Israel Update: Part 1 . . . Uncommon new Israeli friends + learning Israeli culture + Israel study tours + praying for Jerusalem

All is safe and well since my arrival in Israel on May 8. After volunteering and touring in mostly northern Israel (Sea of Galilee, Golan Heights, Mediterranean coast) for a month, on June 8 I settled in at my 1-2 year volunteer position at Christ Church Guest House in Jerusalem's Old City.

My 3-weeks (May 10-28) of volunteering with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)-affiliated Sar-El was an experience of a lifetime. Started in 1982 and receiving over 4,000 volunteers per year, Sar-El is called Volunteers For Israel in the U.S./Canada/Europe. VFI's mission “is to connect Americans to Israel through volunteer service. They achieve this goal by partnering with military and civilian organizations that enable volunteers to work side-by-side with Israelis. They promote solidarity and good will among Israelis, American Jews and other friends of Israel.”

Above is a sampling of some newly made uncommon Israeli friends from Haifa, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Shomera and Tzfat (Safed). By meeting native Israelis and reading books such as Culture Smart's Israel: A Quick Guide to Customs & Culture (2007), I'm learning much about the Israeli culture, especially the youth and young adult culture.

Though English is spoken widely here, and with a background of studying Biblical Hebrew in seminary, I'm beginning to teach myself modern Hebrew. The revival of the Hebrew language as a mother tongue and spoken language was initiated by the efforts of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (אליעזר בן–יהודה) (1858-1922). Many major streets in Israel are named in honor of Ben-Yehuda, including one in downtown Jerusalem and not far from where I live and work.

A good option for those wanting to visit Israel is the Shoresh Study Tours. Begun in 1986 by Christ Church (the oldest Protestant church [Anglican] in the Middle East, built 1849), the 1-3 week Shoresh Study Tours provide in-depth teaching on the Jewish/Hebraic roots of the Christian faith while touring Israel. "Shoresh" means "root" in Hebrew.

--> NOTE: Christ Church, Christ Church Guest House and Shoresh Study Tours are all members of the Anglican-run CMJ (the Church's Ministry among the Jewish people), with chapters in Israel, U.S., U.K., Ireland and South Africa.

Join with me in praying regularly for the peace of Jerusalem. The annual and international Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem (est. 2002) is every first Sunday in October.

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!" (Psalm 122:6-7)

"As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore." (Psalm 125:2)

"Blessed be the LORD from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the LORD!" (Psalm 135:21)

"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!" (Psalm 137:5-6)

James Brainerd Taylor in the Sequim Gazette

"Author plans 10-book series on 19th-century evangelist" is the title of journalist Matthew Nash's article in the May 20, 2009 issue of the weekly Sequim Gazette (Sequim, Washington). Click here to read the online version of the article.

This local article is in addition to other local media coverage on the recently rediscoverd James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829) in the Peninsula Daily News and on "The Todd Ortloff Show" on KONP Newsradio (both based in Port Angeles, Washington). The two J. B. Taylor books (January 2008 and June 2008, University Press of America) have also received regional and national attention--see various blog posts below.

Uncommon Christianity in Israel? . . . farewell Port Angeles, Washington

Is there Uncommon Christianity in Israel? I'll soon find out as I leave for Israel tomorrow (Thursday, May 7, 2009) to participate in two volunteer endeavors. This is my second visit to The Holy Land, the first being for 10 days in late December 2005/early January 2006.

Click here for my contact information in Israel. And click here to see the recommended links for Israel on UCM's web site.

From May 10-28, I'll be volunteering with the Jewish-based Sar-El (est. 1982, called Volunteers For Israel [VFI] in the U.S.). VFI's mission “is to connect Americans to Israel through volunteer service. They achieve this goal by partnering with military and civilian organizations that enable volunteers to work side-by-side with Israelis. They promote solidarity and good will among Israelis, American Jews and other friends of Israel.”

