 2:4).
3. He lived and led with a “cosmic urgency”[2]
The white pastors in Birmingham advised Dr. King to delay taking such drastic measures in fighting segregation. His response? “For years now I have heard the word ‘wait.’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never.’”[3] Dr. King refused to wait to do what he believed was God’s will. In his opinion, sin should be immediately addressed in obedience to the Lord. His people were suffering greatly due to segregation, and it made no sense to Dr. King to allow prejudice to persist when God has commanded His people to “do justice” now (Micah 6:8).
It’s easy for all of us to fall into the trap of delaying obedience to God due to the difficulty of doing His will. I have seen how tempting it is for teenagers to believe the lie that they can put off following Jesus until they get older. Teenagers are prone to wait until “later” to repent of their sin and walk in holiness. However, when they do this, sin is allowed to grow and wreak havoc in their lives. In addition, they miss out on being used by God to bring His will into the world! As a youth pastor, Dr. King inspires me to urgently plead with teenagers to believe the gospel and pursue justice today.
4. He powerfully used God’s word to help people see how to act in the world
If you read through any of Dr. King’s speeches, you will notice how saturated they are with the Scriptures. He was a preacher, after all. What made him such a powerful speaker was his ability to take God’s lofty word and apply it to what was going on in the world. For example, in his “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech, Dr. King invokes the parable of the Good Samaritan. He points out that the Samaritan did not ask (like the priest and Levite) “if I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” but rather “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” He then challenges the pastors he is speaking to ask this same question in their modern-day situation.[4] Oppressed sanitation workers were on the side of the road and needed someone to stop and selflessly help them. Dr. King used Scripture to creatively call people out of complacency and into compassion. For him, God’s Word was not merely a good idea, but a matter of life in the real world.
If you’re like me, it can be difficult to teach the Bible in a way that makes sense to teenagers and helps them understand how God’s Word applies to their everyday lives. Dr. King inspires me to creatively and faithfully teach the Bible in a way that connects students’ faith to their cultural moment, especially on racial issues.
5. He had a confident hope in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances
Dr. King faced an enormous amount of opposition. He was keenly aware of the length of time it would take for his vision of racial equality to become a reality. He even suspected that he would not live to see his dream come to fruition. Despite this awareness, Dr. King never wavered in his belief that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” His hope was unshakable because it was rooted in the promises of God. It is this hope that allowed him to continue marching on under the shadow of great suffering.
If I’m being honest, it is sometimes hard to hold out hope for the teenagers I minister to. With an ever-growing number of obstacles to overcome in our morally decaying and secular world, it is easy to wallow in despair when I see students rejecting Christ or living in sin. Dr. King inspires me to hold out hope that God is sovereignly working for His eternal glory even when I cannot see it. Just as Dr. King was encouraged to endure in his efforts because of God’s promises of ultimate justice and ethnic harmony (Rev. 7:9), I can be assured as a youth pastor that God will fulfill His promise to bring each of His elect to saving faith in His perfect timing and sustain them to the end.
[1] Letter From Birmingham Jail: “If I have said anything in this letter than is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patience with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.”
[2] Letter From Birmingham Jail: “he [the African-American) is moving with a sense of cosmic urgency toward the promised land of racial justice.”
[3] Letter From Birmingham Jail.
[4] “That's the question before you tonight. Not, ‘If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job.’ Not, ‘If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?’ The question is not, ‘If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?’ The question is, ‘If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?’ That's the question.”