Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech for  the Nobel Peace Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleagured and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together inpeace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood, If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaimed the rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” I still believe that We Shall overcome!

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my hear! I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible – the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.

So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man’s inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who’s Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live – men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization – because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners – all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty – and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

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This is a powerful spoken word piece by David Bowden, produced by my friend and fellow unity advocate Scott Williams, author of Church Diversity. What thoughts or emotions does this video stir in you?

Please help Dream of Destiny equip and encourage Christian churches across the country to better reflect diversity in their leadership and congregation. Watch the short video below and then click the link and fill out the easy volunteer form below.

Click the link and fill out the short volunteer form
(if you can not click on link copy and paste it in your URL):
http://byrondavis.wufoo.com/forms/dream-of-destiny-dream-team/

Thanks for your help. Teamwork is what makes the Dream work!

What thoughts and feelings surface when the topic of Ethnic Minority Ministry is broached?
This PDF download is written by three  Caucasian leaders, all members of the majority culture, who have personally
wrestled with what it means for Caucasians to minister in ethnic minority contexts.

I was given this PDF by a good friend of mine, Corwin Anthony, that was taken from Destino (a ministry that provides resources for reaching the Latino and Hispanic community).  Corwin is the director of Pro Ministries for Athletes in Action.  AIA brought me in last year to work with them on a year long project to help them dynamically address the issue of diversity and the increasing divide that was taking place between their ministry staff, that was predominately Caucasian American the athletes that represented a wide array of cultural diversity.

I help them contextualize what “change” and “impact” really looked like within their organization, and together we came up with a doable plan that would help them achieve diversity throughout their leadership team, organization, and field teams.  Achieving diversity is an organic process that must be intentionally supported by the how you administer your ministry.

This PDF download is well worth the read. Again this article is written by three white leaders who minister to ethnic minorities with Epic, Destino, and Impact ministries. Brian, Tommy, and Eric are sharp and have plenty to teach leaders about how to effectively engage an American culture that is being changed dynamically by rapid diversity.   Processing this type of content opens, broadens, and reshapes the thinking of ethnic majority ministers and makes us more effective at evangelism and discipleship – building movements. To be effective movement builders, it would benefit leaders of all ethnic backgrounds to embrace this perspective.

It’s a very good read.  Enjoy!

Click This Link to Download the PDF report.

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Have you RSVP’d yet for our FREE breakfast at the NACC?
click here:
http://dodbreakfast.eventbrite.com/

(note: if the link does not work please cut and paste in your
browser)

Scott Williams is our guest speak. Please join
us Thursday July 7th
8:15 am
Millennium Hotel Bronze Ball Room B

Click here to view the embedded video.

This Video was done for the Destiny Leader Online Conference. Dudley talks about his heart for diversity and the 5 Star program that empowers churches to make diversity an intentional effort.

Stay tuned! There are more videos to come!

Can you relate to this?

Click here to view the embedded video.

I recently have become friends with Scott Williams, the author of soon to be released book Church Diversity, and former campus pastor of LifeChurch.tv, and founder of the popular leadership blog Big is The New Small.

We’ve shared phone conversations from everything from leadership, to why black men don’t like church. We’ve also talked about the systemic problem of a lack of church diversity and how it goes beyond one people group just not liking another. Division is buried deep within the administrative, and managerial infrastructure of our churches.

To break down the walls that divide us, we may have to literally break down the walls of the church. Scott will be our guest speaker at our Dream of Destiny Breakfast at the NACC this summer. Can’t wait to see you then. Click on the graphic below.

This video comes from People Of The Second Chance, an initiative started by my friends Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite.

The question I want to ask you is, “if this sort of thing happened to you, would you be able to forgive?” There are many things that divide us in this broken, and lost society. Some things are small, like where you want to have lunch. Other things can divide a whole people group. What ever it is; fear, inconvenience, prejudice, indifference we must all be regularly intentional about forgiving and even more, restoring!

Our God is a God of second chances. Shouldn’t we be?

One of the most come things I hear when I speak with ministry leaders about being intentional about diversity is:

We welcome ALL people to join our church.  We are not “racist!”