Then, after a 10-day vacation to roam the land and beginning around June 8, I'll be volunteering for 1-2 years at Christ Church Guest House in Jerusalem's Old City. Completed in 1849, the Anglican-run Christ Church is the oldest Protestant Church in the Middle East. It was formed by The Church's Ministry among the Jews (CMJ, est. 1809), originally called the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. "Started in London by visionaries such as William Wilberforce (1759-1833), Charles Simeon (1759-1836) and [later] Lord Shaftesbury to share the Gospel with Jewish people, CMJ now has a worldwide ministry to share with Jewish people our belief that not only is Jesus (Yeshua) the Saviour of the world, he is the Jewish Messiah. Today [their] main work is in Israel but [they] retain a vibrant ministry in the U.K." So states the CMJ-U.K. website.
--> NOTE: CMJ is celebrating its bicentennial with events throughout 2009 in the U.K., U.S. and Israel. For the celebrations in the U.K., click here. Kelvin Crombie's latest book entitled Restoring Israel: 200 Years of the CMJ Story (Nicolayson's Ltd., Christ Church Jersualem, 2008) is highly recommended.

Also while in Israel--and as time allows--I'll be participating in the cultural exchange and hospitality-based Servas International (est. 1949, originally called Peacebuilders). I'm one of the over 20,000 Servas members who come from over 125 countries. Servas Israel has more than 300 individuals, couples and families willing to host Servas members for free. Click here to view a map of Israel that shows the areas with Servas hosts.
--> NOTE: Servas International has consultative status as a non-governmental organization (NGO) with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, currently with representation at many of the UN's hubs of activity.

Among other options, the "uncommon Christian" James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829) considered ministry among the Jewish people in Palestine before his untimely death while a student at Yale Seminary in 1829. Taylor's reading of the Memoir of Levi Parsons (1824) no doubt inspired his interest.

Before settling down in Israel, a special THANKS to those in Port Angeles, Washington, who extended to me their kind farewell wishes and gifts during the weeks and days prior to my departure (today/May 6). Among other entities, it was sad to say goodbye to the Peninsula College Christian Student Fellowship. I served as the founding advisor for PCCSF, 2002-09.

Book #3 complete (awaits interested publisher) . . . Western Seminary graduation . . . What are honors? What is earthly applause?

James Brainerd Taylor book #3 is complete. It awaits an interested publisher for hopeful publication in 2011 or 2012 (i.e., post-Israel trip). The desired title is God's Co-Worker: 21st-Century Evangelism with Uncommon Christian James Brainerd Taylor. The book will be a slight re-working of my recently completed Doctor of Ministry dissertation for Western Seminary entitled God's Co-Worker: 19th-Century "Uncommon Christian" James Brainerd Taylor as a Model for 21st-Century Evangelism.

In addition to a biographical sketch, bibliography and 6 appendices, this third study on the Princeton University and Yale Seminary-trained Taylor (1801-1829) examines his evangelistic motives and methods, what he believed were the qualifications for evangelists and his 5-fold "uncommon Christian" discipleship emphases to new converts, all with the aim towards 21st-century application. A very practical book that awaits an interested publisher.

For now, and for $15, I'm informed that the 231-page dissertation is downloadable as a digital e-doc through the Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), order #002-0843. It is also available through the Portland, Oregon-based TREN on CD-ROM ($20), unbound paper ($34.65) and microfiche ($5). In addition, there is a possibility the dissertation is available via InterLibrary Loan (click here to view the WorldCat information).

The 82nd annual commencement ceremony for Western Seminary took place April 25, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. A special thanks to family and friends who attended the ceremony and the celebration banquet the night previous. Click here to view photos of the ceremony taken by my brother.

A highlight of the ceremony was the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree bestowed upon Herbert I. Elliot. A native of Portland, Dr. Elliot served for many decades as a medical missionary in Peru and elsewhere. He is the older brother of Jim Elliot (1927-1956), the deceased first husband of missionary, author and conference speaker Elisabeth Elliot (b. 1926) and the martyred missionary to the Waodani people (Auca Indians) of Ecuador.

