The challenge of following the personal example of Martin Luther King Jr. is something the Rev. Raphael Warnock knows about.
His title: senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
That’s the same church where King was co-pastor with his father for several years during the civil rights era of the 1960s.
King was baptized there and in 1948 was ordained a minister there. Twenty years later, his funeral was at Ebenezer Baptist, and today the church is part of a historic site administered by the National Park Service.
So, is the Ebenezer pulpit a burden or blessing for a pastor?
Both, Warnock said recently — but in a good way.
“I feel exceedingly blessed to have been asked to come and serve as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church,” said Warnock, who spoke at the Urban Summit in Kansas City on Saturday and was scheduled to speak today at the Martin Luther King Day interfaith observance at 3:30 p.m. at Community Christian Church.
“Yes, it is a burden but, in the words of Jesus, it is an easy burden, a light burden. The work is that of justice, and the justice-making that we associate with Martin Luther King Jr.”