And while today, in the 21st century, this sentiment may very well be true, there still lingers (often overlooked) the perpetual residue of separatism that is preserved by “how” we administer our ministries.  By way of our established social networks, cultural preferences, excluding styles of worship, and an absence  of any diverse representation from the platform (to say the least) we unintentionally foster more division than we do diversity  within our ministries.

Here are 15 “Do-able” ways that you can naturally foster more cultural diversity within your ministry.

Be The Solution!

• 1. Hiring people of different ethnic and cultural heritage on Pastoral team
• 2. Hiring staff of different ethnic and cultural heritage
• 3. Presenting diversity on Worship Team from the platform (i.e. music leader)
• 4. Having people of diverse heritage and background on the Board of Elders
• 5. Hiring interns of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds
• 6. Encouraging a multi-racial church congregation
• 7. Developing cross cultural relationships within the community
• 8. Partnering with a sister church in the urban areas of the city
• 9. Staging a city-wide church swap where 3 or 4 participating churches of different races agree to go through the same series (pastors would collaborate) and each weekend the congregations are encouraged to visit a different church during the series. Promote a spirit of inclusion by integrating diverse cultural forms and expressions of worship into weekend schedule.
• 10. Hosting multi-cultural events
• 11. Creating small groups where the DVD series and teaching included different people of different churches. Participating churches would encourage their small groups to join together with small groups of other churches for the series.
• 12. Inviting other Pastors of different races to speak from your pulpit
• 13. Providing monies and assistance to the ministries that focus in this particular arena of diversity. (Example: Dream of Destiny)
• 14. Providing scholarship monies for Bible Colleges that are recruiting students of differing ethnic backgrounds.
• 15. Providing financial assistance to students that desire to go in to ministry, but attend a church other than your own. Reach out to neighboring churches to locate these young people that need sponsoring.

Ethnic Blends, byr Marl DeyMaz.
“Ethnic Blends describes what effective local churches in the twenty-first century will look like, and shows us how to create them, together as one, beyond race and class distinctions.” –Miles McPherson, Senior Pastor, The Rock Church, San Diego

Ethnic Blends is a prophetic, Christ-centered road map that offers practical, pastoral wisdom on how to form multi-ethnic congregations. Mark DeYmaz and Harry Li are redemptive voices crying out in a wilderness of homogeneity for the church in all its ethnic diversity to be one as God is one. I thank God for their biblical vision and mission and firmly believe that Christ’s church will bear more authentic witness to the world that God has sent his Son the more we heed the authors’ multi-ethnic church claims. –Paul Louis Metzger, PhD, Multnomah Biblical Seminary, author of Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church

The Color Of Church, by Rodney M. Woo
In this thought-provoking book, Rodney Woo establishes a biblical foundation for multiracial ministry, provides a clear picture of the current reality of the relationship amongst the races in our society and churches, and offers practical guidance to help implement multiethnic ministry. Woo takes the reader step-by-step through the multiracial transformation of a congregation.

Divided by Faith by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith has an ingenious, troubling argument. “[E]vangelicals desire to end racial division and inequality, and attempt to think and act accordingly. But, in the process, they likely do more to perpetuate the racial divide than they do to tear it down.” Emerson and Smith, who conducted 2,000 telephone surveys and 200 face-to-face interviews in preparing this book, argue that evangelicals have a theological world view that makes it difficult for them to perceive systematic injustices in society. In particular, evangelical emphasis of individualism and free will seem to predispose them to believe that most racial problems can be solved if individuals will only repent of their sins. Therefore, many well-meaning strategies for healing racial divisions (such as cross-cultural friendships) carry within them the seeds of their own defeat. Divided by Faith also includes a brilliant, concise history of evangelical thought about race from colonial times to the civil rights movement.

One Body, One Spirit: Princliples Of  Successful Multiracial Churches, byr George Yancey
As society diversifies, local churches find themselves interacting with people from every tribe and tongue. But not every church is equipped to handle the realities of ethnic and racial diversity in their congregational life. Sociologist George Yancey’s pioneering research on multiracial churches offers key principles for church leaders wanting to minister to people from a variety of racial and cultural backgrounds. Insights from real-life congregations provide concrete examples of how churches can welcome people of all heritages, giving them a sense of ownership and partnership in the life of the church.

