First black church in America

GEORGE LIELE

Most histories of missions tell us that the first American missionaries to leave our shores for foreign missionary service were Adoniram and Ann Judson. For the most part they fail to record that as the main sail was hoisted that bleak New England day, February 19, 1812, there was aboard the brig Caravan with the Judsons their co-workers, Samuel and Harriet Newell. Harriet was destined to be the first American missionary martyr, dying at age 18 on the Ile de France.

By rolling the pages of history back into the last half of the 1700s, we learn that some historians feel our first American missionary in overseas service was really George Liele, who was born in approximately 1750 of slave parents whose names were Liele and Nancy. Like many slaves, he was separated from his parents when he was very young. All he knew about his father was from second-hand stories that related that the elder Liele was a deeply religious man. George relates: "I was born in Virginia. I cannot ascertain much of my parents as I went to several parts of America when young and at length resided in New Georgia but was informed by both white and black people that my father was the only black person who knew the Lord in a spiritual way in that country."



Henry Sharp, Liele's owner, was a Baptist deacon, a God-fearing man, and a very kind master. When Sharp moved his family to Georgia around 1770, Liele began attending the white Baptist church with his master. At the Baptist church both he and his master attended, a sermon convinced him that he was "not in the way of heaven but in the way of hell." Greatly convicted by that sermon, he struggled for several months until finally he was converted in 1773. He testified, "I saw my condemnation in my own heart, and I found no way wherein I could escape the damnation of hell only through the merits of my dying Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which caused me to make intercession with Christ for the salvation of my poor immortal soul." And, he adds, "I requested of my Lord and Master to give me a work. I did not care how mean it was, only to try to see how good I would do it."



The first work that God had for George Liele was explaining the Scriptures to the illiterate slaves. He had virtually no formal training but learned to read the Bible and was able to explain the Scriptures to the other slaves. His success in that ministry caught the attention of the pastor of his master's church; and, at the urging of the minister, the church licensed Liele to preach. Some historians believe that George Liele was the first ordained African-American Baptist pastor in America.



His master, Henry Sharp, gave Liele his freedom in order to allow him to preach without hindrance. Following his conversion in 1773, Liele went up and down the Savannah River preaching the Good News. At Silver Bluff, South Carolina, he planted the seeds of one of the earliest independent African-American congregations in the U. S.



Liele also preached even more extensively and with great success in Savannah, Georgia, and the surrounding area. Many future African-American Christian leaders were co-workers with Liele or converts under his preaching.



Henry Sharp, Liele's former owner, was a British loyalist and fought in the Revolutionary War on the side of the British. He was killed in fighting, and some of his heirs tried to re-enslave Liele. He was imprisoned for a period of time until he could produce the papers that showed he was a freed man. Nonetheless, this put concern in Liele's heart that he might indeed be taken back into slavery; so he indentured himself to a British officer names Col. Kirkland who was able to give him sufficient funds to pay passage for him and his family to Jamaica, where Kirkland himself was being transferred. Jamaica at that time was still a British colony. He arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1783, served the Colonel, and paid off his indebtedness.



Once his debt was paid, Liele began preaching among the slaves and free blacks. He formed a church in a private home in September 1784. It should be noted that this was about ten years before William Carey sailed for India and 30 years before Judson reached Burma.



The free people who belonged to Liele's church were generally very poor, but they were all willing, both free and slaves, to do what they could. Liele himself farmed and hauled goods with his horses and wagon. He lamented that the businesses kept him "too much entangled with the affairs of this world," but he felt it also set a good example. By 1790 his congregation had grown to about 350. Liele said of himself and his flock, "We hold to live as nigh the Scriptures as we possibly can." His congregation certainly reflected the truth of Scripture's claim that "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called (I Cor. 1:26).


