The Courage to Serve: The Essence of a True Leader

There seems to be a void among black people. Some believe the void is in black leadership. They long for the next Martin Luther King or Malcolm X. They wait for a black messiah to take us home. However, I disagree with this notion. There is no lack of leadership in the black community. On the contrary, there is a surplus of leadership. We have a church on every corner of the black community. We have numerous organizations supposedly dedicated to our uplift. We have black politicians and government workers. We have a host of people searching for power, privilege and prestige. But do we have enough leaders seeking to serve the people? Leaders who will stay when the money doesn't come. Leaders who won't be swayed by fads and gimmicks. Leaders who will stand up to the majority when the majority is wrong. Leaders who have the faith and courage to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

Two events have caused me to think seriously about the problem of leadership and the masses of my people wandering in the wilderness. The first is the resignation of Bruce Gordon as president of the NAACP. The second is the death of Bishop G.E. Patterson, Presiding Bishop of the historic Church of God in Christ.

I am a member of the NAACP. I joined because of the important legacy of the organization and its invaluable contribution to the struggle of black people. It is the oldest civil rights organization in existence. Its efforts have helped make our country a true democracy. This in turn paved the way for further democratization of the world. There is no question that this organization is tremendously important to our people, our country and the entire world. I am proud to be a member. As a proud member, I am concerned.

I was asked many times why don’t more young people join. Young people won’t join for the same reason Bruce Gordon resigned. The NAACP has no lack of leadership. A huge executive board runs the organization. Gordon left because of resistance from the leadership to change. Gordon tried to urge the organization to put more of its efforts toward service. He wanted the organization to actually do something. The organization’s response has been that it is a civil rights organization, meaning it lobbies the government to do something. They say Gordon was trying to steer the NAACP away from its mission, “to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.”

So how is it that service in the community will detour the organization from this mission? Political battles have been won. We have already lobbied the government. Now it is time to lead our people to enjoy the benefits of the civil rights we have already won. What is the point of having a right you don’t know about or ever use?

So the NAACP has decided to continue with its current strategy of holding huge conventions where they spend a ton of money on speakers and ballrooms and then use what little money is left to beg the government to take care of our problems. Yes, we must hold our government accountable. But let’s do a little more to hold ourselves accountable. Let’s get the courage to stick to our vision and lead our own people.

Because the church is where our civil rights battle began, I turn to it, our most important source of leadership. People often quote the scripture that says without a vision the people perish. I don’t believe God has left us devoid of leadership or vision. We have just lost the courage and commitment to carry it out. Historically, most of our leaders came out of the church because other avenues of leadership were prohibited. So we fought to make other pathways available.

We fought for political rights, integration of schools, and fairness in the corporate world. Through the grace of God, we miraculously survived slavery, Jim Crow and overt racial terrorism. We garnered our civil rights, opened up the pathways and then promptly existed out of the newly opened doors. We left our first love. We left the place that gave us the courage and safety to pursue what “they” had. When the doors opened, the visionaries got on the first thing smoking. The flocks were left with hirelings who were out to fleece the sheep. Those visionaries who stayed suffer from blurred vision, distorted by the cares and riches of this world.

Leaving was not the way to get what we needed. We already had what we needed, God. God is who enabled us to survive, fight and win those battles. Bishop G.E. Patterson was the head of the historic Church of God in Christ (COGIC). He descends from a line of powerful and courageous leaders.

The history of this organization demonstrates the tremendous resource we have always had but still don’t realize. Charles H. Mason incorporated COGIC in 1897. This organization came out of the Pentecostal-Holiness movement that was an interracial movement started by a black man, William J. Seymour. COGIC was the first African American church that had no origins in any European denomination. As a matter of fact, since COGIC was the first incorporated Pentecostal-Holiness church, all Pentecostal or Holiness ministers had to come to Mason to be ordained, this included all white ministers. In fact, Mason ordained the men who began the largest white Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God. The movement continued as an interracial movement until racial conflicts reached a climax around 1919.

Mason did not look to the government, economic resources or whites for his vision. He got it from God, the ultimate and unlimited resource. Then he led a movement courageously. Many would say we need leaders like Mason today. However, I say we have leaders. We need the leaders to look to God for their vision and lead the people confidently according to what the vision requires. Believe in the vision, and the people will believe in the vision and follow it.

Those leaders who are leading according to God’s command, please don’t give up. The people need you to believe, even if it seems that they have abandoned the vision. God will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Just wait. The vision that is true will surely shine.