In graduating from Western with high honors, I am reminded of these words by the Second Great Awakening evangelist James Brainerd Taylor. The words were penned on April 8, 1824 in the journal of the then 23-year-old Princeton University sophomore student.

"The time soon arrived for the dismissal of my class, at which time the standing of each student was made known. Having found my standing to be No. 1 [among his fellow students for Princeton's winter 1824 semester], I returned to my room, and once more looked to the Lord for his distinguishing love, with the strong feeling that earthly distinction cannot satisfy my heart's desire. Here, while I remembered the goodness of God during the past winter, in blessing me in soul and body, growth in grace, and success in my studies, the Sun of righteousness [Mal. 4:2] seemed to break through the cloud . . . . Recollecting the standing which had been given me by the faculty, I said to myself, 'What are honors? What is earthly applause?' Ah, these are not my God. I saw their emptiness, and not only desired, but longed for His presence in whom my soul takes delight. The Lord bowed down the heavens, and while I wrote 'vanity' upon all things beside His love, he let drop sweetness into my soul, and I was blessed with a blessing that 'maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow' [Proverbs 10:22]. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul' [Psalm 104:1]."

*From John Holt Rice and Benjamin Holt Rice, Memoir of James Brainerd Taylor, Second Edition (New York: American Tract Society, 1833), 206. Click here to read the original text via Google Book Search.

NOTE: Click here (page 3) to read the October 15, 2008 profile in Western Seminary's Doctor of Ministry newsletter entitled, "Francis Kyle: A Pastor-Evangelist, Author & Anticipated 2009 Graduate." And here to read "Alumni: Francis Kyle (D.Min., '09) Profile" on Western Seminary's alumni blog (July 1, 2009 blog post).

James Brainerd Taylor on the radio . . . book presentations

The two recent James Brainerd Taylor books--An Uncommon Christian and Of Intense Brightness (University Press of America, 2008)--were the topic of discussion during a portion of the March 26 "Todd Ortloff Show" on the Port Angeles, Washington-based KONP News Radio. To listen to the 17-minute interview, click here and go to "Archived Programs--Todd Ortloff Show--3/26/09--Local Biographer." NOTE: the downloadable interview begins at 17:44 and ends at 38:02. Or contact UCM and request the free MP3 audio file.

Sponsored by Uncommon Christian Ministries, 2 upcoming book presenations and signings include the following:

Sunday, April 5, 2009

6:00 p.m.

First United Methodist Church, Port Angeles, Wash.

Wednseday, April 15, 2009

Noon

ASC Conference Room, Peninsula College, Port Angeles, Wash.

--> Co-sponsored by Peninsula College Christian Student Fellowship

These two book presentations and signings are in addition to the 7 presentations or book-related sermons done already:

+ 3/7/09 -- Evangelical Theological Society, Northwestern Regional Annual Meeting, George Fox Evangelical Seminary, Portland, Ore.

+ 1/25/09 -- Quilcene Bible Church, Quilcene, Wash.

+ 11/20/08 -- Evangelical Theological Society, 60th Annual National Meeting, Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, R.I.

+ 8/10/08 -- Lusk Alliance Church, Lusk, Wyo.

+ 7/6/08 -- Calvary Grace Church, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

+ 3/15/08 -- Evangelical Theological Society, Northwestern Regional Annual Meeting, Western Seminary, Portland, Ore.

+ 3/14/08 -- Worldview Center: Institute for International Christian Communication, Portland, Ore.

NOTE: Today (March 29, 2009) marks the 180th anniversary of J. B. Taylor's death.

Ed King and the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement . . . James Brainerd Taylor and slavery . . . James Brainerd Taylor Marsh and Fisk Jubilee Singers

Woolworth sit-in and Rev. Ed King (standing).
Jackson, Mississippi. May 28, 1963.
50th anniversary on May 28, 2013. 