By 1793 Liele had baptized some 500 converts. He was able to establish other congregations across Jamaica and trained others to help him in the preaching of the Gospel. He also established a free school for the children of slaves and free blacks. One of his deacons wrote that year, "We have great reason in this island to praise and glorify the Lord for His goodness and lovingkindness in sending His blessed Gospel amongst us by our well beloved minister Brother Liele. We were living in slavery to sin and Satan, and the Lord hath redeemed our souls to a state of happiness to praise His glorious and ever blessed Name, and we hope to enjoy everlasting peace in the promise of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. The blessed Gospel is spreading wonderfully in this island. Believers are daily coming to the church."

Liele tried to keep from offending the whites in Jamaica by allowing in his congregation only those slaves who had their master's permission to attend. But in the 1790s there was increasing persecution from some of the white slave owners. On one occasion, as Liele's congregation was about to partake of the Lord's supper, a white man rode his horse directly into the church. "Come, old Liele," he said, "Give my horse the sacrament." Staring the intruder down, Liele replied, "No sir, you're not fit yourself to receive it." The pastor in his pulpit faced the mounted rider as several uneasy moments passed until the arrogant trespasser finally turned his horse and left.


Several times Liele was imprisoned on trumped-up charges; but, like Paul, he preached to the other prisoners and gave the Lord's supper to other Christians in prison. In his absence, the church continued to function under the leadership of his son and the deacons of the church.


One of the worst atrocities at this period of time occurred not directly under Liele's ministry but under the ministry of one of his converts and fellow preachers, Moses Hall. Determined to put an end to slave meetings, some slave owners broke up a prayer meeting being led by a slave named David, one of Moses Hall's assistants. They seized David, murdered him, cut off his head and placed it on a pole in the center of the village as a warning to the other slaves. They dragged Moses Hall up to the grisly object. "Now, Moses Hall, whose head is that?" the leader of the murderers asked. "David's" replied Moses. "Do you know why he's up here?" "For praying, sir," said Moses. "No more of your prayer meetings," he said. "If we catch you at it, we shall serve you as we have served David." As the crowd watched, Moses knelt beside the pole and said, "Let us pray." The other blacks gathered around and knelt with him as he prayed for the salvation of the murderers. Astonished, the slave owners departed, leaving Moses and his followers unharmed.


There is very little record of Liele's later ministry. Between 1801 and 1810 he conducted work in the interior of Jamaica, establishing churches there. That seems to be the pattern of his final years-ministering to the works he had established and establishing new works wherever he could. Liele died in 1828.


In summary, George Liele was ordained in a white church in Burk County, Georgia. This freed black slave gathered the first black church in America at Silver Bluff, South Carolina. Brought up without a church by slave parents, he became the first ordained black Baptist minister in America. Although supported by no church or denominational agency, he became the first Protestant missionary to go out from America to establish a foreign mission-ten years before William Carey set out for India. He was a man without formal education, yet he learned to read the Bible and became a preacher of such effectiveness that in seven years in Jamaica he had converted over 500 slaves to Christianity, and shortly before his death in 1838, there were over 20 thousand Baptists in Jamaica.



JAD

05/09/2001

Coming to the Lord for Grace

"Come to Me…and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me…and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-29)
Our previous meditation on the spiritual rest promised by Jesus provides an excellent opportunity to reflect again upon the relational aspect of living by the grace of God. God's grace does not abound toward us by means of some religious procedure. His grace flows into our lives as we walk in a developing relationship with Him. This is essential to understand, since it is "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 8:9) that we are to be experiencing.

It is in coming to the Lord, in relating to the Lord, that we find His grace at work in our lives. "Come to Me…Take My yoke… learn from Me." When we first come to Jesus in humble dependence, we find His grace forgives us of our sin and guilt. When we yoke up with Him, walking intimately with Him each day, we find His grace rescues us from religious, fleshly striving.

This pattern of coming to the Lord is prevalent in the Scriptures. Isaiah wrote of it concerning salvation. "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other…Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come" (Isaiah 45:22, 24). Isaiah also declared that by simply coming to the Lord spiritual refreshment and life from God would be available. "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live" (Isaiah 55:1-3). Of course, Jesus restated this profound invitation concerning Himself. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38).

