New Generation of Black Church Leadership Rising to Continue Battle for Freedom

This story was originally published with Trice Edney Newswire and edited by The Washington Informer for clarity.

It was on Nov. 24, 2014, when then Howard University student Kevin Lamár Peterman first felt a sermon rise from his belly.

That was the same day that a grand jury decided not to indict a white Ferguson, Missouri police officer, Darren Wilson, in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Mike Brown, an unarmed Black teenager walking down the street in his neighborhood. It was a police killing that sparked historic protests across America; including fiery demonstrations in Ferguson that were met with military force.

Having returned from the uprisings in Ferguson, Peterman was leading a community and student protest on the steps of Howard’s Douglass Hall in Northwest D.C. when the announcement came that Wilson would not be indicted.

“I remember giving a speech that night that I felt turn into a sermon. And it was really social justice that led me to ministry,” Peterman said. “I felt that the best way to advance the cause of Black people in America was through the church and through education. And so that’s kind of how my ministry began.”

A little more than 10 years later, the stirring that Peterman felt that night has now come full circle. On Saturday, Nov. 15, at the age of 32, he was installed pastor of Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, the oldest and most historic Black Baptist congregation in Washington, D.C., dating back through enslavement more than 180 years.

Today, as issues of racial justice continue to simmer – and grow – across the nation, the pastoral installation of Peterman and other young men and women in his age group is being viewed as a resurgence of sorts, part of a spiritual uprising of a new generation of civil rights leadership in the Black church.

“What you’re seeing is that there are a number of young Black preachers who are taking over historic Black churches in historic cities, who are doing this work of social justice and also doing the work of social impact while also preaching salvation,” Peterman said. “Every generation of ministers is called to move the thermometer one notch, one pace forward. It’s like a race. The baton has been passed to the next generation to run our leg of the race.”

A New Generation of Leaders 

From coast to coast, young people have emerged as faith-based social justice leaders –– during what Peterman describes as the “Black Lives Matter” era.

Among the young pastors speaking truth to power from the streets to the pulpits is Melech Thomas, who led protests alongside Peterman after the Baltimore police custody death of Freddie Gray. 

Thomas was installed pastor of Baltimore’s Payne Memorial AME Church earlier this year.

There is also: the Rev. Devon Jerome Crawford, pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, the home church of former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was recently installed. The Rev. Art Gordon is pastor of the oldest Black Baptist church in New England, the People’s Baptist Church in Boston. The Rev. Malcolm J. Byrd is senior pastor of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the oldest Black Church in New York State, founded in 1796. The Rev. Marissa Farrow has been named senior pastor-elect of Baltimore’s Mt. Calvary Church & Ministries. Finally, the Rev. Rodney Carter is pastor of the Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, the largest Pentecostal congregation in D.C. Each of these young pastors are working for progress through faith and freedom fighting.

“You’re seeing a new generation of pastors coming into the pulpit and taking over historic churches and many of us are trying to do the work that was being done 60 years ago, prior to the civil rights movement,” Peterman explained. 

During the services surrounding Peterman’s installation, it was made clear that his generation will not carry the mantle alone. As they rise to leadership, they join their mentors, their fathers and mothers in ministry who remain alongside them in the preaching of salvation, the battle for social justice, and the sharing of wisdom and experience.

“It’s not a new vision,” Peterman continued. “It’s a continuum. And hopefully, when we die, life in America will be better than it was when we were born.”

Peterman’s Installation: ‘I’m on a Mission for God’

The three services celebrating Peterman as the new pastor included preachers, known nationally for their leadership. The Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va, preached a one-night revival. 

The installation service was led by the Rev. Lawrence E. Aker, III, lead pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York. 

Events culminated during a Sunday service preached by the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Peterman served as a pastoral intern.

Aker, the pastor who ordained Peterman at Cornerstone, where he served as young adult and social justice minister, preached from the scripture, II Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” The title of the message was “A Divine Assignment.”

Peterman listened intently, having been ceremoniously robed by his mother, Mrs. Donna Holley-Nelms. He recounted that he was raised by a “single parent mother and grandmother in Vauxhall, New Jersey with the church as the center of our life.”

Essentially, Aker elaborated that Peterman has been called to preach in a time that has been described as the “fourth industrial revolution,” which, in part, means the world’s rise to 21st century technology; including AI, (artificial intelligence) and that the multi-generational Black church must not be afraid.

Greater Mount Calvary Pastor Rodney Carter, 34, gave a charge to the congregation that appeared strongly in agreement with Aker. 

“There are some who are going to grieve the past. I want to encourage you to follow the vision,” Carter said. “Don’t fight the vessel.”

Aker’s message likely heartened Peterman, who, in the pre-installation interview, expressed that the Black church must use maximum technology and social media in order to communicate its Gospel and social justice messages.

“We have to communicate our story. We have to communicate the work that we’re doing at Nineteenth Street. We have to embrace technology one hundred percent. We have to communicate what we’re doing and the work that we’re doing in 21^st century ways. Social media for us has been on the back burner,” Peterman said. “The reality is that nobody is looking for, or most people under the age of 50, are not looking for something to come in the mail to them. Most people now under the age of 70 want to be online, want to be digitized, want it to be on their phone. We have to embrace multiple platforms. I want people to know that I’m on a mission. I’m on a mission for God. And I am on a mission for my people.”

A Call to Action for Washingtonians

For Peterman, Nineteenth Street Baptist being located in the heart of the nation’s capital is crucial to his national leadership in social justice.

“As goes Washington, goes the rest of the country. The country is always looking to Washington, D.C. for leadership in every industry and in every sector. The same for the church,” he said. “I think the churches across the country are going to be asking the question, ‘What are the churches in the nation’s capital doing to advance the efforts of marginalized people, of Black people, of Brown people?’ So that will be an example for churches throughout the rest of the country.

He emphasized that members of Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, and Washingtonians overall, have a unique call to action.

“We particularly have a great opportunity because we eat at the same restaurants where the lawmakers eat. We are literally in proximity of and can go to the Supreme Court and demonstrate and make our voices known in ways that a congregation in Kentucky or Los Angeles or in Houston or Chicago cannot easily do,” Petermain said. “So, for us, our proximity to power comes with great responsibility and a privileged burden. Our proximity to power comes with a responsibility to speak truth to power on behalf of everybody else as loud as we can speak it.”