Pictured to the left (standing, with the clerical collar) is the Rev. Ed King. 

Then a chaplain at the historic and all-black Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. Rev. King is assisting students during the historic Woolworth sit-in on May 28, 1963, in Jackson. The sit-in was the most violent--racist white police towards black students and white sympathizers--of all the 1960's sit-ins, and the most publicized.

At my invitation, the now 72-year-old Rev. King was the featured speaker for the Peninsula College Christian Student Fellowship's fourth annual tribute to National African-American History Month, February 26 to March 1. I serve as the founding advisor for PCCSF (est. 2002), an official student club at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington. 

The college's Associated Student Council (student body government)-operated Sound of Unity and Magic of Cinema film series co-sponsored Rev. King's coming.

Click here to read the press release of Rev. King's visit that was printed in the Sequim Gazette. Special thanks to Riski Business Photographics in Port Angeles for the above March 1, 2009, photo of Rev. King and me.

Rev. Ed King and Dr. Francis Kyle.
Port Angeles, Washington. March 1, 2009.

This was Ed's second visit to Port Angeles.

Shortly after meeting him while on his 3-hour civil rights history tour in Jackson in late May 2005, I invited Ed to speak in Port Angeles on August 14, 2005. He was well received by the local community and media.

To listen to a 25-minute live radio interview with Ed and me on "The Todd Ortloff Show" (KONP News Radio, Port Angeles, Wash.), click here to request the free MP3 audio file. Or, contact KONP directly.

For a front page photo and story on Rev. King's Port Angeles visit in the April 2009 issue (Issue #22) of Channels, click here (online PDF screen version). Channels is the monthly newsletter of the United Methodist Church's Pacific Northwest Conference.

Additionally, click here (PDF print version, see page 6) to read an article in the March 18, 2009, issue (vol. 62, no. 12) of the Mississippi United Methodist Advocate.

Here is what others have said about the Rev. Ed King:

+ "Dr. (Martin Luther) King got the headlines, the awards and the adulation, but the Ed Kings did the daily dirty work so essential to the movement's many successes."

--> Davis Houck and David E. Dixon, eds., Rhetoric, Religion and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965 (Baylor University Press, 2006)

+ "Ed King risked everything, and lost much, for the civil rights movement. He has unique insights and an insider's perspective. He has paid his dues and more over many years. His life gives witness to the immense worth of speaking courageously and truthfully to ruthless power. Ed King is a hero, a worthy subject for a biographer."

--> An anonymous 1/19/07 comment to a 10/30/03 biographical article about Rev. King in the Jackson Free Press

+ "church reformer, theological prankster, pastor of his 'movement congregation' . . . renegade Methodist minister"

--> Charles Marsh, God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights (Princeton University Press, 1997)

Regarding the leaders of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, here is what Rev. King said during a February 27, 2002, lecture at the Bonhoeffer House, part of Charles Marsh's Theological Horizons: Christians Engaged In Ideas and Actions. King's talk was titled "Religion and the Civil Rights Movement" (click here for the lecture's full manuscript via the University of Virginia's Project on Lived Theology):

The leadership in the black civil rights movement I would say was disproportionately Methodist, certainly was heavily Protestant, and that is obvious. The very top leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-1968] may have been Baptist, and he had splits with the black Baptist denominations, but in most of the communities that I know about, the key people who were ready first were black Methodist women. And the Methodist church had a tradition in this country of social concerns, but a deeper tradition that a born again life was a life of citizenship [social responsibility] as well as a life of salvation. And you just didn't make those distinctions [between the eternal and temporal].

UPDATE - August 2012

Some lifetime achievement recognition
for Rev. Ed King, 2010-12

Rev. King was the 2011 Alumnus of the Year at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. The now 74-year-old King earned a B.A. in sociology in 1958. The summer 2011 issue (pages 55-57) of the Millsaps Magazine feature this honor for King.