The Apostle Peter wrote of another significant issue for which we come to Jesus. "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:4-5). If we are going to access the grace that edifies our lives, we must consistently be coming to Jesus Christ, the Father's chosen and precious cornerstone.

Dear Lord, I praise You for the grace that I find every time I come to You in humble dependence. Coming to You, I am cleansed, sustained, refreshed, and built up. I am so thankful that Your grace is accessed through relationship with You and not through religious performance by me!

How We are to Respond to God's Promises

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17)

How are we to respond to God's promises of blessing? Such promises are not automatically at work in every life that hears them. Some people respond correctly, while others respond improperly. Some enjoy the benefits of God's promises, whereas others do not. In these two verses, we are given the necessary response to all that pertains to the gospel of grace. That response is faith. This would certainly include living by the promises of God.

Paul was unashamed of the gospel because he knew its effective character. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation." The good news about Jesus Christ is essentially the grace of God proclaimed to man: "the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24). This grace is God's power poured out unto the saving of souls. This power is experienced by all who place their faith in the gospel, whether Jew or Gentile: "for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." The gospel is effective, because it holds forth God's righteousness to sinful man, if he is willing to trust in the Lord. "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith."

The gospel is referred to in the Scriptures as a promise. "And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life" (1 John 2:25). The gospel is often stated in the form of promises: "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved… whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 15:11 and Romans 10:13). These gospel promises are partaken of by faith. "The just shall live by faith."

In addition to initial salvation, the good news of God's grace includes many other promises from God. "I will build My church…You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" (Matthew 16:18; John 8:32; and 16:13). All of these promises are experienced by faith as well, because "the just shall live by faith"—continually, as well as initially.
O Lord God, I want to respond to Your promises properly. How gracious that You only ask me to trust in what You have promised to do. I do not want to ignore Your promises or doubt them. I want to live by relying upon every promise You have ever made. In Your faithful name I pray, Amen.

Reflecting on Balance and Rest in the Ministry

There has been much discussion about the ministry and the toll it takes on leaders and families. Christianity Today has a helpful article reflecting on John Piper's recently announced leave of absence. Collin Hansen wrote:

Pastors, even if they do not aspire to Piper's level of influence, easily fall into exhausting patterns of study, counseling, meetings, and visitation that jeopardize time alone with God and with their families...


But local church ministry is hardly the only vocation prone to overwork. Teachers, farmers, doctors, lawyers, small business owners, and middle managers alike feel the strains of labor that threaten family and spiritual life. Still, the threat becomes that much more dangerous when we work unto the Lord in taxing jobs where the cause seemingly justifies the means. Who has time to read the Bible, pray, listen to our friends, and care for our children when there's kingdom work to be done?...

Even during the busyness of this Lenten season, though, we might follow Piper's example and pause to examine the toll of our toiling and the state of our souls. Does our work truly point others to the power of Christ? If not, it may draw attention to the one who plants and waters, not the God who gives the growth (1 Cor. 3:7).

Rick Warren (in this week's Toolbox) asks "Are you working harder than God intended?":

My experience is pastors tend to overwork when they assume extra hours make them more effective in ministry. That's simply not true, and this misguided notion can actually keep others in your church from developing into mature Christian leaders.


I know how it is, when you get frustrated with the way things are going, you tend to want to control everything. It is human nature but it isn't the way God wants us to operate. It turns your ministry into one of those "whack-a-mole" games. The moment you whack down one problem, another one pops up. It's never ending.

Both the Rick Warren article and the the CT story quote some of our LifeWay Research data that I cited in an earlier post. I'll summarize some of that content...

A new study coming out of Lifeway Research shows that "Protestant pastors in America are working long hours, sometimes at the expense of relationships with church members, prospects, family and even the Lord." You can read the whole article here in Facts & Trends.

