When faith meets labor, it fuels a fight for the common good---An article on Rev. David Wheeler by Rebecca Jacobson

We have mentioned David Wheeler on our blog before. Now The Northwest Labor Press has a great article about him.

A ‘GOOD TROUBLE’ BAPTIST: For Portland minister David Wheeler, solidarity is a virtue with a Biblical foundation. | PHOTO BY CELINA FLORES

When faith meets labor, it fuels a fight for the common good--By REBECCA JACOBSON

On a September afternoon in 2006, a couple thousand people took to the west end of Los Angeles’s Century Boulevard. Blocking rush-hour traffic on one of the city’s major thoroughfares, they marched toward the passenger terminals at Los Angeles International Airport. Many carried signs or wore t-shirts reading “I Am a Human” in English and Spanish, a reference to the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis.

The marchers were there to support low-wage workers at the many nearby hotels, and to put pressure on hotel management to respect their employees’ rights to organize. Outside the Hilton, more than 300 of the demonstrators sat down in the middle of the boulevard. When police showed up with plastic handcuffs, they offered no resistance to arrest. It was one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in LA history.

Reverend Dr. David Wheeler, then pastor of the First Baptist Church in Los Angeles, was there. But he wasn’t among those cuffed.

Read the entire article here.

Rev. Dr. David Wheeler speaks at the Postal Workers Rally on 11/16/22

 

Baptist pastor Rev. David Wheeler speaks at a Portland labor rally

 

Sterlin Bolen - Live Through The Ages--Old Regular Baptists

 

Everyone can do some healing work...

There are many simple ways of outreaching and doing ministry at the grassroots. I don't think that we fully realize how much good we are doing for another or how many people are either trying to help or are helping others in informal settings, on the streets, at work, or in places of worship and where people gather. That work goes on in spite of the anti-vaxxers and the no-maskers and the folks who have lost their sense of social responsibility and solidarity. Anyone can pick this work up, and I hope that everyone will.

This comes from the Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia and the Faith Walks and Talks Facebook page. 

There have been various prayer meetings throughout our history, but a regularly scheduled one was not on our calendar recently until the pandemic. People were frightened. Lockdown was tough. People we knew were sick; some died. The need for a focused prayer time was unmistakable. Our interim pastor, Pastor Steve Crane, started the group. It meets on Thursday nights at 7 p.m., currently virtual. People ask for prayers for family members, friends, neighbors, and themselves. Family problems, sicknesses, grieving, and fears are shared. We pray for our church, community, country, and the world. We pray for unity and peace, and we come with a heart of gratitude for all God’s given us. “It has meant the world to me and helped me so much to know every Thursday or anytime by a phone call or email there is a group of wonderful people praying for my concern or praise,” said Joann Flower. #faith #sesquicentennial #prayer
    

Zion Primitive Baptist Church

Whatever my disagreements with the Primitive Baptists, I found this picture and the accompanying paragraph from Zion Primitive Church on Facebook warm and reassuring. I appreciate Zion's simplicity. I often think about this when I go into old churches, and sometimes I believe that I can feel the weight of the prayers of all of the oppressed people who have been there before me and their guidance or concern for me.

This is the sanctuary of Zion Primitive Baptist Church. There have been many who have sat in these pews over the last 34 years. Saints, who desired a little place to worship in Spirit and Truth. Before this sanctuary was built, they met in a conference room of Georgia Power and in living rooms singing praises to God for the love He expressed through His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
For those who have been worshipping at Zion for a long time, they can look out over the pews and see the faces of those who have gone to be with the Lord. This was a special place for them and is special to us, it is where we come together and worship our Creator, through our Savior.
Come and see.

Pastor Kelvin Cockrell Sr. @ Tabernacle Baptist Church, Selma, AL

Please turn up the volume when listening. Concentrate on the hope expressed in this message.

 

"Ninety And Nine"---One of my favorite hymns, but I never heard this Old Regular Baptist version before today.

 

David O'Quinn - Sweeter Than The Flowers

Just beautiful!

 

Sunday morning with Brother Thomas Jude at Buck branch United Baptist Church in Pilgrim, KY.

This is how some people work out and understand what's happening within them and around them. It's how some folks find community and support. Can I agree with everything here? No. I hope that in their faith journeys these good people discover the peace and justice of universalism and join the fight for social justice. I think that they might be further along on those paths than some people think, and with some good local people working with them I believe that much good could come out of that. I think that liberal and Left people could get some inspiration and teach and preach with this kind of power.

"I Can Almost See Heaven"---Joey Justice at Pilgrims Prayer Church at Dorton (Jenkins), Kentucky

 

Sunday morning service 4/10/22 at the Buck Branch United Baptist Church

 

Rayburn May---"A Beggar And A King"---A Wonderful Hymn

 

Joey Justice---"Letters From My Father"

 

Old Regular Baptists - On A Hill

 

Sunday morning service at Buck Branch United Baptist Church in Pilgrim, KY.

 

Some Praise, Singing, And Preaching From The Buck Branch United Baptist Church in Pilgrim, KY.---Intense!

As I say with many videos here, I don't agree with everything here but I am moved by some of the preaching and hymns and the sincerity and healing that is here. This video is especially intense. This is a community expressing its deepest needs and faith.

A possible model for church unity?