A Multi-Ethnic Celebration
With his son interpreting for him Sunday evening, the Rev. Boris Shiva pointed out a growing problem among Southern Baptists:
“I don’t know what language we will all speak in heaven.”
Shiva’s observation came during a multi-ethnic service celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The service, originally a collaboration between a Southern Baptist church in the East Central neighborhood and another in the Spokane Valley, now includes a Korean and a Russian congregation.
“Martin Luther King was a good person to many different cultures,” Shiva said. “And he was a good man because he spread the word of Jesus.”
The Rev. M.R. Kidwell organized the first such service four years ago. At that time, it was simply an opportunity for his worshipers at Dishman Baptist to get together with the flock at Mount Olive Baptist.
The Rev. L.D. Williams founded Mount Olive 19 years ago in Dishman’s basement.
Last year, Kidwell invited the Rev. Daniel Kim’s Korean Baptist Mission of Airway Heights, which also was started in Dishman’s basement four years ago.
Just prior to Sunday’s service, the Dishman congregation voted to allow Shiva and his followers use of Dishman’s sanctuary and to sponsor the new congregation into the Inland Empire Baptist Association.
The 150 Russians are among a wave of immigrants who have come to the Inland Northwest in recent years.
“You live in Spokane and you really don’t realize the diversity we have,” said Connie Murray, a Methodist who came to the service to hear the various choirs sing. “You wouldn’t count on finding it among Southern Baptists. But look, here’s the proof.”
The Southern Baptist Convention formally apologized last year for its endorsement of slavery 150 years ago. The denomination split with Northern Baptists in 1845 in part over the question of whether missionaries could hold slaves.
The 15.6-million-member denomination - the largest Protestant church in the United States - has made great strides in increasing diversity in its ranks in recent years. There are almost 2,000 black congregations throughout the country. In California, there are hundreds of Hispanic and Asian churches.
King, a Baptist preacher, was himself a member of the National Baptist Convention.
Rather than remaining separate congregations, Spokane’s Southern Baptist pastors said it is important for the different cultures to worship jointly.
“We come together today first of all to honor Jesus,” Kidwell said in his opening remarks. “And then to honor the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King and our shared experiences as Americans.”
After Russian, Korean and African-American choirs each had performed, Williams took the pulpit to pay tribute to the slain civil rights leader and to God.
“Every day, black, white, yellow - we ought to all worship together,” he said. “We’re all going to be one color in heaven.”
Williams, who marched with King in the ‘60s, put a new spin on King’s famous “Free at Last” speech.
“I’m talking about not being free from this Earth, but being free from sin,” Williams said.
“Are you free?” he asked someone in the front row. “You’re not free yet. You’re free when you get to heaven.”
, DataTimes