A White Preacher in a Black House of Worship

The Sunday service was filled with memorable moments: church ladies insisting his pregnant wife sit in the front "place of honor," glorious choir music led by Mac's fiancée, and Linden's awkward attempt at humor. Though he preached his sermon, he felt humbled by the pastor's eloquence.

But the true impact came after tragedy struck. When Linden's wife miscarried a day later, Mac asked how she was. Upon returning to Memphis, Linden discovered his apartment doorstep covered with prepared meals provided by a church that had met him exactly once. 

His story challenges us all to recognize our shared humanity beyond color barriers. How might your life change if you crossed unnecessary social boundaries to genuinely connect with those different from yourself?

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Here For the Memories

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here for the memories thought-provoking audio memoir
shorts filled with stories,humor, anecdotes and commentary
on social, cultural, businessand religious issues.
Whatever Lyndon remembers andthinks will entertain, challenge
and inform is a possiblesubject.

(00:20):
The collection of memoriesabout one's life allows for the
development and refinement of asense of self, including who one
is, how one has changed andwhat one might be like in the
future.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Greetings and salutations.
This is Lyndon Wolfe and youhave found my audio memoir, not
a podcast.
It's called here for theMemories.
I'm so glad that you joined.
I hope you join others, likepeople that might know and love
me, who want to know about mylife, my thoughts, my opinions,

(00:55):
my experiences, particularlyafter I leave this planet.
You know it's easier to talkabout it than write about it.
Even though I've written almost40,000 words of a memoir, this
is so much easier and I thinkpeople are more likely to pay
attention to it.
I'm not sure that most of myfamily knows this story.

(01:17):
Now, I tell a lot of storiesand most of them are true.
Let me say that again.
Many of them are true.
My ministry stories, however, Ican say with great confidence,
are very, very accurate.
I hold myself to a level ofintegrity with ministry stories
that I might not elsewhere.
Anyway, I'm not sure that mostof my family knows this story,

(01:39):
but it had a profound impact onme.
I grew up in a segregated worldand, due to my high-level
participation in both track as asprinter and basketball, I had
many black friends and sometimesI was the minority, so it
wasn't unusual for me, whileliving in Memphis to have many
black friends and clients.

(02:00):
After all, memphis proper is63% BAA black African American.
Mac was one of them, both aclient and a friend.
We would lunch over churchconcerns, theology, spiritual
vitality and so much more.
The physical food was ancillary.
One day Mac asked me if I wouldcome preach at his all-black

(02:21):
church, where he was one of overa dozen ministers, some of whom
were as young as 10 years old.
A lot for a church of less than200.
I said yes, but with a certainamount of trepidation.
That fateful Sunday morning,while participating in Sunday
school class, my pregnant wife,not feeling too well, took up a

(02:45):
seat in a pew near the back row.
Before I could arrive to sitwith her, a group of church
ladies asked her if she was thepreacher's wife.
After an acknowledgment, shewas escorted to a front pew in
the rightful place of honor fora preacher's wife.
They weren't going to have herseated anywhere else.

(03:08):
What a beautiful touch.
The music was a foretaste ofthe heavenly anthems.
Angels, by the way, are neverin Scripture said to sing.
Anyway, the music was glorious.
It was Mack's fiancée that ledthe energetic and incomparably
gifted choir.

(03:29):
I remember that there were manyofferings.
There was a pastor offering amissions offering, a building
offering, budget offering, etc.
And each required the attendeesto parade by rows by the altar
and put their contribution in infront of the entire
congregation.
No pressure right.
As I'm wont to do, I found away to create a splash Upon

(03:52):
being introduced.
Before I spoke, I thanked themfor their gracious welcoming
hospitality and then I asked howdid you know we were visitors?
The congregants cackled whilemy wife, in an image forever
etched in my cortex, held herhead in her hands.

(04:12):
I preached and I thought I waspretty decent at it, until the
pastor stood and spoke soeloquently and powerfully that I
wish I'd never opened my mouth.
To hear a great black preacherlike MLK in their environment is
otherworldly.
I knew then seminary hadprepared me theologically,

(04:33):
partially anyway, but I didn'thave the chops to preach at this
church.
Partially anyway, but I didn'thave the chops to preach at this
church.
My under-the-weather wife passedon lunch with Mac and his
fiancée and decided to head toNashville that afternoon,
december 23rd.
Little did we know that shewould, the next day, christmas
Eve, miscarry our child as Isped down I-40 to be there,

(05:00):
knowing our gifts the next daywould be playpens, bassinets,
baby clothes and all thingsneeded for first-time parents.
Mac happened to call and checkon her.
I told him what had occurred.
He committed to pray for us thesituation and ask if there was
anything that he or his fiancéecould do.
I told him no, I'm sure she'llstay with her parents and I will

(05:25):
return to work in Memphis soonafter the dampened holiday
festivities.
I told him what day that Iwould return and that we would
catch up then.
He then asked if it was okay toshare this.
I told him what day that Iwould return and that we would
catch up.
Then he then asked if it wasokay to share this as a matter
of prayer with his church.

(05:45):
And of course I said of course.
Upon returning from Nashville toMemphis, as I pulled into our
tiny apartment complex andtrudged over to our first floor
door, there it was Food uponfood boxed up and in coolers,
ready to be heated up enough tolast me and my wife for at least

(06:08):
a week.
Max Church had seen the needand opportunity to give to a
white preacher who wasn't even agood preacher, who they had
only met for a few minutes.
The outpouring so moved me thatI cried for the first time over
the loss of the child I waslooking forward to.
I have never been the same,because I realized more than

(06:32):
ever that our pigment doesn'thave to be the same.
God honors unity overuniformity, and Mack's church
taught me once again that myfamily consists of every tongue,
tribe, nation and color.
Now and forever.

(06:55):
This is Lyndon Wolfe.
This is here for the Memories,my audio memoir.
I'm so glad you joined and Ipray you can look back over
experiences that you've hadwhere people crossed racial
boundaries and unnecessaryobstacles and just loved each
other for who they were and whatyou had in common, not what you

(07:18):
didn't have in common.
That you were moved and touchedto give people of other colors
your heart and your life andwatched as they gave you theirs.
What a beautiful thing.
As a Christian, there's onlyone race.
That's the human race.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
God bless.
Go to buymeacoffeecom slashhere for the memories.
That's buymeacoffeecom slashhere for the memories Much
appreciated.