Building A Healthy Multiracial Church, by Mark DeYmaz
Through personal stories, proven experience and a thorough analysis of the biblical text, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church illustrates both the biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church as well as the seven core commitments required to bring it about. Mark DeYmaz, pastor of one of the most proven multi-ethnic churches in the country, writes both from his experience and his extensive study of how to plant, grow, and encourage more ethnically diverse churches. He argues that the “homogenous unit principle” will soon become irrelevant and that the most effective way to spread the Gospel in an increasingly diverse world is through strong and vital multi-ethnic churches.

Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ To Engage A Multicultural World, by David A. Livermore
Twenty-first-century society is diverse, and Christians must be able to understand other cultures and communicate effectively between and among them. Following up on the bestselling Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers, this new addition to the Youth, Family, and Culture series explores the much-needed skill of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), the ability to work effectively across national, ethnic, and even organizational cultures. While rooted in sound, scholarly research, Cultural Intelligence is highly practical and accessible to general readers. It will benefit students as well as guide ministry leaders interested in increasing their cultural awareness and sensitivity.

In One New People, by Manual Ortiz persuades us of the benefits in fellowship and outreach that we can experience by crossing racial, ethnic and cultural lines. He urges readers not just to put aside their differences but to celebrate them and to embrace them–to use them in a way that draws them closer to each other and closer to God.

What Color Is Your God, by James Breckridge is a dynamic look at multicultural America, this primer shows ministers and others how to honor ethnic differences and avoid pitfalls when presenting the gospel.

United By Faith, by Curtis Paul DeYoung
As America grows ever more ethnically diverse, Christian churches remain racially homogeneous. This state of affairs must end, argues this earnest blend of religious moralizing and social science; indeed, church integration is so central both to the Christian mission and to racial equality at large that “the twenty-first century must be the century of multi-racial congregations.” The authors, professors either of sociology or “reconciliation studies,” base their claims on theology, church history and sociology. They look back to the diversity and cosmopolitanism of the early Church as a model for contemporary Christians, and trace the legacy of racism and segregation in American churches and attempts to overcome them. Drawing on questionnaires, interviews with church members and leaders, and on-site studies of four racially mixed congregations, they probe both the promise and pitfalls of church integration.

People Of The Dream, by Michael Emerson
People of the Dream argues that multiracial congregations are bridge organizations that gather and facilitate cross-racial friendships, disproportionately housing people who have substantially more racially diverse social networks than do other Americans. The book concludes that multiracial congregations and the people in them may be harbingers of racial change to come in the United States.

Bonus:

Crossing The Ethnic Divide, by Kathleen Garces-Foley
While religious communities often stress the universal nature of their beliefs, it remains true that people choose to worship alongside those they identify with most easily. Multiethnic churches are rare in the United States, but as American attitudes toward diversity change, so too does the appeal of a church that offers diversity. Joining such a community, however, is uncomfortable-worshippers must literally cross the barriers of ethnic difference by entering the religious space of the ethnically “other.” Through the story of one multiethnic congregation in Southern California, Kathleen Garces-Foley examines what it means to confront the challenges in forming a religious community across ethnic divisions and attracting a more varied membership.

The Elusive Dream: The Power Of Race In Interracial Churches, by Korie L. Edwards
In The Elusive Dream, Korie L. Edwards presents the surprising results of an in-depth study of interracial churches: they help perpetuate the very racial inequality they aim to abolish. To arrive at this conclusion, she combines a nuanced analysis of national survey data with an in-depth examination of one particular church. She shows that mixed-race churches adhere strongly to white norms. African Americans in multiracial settings adapt their behavior to make white congregants comfortable. Behavior that white worshipers perceive as out of bounds is felt by blacks as too limiting. Yet to make interracial churches work, blacks must adjust their behavior to accommodate the predilections of whites. They conform to white expectations in church just as they do elsewhere.