Join us tomorrow, Friday, June 12, on PLI Facebook Live at 11 AM CDT for prayer and an insightful dialogue around racial reconciliation with Pastor Mark Teike, a longtime PLI mentor, teacher and trainer, and Dr. Frank Griffin, Bishop Charles Sims and Dr. Jane Sims, longtime friends and colleagues in Columbus, Indiana. Invite others to join you. (Follow PLI on Facebook so you can find us on Friday.)
Earlier this week, Gail and I discussed the issues of racial reconciliation with Mark in light of the death of Mr. George Floyd and the tragic events that have engulfed our country and ushered in this topic in households across the country.
Mark is one of the most humble, soft spoken, gifted communicators of the Word of God that we know. Here’s a sample of the conversation.
Long before the tragedy surrounding the death of George Floyd and the protests, you were deeply invested in racial reconciliation in Columbus.
I’ve been a pastor at St. Peter for 28 years. Many years ago I began to build relationships with some of the African American pastors here. I began to understand their journey better. I realized that what I thought I knew about the black experience was not accurate. Before that time, I would have thought: “There they go again.” Not empathetic. Judgemental. I had no clue what it was like to be black in America. The more I learned the more I wanted to bring the healing power of Jesus.
You’re a busy pastor. It would be easy for you not to take time for this.
Standing up for racial reconciliation and against injustice is the Jesus-thing to do. It’s a lifelong journey. We had a city wide demonstration at the courthouse last week. I cleared my calendar so I could be there.
Years ago, I heard John Keischnick, one of the founding leaders of PLI, teach that there are two questions every leader needs to answer. 1. What business are we in? 2. How’s business? Our business is people. People matter to God. When we see people being wounded, we have to step up! Jesus did. To not speak up and act is to say that things like this don’t matter.
Years ago you put racial reconciliation on the table at the church with a sermon you preached.
I shared my own journey. I was very transparent. I acknowledged how far I had to go and the racist roots where I had started. I admitted this is something I wouldn’t have spoken on a few years ago. I wrestle. You wrestle. You don’t have to beat yourself up. Let the Spirit work transformation in you.
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Proverbs 31:8-9
Where did your journey start?
I grew up in a racist environment. 45 years ago when I started dating Debbie, my wife, she called me out on it. “What’s up with that?” I liked her. She had a lot of influence on me. I started to change.
A Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast in Columbus accelerated your journey.
Several years after we moved to Columbus, the mayor decided to host a breakfast. He asked me to speak. In preparation for it, I interviewed leaders from the African American and Latino communities, as well as other minority groups. I just asked open ended questions. It opened my eyes. It broke my heart. Government can do some. Education can do some. But, it’s the body of Christ that can be the real difference makers. The Gospel changes lives.
You’ve been willing to use your position to help people listen.
Some years ago, the school board in our community was about to vote down making Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a school holiday. All the board members were white. I went to the board meeting and simply said: “The African American experience on this is different than it is for us. We need to listen. Seek to understand.” It’s true for all of us. All of us in leadership positions in the white community need to listen and try to understand. I’ve tried to be the channel that opens doors.
I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Matthew 25:40
Bishop Charles Sims will be with you on PLI’s Morning Prayers tomorrow. He’s a good friend.
I’ve learned so much from Charles. 10 or 15 years ago, vandals had painted graffiti on the church when he arrived early Sunday morning. He was upset. He walked over to our church to see me. Some of our members joined their members. They cleaned the graffiti. They had a prayer vigil. We did a neighborhood walk together.
There’s a price to pay with speaking up?
We don’t have problems speaking up for the unborn but racism seems different. It runs deep. I can preach on adultery or white collar crime easily. Racism is different. It runs deep.
Help us understand.
Every black father I know, when their son turns 16 and gets his driver’s license gives him “the talk.” If you get stopped by the police, you do three things: 1. Keep your hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel. 2. Have your driver’s license in a visible place. 3. Ask permission before you move your hands. I don’t know of any white fathers that give the same talk.
Tell us about this statement on the attendance card in church.
Six or seven years ago I studied Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and then the Gospels. It was filled with life lessons, what we’ve called the heart of a disciple. It’s one of 12 characteristics for us. This is what it means to reflect the heart of Jesus.
