"Dear Dr. King." Thus begins four letters of appreciation for the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from four contemporary pastors—Crawford Loritts, Matt Chandler, Soong Chan-Rah, and John Piper. On April 16, 1963, as Dr. King waited his release from an unjust imprisonment in a Birmingham jail cell, Dr. King used the margins of a smuggled newspaper to write one of the greatest essays of the 20th century. Today we call the essay the Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In this moving letter, Dr. King argued his case for why we can't wait for an end to racial injustice. But the letter also contains a passionate plea that the church also faces one of two stark options: pursue and fulfill your Christ-given mission, or become an irrelevant social club. These letters from four contemporary pastors originally appeared in Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., edited by Pastor Bryan Loritts and published by Moody Press.
Matt Woodley, Editor, PreachingToday.com
Pastor Crawford Loritts
Dear Dr. King,
It's been over fifty years since you declared that we can wait no longer for biblical justice! I am writing because I have to say "thank you." If God had not used you and the other courageous men and women of the civil rights movement to pave the way, the doors that have been opened to me and the opportunities afforded me would have never happened.
Diversity that is not simply an assembly of multi-raced but assimilated peoples can only be done through God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what my heart is hungry for.
As a teenager I fell in love with the Word of God. The more I read it, the more was captured by his description of the church—what it should be and represent in the world.Ephesians 2 was like a powerful magnet pulling me back time and again to the compelling description and vision of God's church, a reconciled community. As that vision wrapped itself around my imagination and heart, your emphasis on love and integration fueled that vision within me.
By the time I was sixteen, there were two things I knew I wanted to do the rest of my life. Preach the Word of God and serve in a context in which the unity of the body of Christ was being demonstrated. The second thing has proven to be the most costly and painful and yet the most rewarding and joyful.
So many times on the journey, I almost caved in and walked away; but God wouldn't let me. He gave me encouragement through like-minded brothers, who'd also been influenced by you.
Today I serve as the first African American pastor of a predominantly white church growing toward ethnic diversity and that vision God emblazoned on my heart years ago.
To men like you, I owe a profound debt of gratitude for staying the course.
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