In 2010, the Millsaps College Leader of Values and Ethics (LOVE) award was renamed in honor of King. The award "is bestowed on the student leader who best exemplifies principled leadership for a cause of deep moral consequences that may meet with opposition but proves over time to be true." On February 5, 2011, Millsap's Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority sponsored a "Living Legacies Ball" in honor of King to raise funds to endow the Rev. Ed King LOVE award.

Boston University's School of Theology honored King with their Alumnus of the Year award for 2010.

The longtime home church of Rev. King, Galloway United Methodist Church in Jackson, Miss., honored King at a special service on May 29, 2011.

National Civil Rights Museum.
Est. 1991. Memphis, Tennessee.

Under the category of Icon of the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. King was one of several distinguished recipients of the 2011 Freedom Awards given by the National Civil Rights Museum. Other recipients included basketball legend Bill Russell, former professional basketball player Alonzo Mourning and actor and activist Danny Glover. The November 12, 2011, ceremony was held in Memphis, Tennessee, and not far from the museum's location at the historic Lorraine Motel, the place where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The year 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the museum.

With actor Daniel T. Parker playing the Rev. Ed King, the world premier of the theatrical performance "All The Way" ran July 25 to November 3, 2012, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (est. 1935) in Ashland, Oregon. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Richard Schenkkan's vivid dramatization of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's first year in office (1963-64), "means versus ends plays out on a broad stage canvas as politicians and civil rights leaders plot strategy and wage war." After its world premier in Oregon, the play most likely will appear in other major U.S. cities in 2013 and beyond. (UPDATE: Click here to read the New York Times review [September 25, 2013] of the showing of "All the Way" at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.)

--> With family members, Ed King watched the play in-person on August 8, 2012. He also spoke with the man who played him, Daniel T. Parker, as well as all the other performers in the play. In a separate meeting in Seattle on August 13, Rev. King also spoke with the play's author Richard Schenkkan.

Dr. Francis Kyle and Rev. Ed King.
Camano Island, Washington. August 10, 2012.

YouTube video. 76 minutes. 

"A White Southerner in the Civil Rights Movement:

The Rev. Ed King Story"

Guest lecturer Rev. Ed King at the University of Virginia. 

For Prof. Charles Marsh's "Kingdom of God in America" class. 

October 24, 2013.

James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829) . . . uncommon Christian and friend to African slaves

Writing on Sunday, July 12, 1823, the American James Brainerd Taylor wrote the following in his journal while a student at the Lawrenceville Academy (5 miles south of Princeton, N.J.),

Spoke to the colored people this p.m. "Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God" [Psalm 68:31]. How they are degraded and frowned upon by white people! My very soul pities their condition, both in this country and in Africa.

*Memoir of James Brainerd Taylor, 2nd ed. (NY: American Tract Society, 1833), page 150

An Uncommon Christian:
James Brainerd Taylor (1801-
1829) by Dr. Francis Kyle.
University Press of America. 2008.

In addition to his starting a Sunday school for Africans in Lawrenceville, N.J., Taylor also interacted with slaves during his time in New York City and during his travels in the Southern states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

While a late teen in New York City, the "uncommon Christian" served as a teacher and assistant superintendent at one of America's earliest Sunday schools for African slaves. New York Sunday School Union No. 34 was founded by Taylor's older brother, Jeremiah H. Taylor. It met at St. George's Episcopal Church (now called Calvary-St. George's and located in Manhattan near Stuyvesant Square and Gramercy Park).

"It mattered nothing with Mr. Taylor what was the condition or the color of the saint," wrote the Memoir's Southern Presbyterian co-compilers, John Holt Rice and Benjamin Holt Rice. (Memoir, 438.)

