During a recent visit to Savannah, I was able to learn a bit more about George Liele (1750-1828), the first American Baptist missionary. In the Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Alan Neely has helpfully written:

Born a slave in Virginia, Liele was taken to Georgia, where he was converted in 1773 in the church of his master, Henry Sharp. He soon became concerned about the spiritual condition of his fellow slaves and began preaching to them. In 1775 he was ordained as a missionary to work among the black population in the Savannah area. Like many other slaves, he sided with the British in the Revolutionary War, as did his master, who set Liele free in 1778. In order to be evacuated with other royalists and British troops, Liele obtained a loan and accepted the status of indentured servant to pay the passage for himself, his wife, and his four children on a ship bound for Jamaica. Landing there in January 1783, he soon repaid the debt and secured permission to preach to the slaves on the island. Thus by the time William Carey—often mistakenly perceived to be the first Baptist missionary—sailed for India in 1793, Liele had worked as a missionary for a decade, supporting himself and his family by farming and by transporting goods with a wagon and team. Apparently, he never received or accepted remuneration for his ministry, most of which was directed to the slaves. He preached, baptized hundreds, and organized them into congregations governed by a church covenant he adapted to the Jamaican context. By 1814 his efforts had produced, either directly or indirectly, some 8,000 Baptists in Jamaica. At times he was harassed by the white colonists and by government authorities for “agitating the slaves” and was imprisoned, once for more than three years. While he never openly challenged the system of slavery, he prepared the way for those who did; he well deserves the title “Negro slavery’s prophet of deliverance.” Liele died in Jamaica.

From this entry and reflection on Liele's life as a whole, I have a few thoughts:

• It was Liele's owner Henry Sharp--a Baptist deacon--who encouraged Liele to explore the gospel and come to faith in Christ and then later evangelize, teach, and begin a church (First African Baptist) for slaves in Savannah. Later, Sharp had the conviction to give Liele his freedom. So despite Sharp's initial participation in this social sin, God seems to have used the Christian convictions of Sharp in George Liele's preparation for ministry.
• Liele was a diaspora missionary. That is, because of the political climate in Georgia after 1778 for a freed man, it was best for him to get hired as an indentured servant to Jamaica. Yet, as he was forced to immigrate, he preached, began churches, and was involved in intercultural mission work. Today, the relationship between global diaspora and mission is quite huge and perhaps Liele's journey could teach us something.
• Liele was also a "tentmaker." He apparently never received any compensation or financial support for being a missionary. Rather, mission flowed from who he was. Though we remember him as a missionary, I wonder if he self-identified as one.
• Finally, he clearly suffered as a slave and even after his liberation and ministry in Jamaica; yet, he remained faithful to the Lord and his call despite suffering. 

While in Savannah, GA last week, my wife and I were privileged to take a tour of the First African Baptist Church in the United States. The one hour tour contained a stimulating lecture about this historic church (founded in 1773) and its place in America's religious and social history. A number of things stood out.  

The founding pastor, George Liele, who also went on to be the first American Baptist missionary, was encouraged to study and also teach the Bible by his Christian owner Henry Sharp who was also a Baptist deacon. Sharp later freed Liele, which resulted in his missionary work in Jamaica. 

The structure was probably the first church building in America built by slaves for slaves. The present facility was also the first brick building in Savannah and bricks were hand carried up the steep incline from the Savannah River. As men made bricks at the river and other men did the masonry, it was probably women who transported these heavy loads. All of this labor took place at night after the slaves had already put in a full day's work.

Church at First American Baptist was not only a spiritual event, but also a family reunion opportunity for African families that had been split up and sent to work for different owners.

Many of the pastors in the church's history have also been leaders in society. For example, Rev. Emmanuel King Love, the church's sixth pastor believed in the value of education and was influential in the founding of Savannah State University, Morehouse College in Atlanta, and Paine College in Augusta.

First African Baptist was also a starting point on the famous Underground Railroad--a route that led slaves out of the South toward freedom in Canada. According to the church's website: 

The ceiling of the church is in the design of a “Nine Patch Quilt” which represented that the church was a safe house for slaves. Nine Patch Quilts also served as a map and guide informing people where to go next or what to look out for during their travel.
The holes in the floor are in the shape of an African prayer symbol known as a Congolese Cosmogram. In Africa, it also means “Flash of the Spirits” and represents birth, life, death, and rebirth. Beneath the lower auditorium floor is another finished subfloor which is known as the “Underground Railroad.” There is 4ft of height between both floors. The entrance to the Underground Railroad remains unknown. After leaving our tunnel, slaves would try to make their way as far north as possible. There are no records as to who went through the tunnel or how many.

It is appropriate that this congregation used its facility to not only proclaim the gospel but to also fight against the social sin of slavery.

It is great to see that First African Baptist continues today as an active church and we received a warm invitation to worship with this church community during our visit to Savannah. Below are some images from inside the church. 

Wesley, an ordained Anglican priest, came to serve as the minister at Christ Church in 1736-37. Though Wesley argues that he wasn't truly converted until after his return to England in 1738 (probably at a Moravian meeting), he nevertheless preached and gathered believers in his house for Bible study and prayer--a methodical (later "Methodist") approach to the Christian life. During the trans-Atlantic passage--either coming to or returning from Georgia--the ship carrying Wesley and where he served as chaplain was about tossed about in a great storm. Scared for his life, Wesley was impressed at the tranquility of the praying Moravians on board, who surely influenced him on his spiritual journey.

From 1738-1741, Wesley's evangelist colleague and theological foe George Whitefield ministered in Georgia, preaching at Christ Church and also founding Bethesda Home for Boys--a school that instructed troubled boys from a biblical worldview but also taught them the practical trade of farming. Amazingly, the school continues today after two and a half centuries.   

My article "Augustine on redemption in Genesis 1-3" was recently published by the South African theological journal Verbum et Ecclesia. Below is the abstract:

Many theologians, including those concerned with theology of mission, frame the drama of God’s story and mission (missio Dei) through the three major acts of creation, fall and redemption. Others add that the new creation ought to be regarded as a fourth act. Although this framework describes the entire biblical narrative, creation, fall and the hope of redemptionare, of course, quite present in the first three chapters of Genesis. In this article, I endeavored to engage with the commentaries of the African church father Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) to grasp his thoughts on redemption in Genesis 1–3. In his Genesis works, Augustine was primarily concerned with clarifying the doctrine of creation and, relatively speaking, had far less to say about redemption. That said, Augustine was, quite interested with Scripture’s story of redemption in his magnum opus De Civitate Dei [City of God]. Thus, in this article, I explored two major questions: first, why did Augustine pay so little attention to redemptionin Genesis 1–3? Second, how did he articulate and relate redemption in these chapters? It was shown that while his primary focus was to articulate creation, his thoughts on redemption were probably limited some because of the insufficiency of his Old Latin Bible translation and perhaps because of other distractions in ministry. Furthermore, it was argued that Augustine’s doctrine of redemption was a subset of his discussion on creation – specifically, that the second Adam (Christ) brought new life to God’s image bearers affected by the fall of the first Adam.

My aim was to establish Augustine’s thoughts on redemption as a point of dialogue for theologians of mission endeavoring to clarify a theology of mission. As most mission theologians do not consult Augustine in their work and as most early Christian scholars do not read Augustine missionally, this study offered fresh insights for both groups of scholars.

Read the complete article HERE.

Over the past few weeks, I've enjoyed reading Stephen Hildebrand's new book Basil of Caesarea, which is a great introduction to he fourth century missionary-monk-bishop's life and theology. I've written a formal review that should be out in a journal in the fall.