Mark, there’s a number of leaders trying to figure out what to do, how to contribute to racial reconciliation. What would you suggest?
Educate yourself. Learn. It all depends where you’re starting from. Years ago, Bishop Sims gave me John Perkins’ book “One Blood.” Learn their journey. Search the Scriptures. Read Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Find someone who will walk alongside you. Ask, “In light of everything going on, can you help me understand?” Remind yourself that it’s a journey. Not a sprint. Don’t be a jack hammer. Just don’t be silent.
It requires a courageous step?
At the end of the day, a leader has to ask, “Who do I fear…if I am to fear, love and trust in God? Who do I most want to please?” It will be OK.
Shortly after I arrived here 28 years ago, a man came to me and didn’t like something I had preached. He threatened: “What if I decide and some others decide to withhold our offerings?” I said: “Well, God loves a cheerful giver and it seems to me you might not be able to give cheerfully at our church. If that’s true, why don’t you find some other ministry where you could cheerfully give. God will work it out at our church.”
You see. We can’t cave. We need to love them. Respect them. Speak gently. But, I have to answer to God…and, of course, to the board.
You think about Jesus with the woman caught in adultery? It was a teaching, discipling moment. The woman at the well? It was a teaching, discipling moment. The parable of the Good Samaritan? Jesus rubbed some people the wrong way!
A man…fell into the hands of robbers. A priest…passed by… So, too a Levite. But a Samaritan…took pity on him…. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor?
Luke 10:30-37
…The one who had mercy on him. …Go and do likewise.
Thank you, Mark! Your humble, soft spoken, bold wisdom will be a blessing to many. And, thanks for joining us for PLI’s Morning Prayers tomorrow on Facebook Live at 11 AM CDT with your good friends and pastors Bishop Charles Sims and Dr. Jane Sims and Dr. Frank Griffin.
Please share this blog with other leaders that might be encouraged by Mark’s story.
As a white boy who lived in an all Black neighborhood in inner city Detroit and worked with a Black church there in the summer of ’89 and then spent a year on a pastoral internship in South Central Los Angeles, I have been perplexed with the issue of “race.” Race, or course, is not a biblical construct! It aligns itself with the false world view of evolution and the absence of creation in the image of God. When I returned to seminary after my summer in Detroit, a fellow seminarian and I compared notes about our urban experience. He was in an urban neighborhood that was predominantly white, but our observations of social issues were the same. Much more than race, the conclusion I eventually came to was that politicians and politics were much more obvious as the core problem. After eight years of a Black president, it should be much more difficult to play the race card, but it seems to still work.
My understanding has developed over the years. I have grown to really appreciate conservative Black scholars and intellectuals, like Dr. Walter Williams, Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Shelby Steele, Dr. Voddie Baucham, Dr. Ben Carson, Larry Elder, Jason Riley, Taleeb Starkes, Burgess Owens, Candace Owens, Kevin Jackson, Coleman Hughes, David Webb, John McWhorter, a host of Black pastors with a voice of truth and reason, and others. Those are just the Black thinkers and as far as I can tell, they are all of a Christian persuasion. They are the “ignored” voices that are being “oppressed,” called Uncle Toms, coconuts, coons, even “white supremacists,” and other derogatory terms. They are the oppressed and voiceless we need to hear. But like John the Baptizer, they proclaim their message of truth in the wilderness.
My dear brother, classmate, colleague, and fellow LCMS Pastor, Mark Teike, speaks the truth in love, the same truth in love that I share too!!! Thanks for creating such a platform for speaking through PLI!!!
Thank you, Mark, for always being God’s servant. You are a blessing
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We should all be as willing as Brother Mark Teike to understand what others live through and reach out to them for a better understanding. Gods grace is at work through the Spirit.
Always the right thing to say.
Mark is a fine communicator and a heart for serving. God will continue using him. Prayers continue for all of us to do better serving, loving and caring for each other. Thanks.
I am so disappointed I miss hearing Mark speak on June 12th, but appreciated the above interview. He was divinely sent to our congregation as his first church. We were blessed with his wisdom even. at that young age
Mark is an amazing, humble gift wherever he serves. Thanks for your good word. I believe you could go to Facebook and search for the PLI (stylized in a circle) page. The interview was powerful and is recorded there.