Here are some of the numbers. See the article for the full story. Feel free to download and use the graphics in your blogs and publications to help people understand what pastoral work and leadership often looks like. My hope is that it will help more pastors (and churches) achieve better balance.

by Ed Stetzer

Ten Questions to Explore and Understand a Church

1. Is this church where God’s Word is faithfully taught? (2 Tim. 3:16)
2. Is this a church where sound doctrine matters? (Acts 2:42; 2 Tim 4:3-4)
3. Is this a church in which the gospel is cherished and clearly proclaimed?
4. Is this a church committed to reaching non-Christians with the gospel? (Matt. 28:18-20)
5. Is this a church whose leaders are characterized by humility and integrity?
(1 Tim. 3)
6. Is this a church where people strive to live by God’s Word? (James 1:22)
7. Is this a church where I can find and cultivate godly relationships?
8. Is this a church where members are challenged to serve? (Eph. 4:12)
9. Is this a church that is willing to kick me out? (1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2)
10. Is this a church I’m willing to join “as is” with enthusiasm and faith in God?

Wish List For Durham Crisis Center‏

I dare you to buy an item on this wish list, Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill!
We need your help!

Just get these items. Ask your family to buy something. Ask your church to buy 10 or 100 of these items! Ask your boss to buy an item!

We can do this!!!!!

Wish List:
Household Supplies
Paper Towels
Non-perishable food items
Laundry Detergent
Fabric Softener
Ziploc Bags
Dishwasher Detergent
Thermometer
Laundry Baskets
Cleaning Supplies
Aluminum Foil
Trash Bags (39 gal)
Batteries (all sizes)
Toilet Paper
Soap and Sponges
Hampers

Personal Needs
Tampons
Sanitary Napkins
Deodorant
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Girls Underwear
Lotion
Pantyhose (Variety of colors and sizes)
Women’s knee-hi’s and socks
Women’s underwear
Boys underwear (for ages 12 and under


Other Needs
DATA (adult) Bus Passes
Towels
Gift Certificates (Grocery, Department and Video Stores)
Sweat Shirts (all sizes)
Sweat Pants (all sizes)
Blank Journals
Date Books/Appointment Calendars
Adult and Children Craft Items
Professional skills (Gardening, Painting, Plumbing, Electrician)

Becoming God's True Woman

Over the last several decades, women have been encouraged to “have it their way.” I’m so thankful that we are now seeing a deep hunger in the lives of thousands of women to “have it God’s way”—to look to the Word of God for the definition of what it means to be a “true woman.” These women, by God’s grace, seek to live God-centered lives, to trust Him, and to say “Yes, Lord.”

A “true woman” lives a God-centered life.

In a self-centered world, she lives for God’s glory and pleasure, not her own. She understands that life’s not about her—it’s all about Him!

Instead of saying, “What will make me happy?” she asks, “What will please You, Lord? What will further Your Kingdom and display Your glory?” She recognizes her life is not her own, and joyfully lives for the glory of God.

•She embraces her created purpose: to join every created thing in heaven and earth in worshiping and glorifying Him eternally.
•She “turns her eyes upon Jesus” in the midst of her problems and sees these challenges in the context of His greatness.
•She lives a life of repentance, holiness, and service; but above all, she is enthralled with Christ!
A “true woman” trusts God.

•She doesn’t give in to fear because she knows that God can be trusted. He understands everything about her situation, and His good and loving plan will not be thwarted.
•She leans on Him and depends on Him in times of joy, pain, hardship, uncertainty, and confusion.
•She trusts God in circumstances she cannot understand or would not have chosen.
•She resists the temptation to worry and manipulate, because she has relinquished control to Him.
A “true woman” says “Yes, Lord.”

•She believes that God’s purposes for creating male and female are good and wise.
•She considers it a privilege and a delight to serve Him as a woman, and gratefully embraces His design and roles for her life.
•The Word of God is her compass and motivates her to live intentionally and counter-culturally.
•She makes personal sacrifices with her time and resources for the Kingdom of God.

by Nancy Leigh DeMoss