Seeing Beneath the Surface

This conference has opened my eyes to the injustices in society and the need to develop programs that address not just the visible problems but the underlying elements as well.

Carolyn Jordan
Victory Missionary Baptist Church
Las Vegas, Nev.

Energizing and Supportive

This conference has been energizing. It has given me an understanding along with support in my endeavor to be prophetic in my preaching and to engage in those activities that speak truth to power.

Rev. Herbert Carey
Pastor, Martin Luther King Baptist Church
Renton, Wash.

Involvement in Community Issues is Important

I hope [conference] participants will gain a sense of the importance of faith-based organizations being involved in community issues. It is our responsibility, as citizens and as Christians, to be role models and to offer direction and guidance as Jesus would do.

Dolores Lyles
Staff member, J. Alfred Smith Sr. Training Academy, Allen Temple Baptist Church
Novato, Calif.

A Wealth of Information

I have received a wealth of information that I can use to broaden our ministries at Second Baptist Church. I heard a lot about the prison reentry program. Also, I sat in on a [workshop] session on anger management and domestic violence and that’s another area that we definitely need to explore for ministries at our church.

Rev. Venus Butler
Minister, Christian Education, Second Baptist Church
Los Angeles, Calif.

Sleeping Giants

I attended the workshops on prison ministry. We have been sleeping giants. We have really been asleep. [Social] justice is a main theme of scriptures and yet in our [church] services, we spend more time with praise and worship―while there are people all around us, even in our sanctuaries, in our congregations who are literally suffering some kind of injustice.

Dr. Alicia Malone
Moderator, Akron Area American Baptist Association
Founder, Bondage Breakers Prison Ministry
Akron, Ohio

A Real Blessing

This conference has been a real blessing. It’s been an eye-opener. I am really fired up with new insight and new ideas to be more prophetic in the ministry. Although, in terms of encouraging members, I have been doing prophetic ministry―being out there, doing it, and setting an example is truly what it’s all about.

Rev. Jeremiah Price
Pastor, Grace Tabernacle Baptist Church
President, Cleveland Baptist Association
Cleveland, Ohio

Speaking about Injustice to Youth

I have been well fed a lot of information regarding [social] injustice and how we speak of that at the church level. I am going to try to implement it, especially among our young people. We need to find out where they are and where they are going. The only ways we can do this is to get with them in their environments, even if it’s a pizza shop, and give them time to express themselves and listen to them.

Rev. Dr. Gerald Hemingway Sr.
Retired Area Minister
Pleasant Grove Baptist Church
Oakland, Calif.

Release from Fear

I leave with a deeper sense of the need to impact the local and global communities for Christ in terms of meeting tangible needs in regard to prophetic ministry, and how that translates into everyday situations. One thing I will remember is that you can’t be afraid of the people you minister to. You can be so on edge and tense around the people you want to reach out to that you become ineffective. By being here, I feel that God has released me from that fear so that I can minister freely.

Rev. Katherine Jackson
Reaching the World Ministries
Washington, D.C

The Gospel as Living Word

This is the season in which we find the importance of ministry outside the walls of the church. When we look at the challenges of the poor, the disenfranchised and those at the margin, we need to lift up their urgent needs, and we need to be ever present in their lives and the challenges of their lives. That makes us prophetic if we do those things. We have to step away from the pages of the gospel and understand that the gospel is a living word and that our efforts must be a living effort.

Rev. Dr. Ramona Tascoe
Minister, Allen Temple Baptist Church
Oakland, Calif.

What is Social Justice?

I will take away [from this conference] a more nuanced definition of what social justice ministry is and what it means to be a prophetic church. This conference has challenged me to go beyond the simplistic answer that God will take care of everything.

Camille Williams
Senior, Duke Divinity School
Durham, N.C.

Truly Inspired

What a wonderful, inspirational, educational, spirit-lifting experience we’ve had at the “Speak Until Justice Wakes Conference”! I was privileged to be invited and honored as an “Unsung Hero” during the conference. The true unsung heroes, however, are the individuals who untiringly worked behind the scenes to pull together the workshops, lecturers, guest preachers and delicious meals.

The conference provides the opportunity for people to come together to have their minds challenged, their souls fed, their ministries further equipped and their hearts convicted to go out and do the “greater works” that Christ said we could.

I would be remiss if I didn't praise God for the wonderful hospitality ministry of Allen Temple, under the great pastoral leadership of the Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr. What a wonderful group of men and women, dedicated to excellence in service.

Thank you, National Ministries, ABCUSA for giving your highest and best to “serve this present age.” I have truly been inspired to continue to “Speak, Until Justice Wakes”!

Rev. Chris Smith
Pastor, Covenant Baptist Church
Wickliffe, Ohio

God's Angels

As I reflect on my experience at the “Speak Until Justice Wakes” conference, I feel like I have been placed in the biblical text with the prophet Elijah—at the moment in time when he is discouraged and overwhelmed with his ministry, awakened by an angel, and told to get up and eat. Elijah is encouraged to receive nourishment for his journey.

While I am not at the same emotional place Elijah was in, I feel like I have been awakened and given nourishment to strengthen my journey.

As a new pastor who is trying to move a congregation toward strong prophetic witness in our community, I found it a blessing to be in the company of those who strive to preach prophetically and live a prophetic lifestyle.

God’s angels who have spoken at this conference have fed me well. I thank God for the company of people who have engaged their communities as expressions of Christ love in such a way that souls have been saved and lives transformed.

In Christ,
Rev. Kasey Jones
National Baptist Memorial Church
Washington, D.C.