James Brainerd Taylor Marsh (1839-1887) . . . abolitionist and manager of the 1870's Fisk Jubilee Singers

Relatedly, James Brainerd Taylor Marsh was a white abolitionist, successful newspaper editor, mayor of the Ohio town of Oberlin (1878-81), member of the Oberlin College Class of 1862, and manager of the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers, the 1870's international traveling group of the African-American Fisk University (est. 1866) in Nashville, Tenn.

"Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory."
 1999.

J. B. T. Marsh helped to make the Fisk Jubilee Singers famous with his book The Story of the Jubilee Singers; with Their Songs (1881). Marsh wrote the book while traveling with the singers in Europe and elsewhere.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers still sing today.

"Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory" ("former slaves sing their way into the nation's heart") is a documentary film produced by America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1999.

Note: It was common in 19th-century America for Christians to name their child in honor of popular pastors, evangelists and missionaries. Like J. B. Taylor (Middle Haddam), so J. B. T. Marsh (New Milford) was also born in Connecticut. At the time in the mid-1800s, and via his two published memoirs (1833, 1838), J. B. Taylor was at the height of his fame in the U.S. and U.K.

James Brainerd Taylor in "The Ivy League Christian Observer"

"An Uncommon Christian Is Remembered: New Books Chronicle the Life of Evangelist James Brainerd Taylor" is the title of Eileen Scott's article in the winter 2009 (vol. 8, no. 1) issue (pages 35-36) of The Ivy League Christian Observer. Scott is the Senior Writer for the national quarterly magazine that is published by the campus ministry "Christian Union: Advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the Ivy League."

Founded by Matt Bennett (B.S., M.B.A., Cornell) in 2002 and based in Princeton, New Jersey, CU's mission is, "by God's power and the help of other ministries . . . to change the world by bringing sweeping spiritual transformation to the Ivy League universities, thereby developing and mobilizing godly Christian leadership for all sectors of society."

Click here to read what has been said about CU in the media, including a May 22, 2005, front page article in The New York Times entitled, "On a Christian Mission to the Top: Evangelicals Set Their Sights on the Ivy League" (click here for article).

The 8 Ivy League Universities--all historically significant private institutions in the Northeastern U.S., most of which have a rich Christian heritage--are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania (UPenn), Princeton and Yale.

The Connecticut-born James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829) was a graduate of Princeton University (Class of 1826). He died while a student at Yale Theological Seminary (now called Yale Divinity School). (Though he was not an enrolled student, Taylor died at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. At the time, UTS was located adjacent to Hampden-Sydney College [est. 1775], aptly named "The Princeton of the South.")

In addition to various Ivy League graduates, 5 people with direct ties to the Ivy League endorsed An Uncommon Christian: James Brainerd Taylor, Forgotten Evangelist in America's Second Great Awakening (University Press of America, 2008). Click here (UCM's page) or here (publisher's page) to read what the following said about An Uncommon Christian:

+ Matt Bennett

Founder and President, Christian Union: Advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christian in the Ivy League

+ William (Bill) Boyce

Affiliated Chaplain and Director, Princeton Evangelical Fellowship

(est. 1931, the spiritual heir to the Philadelphian Society of Nassau Hall [1825-1930], J. B. Taylor, primary founder)

+ Jon Hinkson

Co-Founder, Rivendell Institute of Christian Thought and Learning at Yale University

+ Kelly Monroe Kullberg

Founder, The Veritas Forum (est. 1992 at Harvard University) . . . editor of the Boston Globe bestseller Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians . . . and author of Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas

+ Josh Moody (Ph.D., Cambridge)

Author . . . former member, Yale Religious Ministries . . . former Senior Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church (near Yale University campus, New Haven, Connecticut) . . . since January 2009, Senior Pastor, Wheaton College Church, Ill.

Also, click here (UCM's page) or here (publisher's page) to read what Princeton University student (Class of 2009) and former (2007) student-president of Princeton Evangelical Fellowship, Jonathan M. Keller, said about the edited anthology Of Intense Brightness: The Spirituality of Uncommon Christian James Brainerd Taylor (University Press of America, 2008).